taiwan-subdivisions: 屏東 屏東縣

title: 屏東書院「2025年末歡樂DAY」 為古蹟注入新活力

content_text:
▼園區內盛大舉辦「2025年末歡樂DAY」系列活動，結合活力舞蹈大賽、小老闆市集以及「草地野餐x泡泡樂三大主題。（圖／屏東縣政府）

【記者何勁陞／屏東報導】 擁有超過兩百年歷史的縣定古蹟屏東書院，不僅是屏東唯一的書院建築，肩負著傳承文教的使命，更積極活化空間，將歷史與在地生活連結，（6）日於園區內盛大舉辦「2025年末歡樂DAY」系列活動，結合活力舞蹈大賽、小老闆市集以及「草地野餐x泡泡樂三大主題，吸引眾多民眾參加，在傳統的書院空間中，注入充滿歡笑與活力的現代氣息。

活動由最吸睛的「活力舞蹈大賽」熱情開場。本次大賽吸引了眾多學子組隊報名，主辦單位祭出優渥獎金，優勝隊伍可獲得冠軍5,000元、亞軍3,000元、季軍1,000元，鼓勵學子們展現青春與舞技。除了精彩的舞蹈賽事，活動也特別規劃了兩大特色區域，讓民眾在書院園區中享受悠閒的週末時光。「小老闆市集」主打出清家中良好物品，作為資源再利用的平台，同時也讓孩童體驗當老闆的樂趣。而「草地野餐 x 泡泡樂」則充分利用屏東書院園區內的大片綠地。

許多家庭帶著自製的餐點，在舒適的草地上鋪起野餐墊，一邊享受美食，一邊觀賞表演。現場設置的泡泡體驗區更是深受小朋友喜愛，七彩泡泡隨風飄揚，孩童們在草地上盡情奔跑、追逐，留下無數歡樂的笑聲。

縣府民政處表示，屏東書院為縣定古蹟，創建於清嘉慶20年（1815年），是縣內唯一的書院建築，經過修復與活化，書院結合周邊的大片綠地，成為「屏東書院園區」，園區內設置了親水設施、圖書閱覽空間，是市民重要的文教、休憩與休閒場所。近年來，屏東縣政府積極推動古蹟轉型，將園區打造成多元的文化場域，並規劃全年度系列活動，透過動靜皆宜的活動，讓不同年齡層的民眾都能走進書院，認識這座深具文化底蘊的歷史古蹟。


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▼ 「2025屏東文學獎」頒獎典禮在屏東總圖舉行，今年徵件以「字映春光」為主題，涵蓋兒童文學、新詩、散文、短篇小說、青春文學等五大類及創作獎助金。（圖／屏東縣政府）

【記者何勁陞／屏東報導】 「2025屏東文學獎」頒獎典禮12月6日上午在屏東總圖舉行，今年徵件以「字映春光」為主題，涵蓋兒童文學、新詩、散文、短篇小說、青春文學等五大類及創作獎助金，共吸引全臺578件作品投稿，最終選出33件得獎作品。縣長周春米頒獎肯定得獎者，以生動的文字展現南國文學的創作活力。

縣長周春米表示，在短影音盛行、書寫愈來愈少的時代，文學更顯珍貴，因為真正打動人心的，是文字中屬於作者自身的情緒、觀察與生活養分。今年文學獎更透過校園與老師的交流，讓青春世代參與其中。她並提到屏東文化場域持續發展，包括勝利星村、屏菸1936文化基地、東港王船文化館與即將啟用的恆春文化中心劇場館，期待更多文化工作者回到屏東、在地深耕，使文化與文學的土壤更加厚實。

頒獎典禮邀請散文組決審委員張耀仁代表評審團致詞，其以臺灣作家陳冠學〈田園之秋〉為所有得獎者獻上祝福，他以文中螢火蟲在黑暗裡緩緩劃出的柔和光線，比喻文學如夢般照亮心緒，也寄予創作者在清醒與夢境之間依然能與文字相遇的祝福。

今年文學獎亦展現多項令人矚目的亮點，青春文學獎高中組陳識茜，同時抱回新詩〈制服地圖〉與小品文〈嘿〉兩項首獎，以穩健語感與成熟敘事成為今年最亮眼的新秀；來自恆春的李寬宏同時拿下散文首獎〈風過之地〉與創作獎助金「風過恆春─半島少年成長記」，其完整結構與南方風土的深度書寫獲評審高度肯定。

而去年國中組小品文獲得佳作的林宇晟，今年以〈屏東，有一點甜的光〉勇奪新詩首獎；短篇小說作品中對鯨豚與海洋議題的關懷尤為突出，首獎作品解昆樺的〈鯨骨鳥居〉以深沉筆法描寫人與海的連結，凸顯出屏東海洋意象的文學特色。在地創作者陳凱琳則以短篇小說〈鯨詠之日〉獲佳作，細膩呈現屏東沿海的生活視角。

文化處表示，得獎作品將集結成冊，出版作品輯，也以電子書的形式加以推廣，讓大家看見屏東的文學創作能量。

title: 2025屏東文學獎頒獎典禮　33件作品映照南國文學春光

taiwan-subdivisions: 屏東 東港 屏東縣 恆春


taiwan-subdivisions: 屏東縣 屏東 來義

title: 屏府推文化安全與無圍籬照顧　2025原民長照研討會展成果

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【記者何勁陞／屏東報導】 屏東縣政府近年積極深耕原鄉長照，不僅「把服務送進部落」，更以文化安全、語言脈絡與在地生活方式為基礎，打造最貼近原住民族需求的長照模式。縣府委託國立屏東大學成立「屏東縣原住民族長照服務研發中心」，並於（6）日舉辦「2025原住民族長期照顧服務學術暨實務研討會」，吸引150位長照實務者與學術團隊參與，展現屏東原鄉長照政策的深耕成果。

長照處指出，本次研討會以「文化安全」及「無圍籬照顧」為主軸，從制度、服務、場域到文化照顧多層面檢視原鄉長照推展現況。屏東深知語言、祭儀、文化禁忌與生活習慣對部落長者照顧品質有重大影響，因此縣府持續投入資源，落實「文化適切化」、「部落共治化」與「生活場域化」政策，使照顧服務回到長者熟悉的土地與文化脈絡中。

長照處長陳桂敏表示，屏東以紮根式作法推動原鄉長照，目前全縣文健站已達77站，佈建率居全國之首。照顧服務除了專業訓練，更融入族語、文化禁忌與傳統儀式，讓照顧同時承載文化延續與尊重。她強調：「屏東推動的是部落共治、文化共融的照顧模式，期待以部落力量打造最貼近長者需求的精準長照。」

近年縣府亦積極推動「無圍籬照護」，突破過往固定場所的服務模式，讓照顧融入社區日常與熟人社會，使長者從被動接受服務者，轉為文化傳承與生活場域的參與者，重拾尊嚴、自信與生命價值。在本次研討會中，研發中心發表「來義鄉丹林部落失智友善社區」第一階段成果，包括排灣語失智評估工具、在地友善天使與商家培訓、部落版宣導影片等，使語言、文化與照顧深度結合。

此外，縣府關注原鄉家庭夜間照顧壓力，試辦「原鄉夜間喘息服務」。透過個案訪談、人力配置與文化適切性分析，顯示夜間喘息能提升長者安全感，也改善家屬睡眠與生活品質。然而交通及資訊落差仍具挑戰，研發中心提出包括簡化申請流程、提升接送彈性、強化與日間照護銜接等政策建議，供縣府研擬後續精進策略。

陳桂敏處長亦表示，屏東推動原鄉長照並非短期計畫，而是系統性的文化照顧工程——從族語化評估工具、在地化失智友善流程，到部落治理與無圍籬照護場域建構，「就是要讓長者不離鄉、不失根，以族語被理解、以文化被照顧。」

長照處指出，縣府未來將持續擴大成果，推動宣導行動、友善天使擴編及族語工具上線，使文化照顧與失智友善從個人延伸至家庭與部落，逐步形塑完善的原鄉長照支持網絡。如有長照需求，可撥打1966長照專線，由專人提供服務媒合。


countries: 美國 烏克蘭 中國

title: 當世界走向無人化　各國都應未雨綢繆

content_text:
墨新聞｜編輯中心

因AI使用的愈加發達與普及。所以，世界首富馬斯克與大陸很多工廠，甚至大陸國防部的一些導彈或飛機工廠，都不約而同使用了智能機械的無人工廠進行操作。然而，此舉將逐漸形成機器人取代勞工的社會問題，全世界各國政府都宜儘速此一即將面臨的重要國家問題。

機器人在小米汽車工廠流水線上工作。（圖／翻攝新華社）由去年已經成功完成在大陸上全世界上最大的無人駕駛汽車試驗，在武漢市繁忙的街道上載客來往穿梭營業。這座位於中國中部的城市擁有1100萬人口、450萬輛汽車、八車道高速公路和橫跨在長江渾濁水面上的橋樑。而一個由500輛計程車組成的“蘿蔔快跑”車隊就是由電腦導航，無人操控的接受、運載乘客而在街頭穿梭，通常沒有安全駕駛員作為後備。運營這些計程車已再增加1000輛所謂的機器人計程車隊。

再加上，現在Open AI 、TikTok 等人工智能網方站紛紛興起，只要提供電源、場地，不必給薪水，它就能既快速又完善的幫你工作24小時。所以，大陸陸續出現了無人的士、無人工廠、無人零售店、無人機餐廳伙房甚至無人中醫院等等都已出現，這代表無論是計程車司機、工廠工人、零售店員廚師、服務員甚至醫師等的工作都已開始被機器人取代。

人工智能系統。（圖片來源：DeepMind公司）高盛全球投資研究部只對無人的士提出一份報告指出，中國蘿蔔快跑（Robotaxi ）市場的總規模將從 2025 年的 5400 萬美元激增至 2035 年的 470 億美元。這代表著在短短十年內，市場規模將實現 757 倍的驚人增長，顯示出巨大的市場機會。

但是，巨大的市場機會也代表了大量的智能機器將會大量取代了人力、智力等勞務，使得原來需要勞力、智力的工作都已被機器人給取代。那麼，投資人提供了投資，卻使用了無人或少許的人工作與薪資。將產生一個嚴重與正視的問題是，一旦大量的人因被取代而失業，一定會形成嚴重的社會問題。那麼，這些人該怎麼辦？

問題這是偏向資本市場的民主主義難以逆挽的問題。就是說，美國、烏克蘭等所謂民主國家都已治理得亂七八糟，又怎有能力能重新偉大、復甦？想來想去，也似乎只有採行注重以為人民服務的“社會主義”才有辦法解決。

示意圖（圖／翻攝新華社）筆者提供一個不成熟的想法：就是以社會主義為主，對國內所有工廠或公司加以整合，並以代表“國家”的官員代表人民參與投資、輔導並予以監督進行“市場或國家無人化”，並在整個市場“無人化”程度漸高時，再逐漸視情況加重無人工廠、公司的稅金，使全部人民能共同分享“全球人民共同分工合力”的發展利益，而並非像美國與世界各國基層人民都慘被剝削。何況，現在受僱人士（不論低、中、高階層）也都將被淪於同一被剝削的厄運中了。

而預期在不久的將來，以“社會主義”為主體的中國，將可因極度AI 化、智能化，這將使得中國成為全世界主要的“第四次工業革命”領導者，而美國將會宣告破產，且國家將出現分裂。而中國因主導的“社會主義”成功，將會獲得世界各國、社會的競相模仿。

而如果中國執政當局可以聽到此一建言時，務須考慮多加開放國家財政赤字重重投資民間。因為未來這些公司、工廠的營收終將大幅回歸人民，而中國也可趁此良機獲得國家體制的重大改革。

自動化生產作業現場。（圖／翻攝新華社）同時，中國與世界各國都將面臨一個極重要的課題，那就是預防及可以蒐尋智能機器人在意圖“違反”人類命令，甚至意圖“屠殺”人類之前，務必想辦法研發出一種機器人的“逆謀殺人器”的警示燈，例如在機器人頭上安裝一個“逆謀警視紅燈”後，並使在太空中的衛星可以感應且于以激光狙殺，使全世界人類都可以高枕無憂！盡情放心的使用智能機器人。（前民眾日報資深記者 屈文峰）

※以上言論不代表本報立場※

此篇文章最開始出處為: 當世界走向無人化 各國都應未雨綢繆


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墨新聞｜記者梁偉華／台北報導

呂俍慧(左)和吳申梅(右)在MV中飾演母女 照片提供：喜上梅梢娛樂

「金曲甜美女神」吳申梅（Gigi），將於12/10推出2025壓軸單曲〈外家〉，今（6日）搶先曝光她與在〈外家〉MV中扮演娘家母親的呂俍慧的劇照，吳申梅說跟呂俍慧姐姐結緣於花蓮的慈善活動，兩人相談甚歡之下，才發現原來彼此都是香港媳婦，當下關係更親近起來！而申梅的媽媽-瑪莉姐年紀不但和呂俍慧接近，本身也是她的戲迷，在片場兩人也開心拍大頭照，整個和樂融融！吳申梅〈外家〉將於後天（8日）起一連三天在 Hit FM電台盛大首播！

呂俍慧(左)和吳申梅(右)在MV中飾演母女 照片提供：喜上梅梢娛樂

「外家」一詞是閩南人所稱的「娘家」，也就是嫁出去女兒的後盾和支柱，吳申梅〈外家〉不但唱給每位新嫁娘的娘家、也泛指每位遊子心心念念的故鄉和老家，不但很有意義，更直入人心！這首歌由讓梅子一出道就入圍雙料金曲的〈思念無罪〉陳東賢和余國光兩位老師傾力譜寫，再加上當年也幫〈思念無罪〉編曲的新加坡Terence Teo執編，可說是金曲原班人馬大會師！而更難能可貴的是，〈外家〉不僅是吳申梅真實婚姻生活寫照，她更參與了詞、曲創作，與兩位大師一起共創出心血結晶！這首〈外家〉被視為是吳申梅遠嫁香港三年的揪心之作，也更是她入行十年的里程碑作品！

吳申梅戲裡戲外兩位母親、(左起)親媽瑪莉姐、呂俍慧 照片提供：喜上梅梢娛樂吳申梅也笑說，呂俍慧最讓她佩服的一點，就是廣東話講得超級標準，讓自己覺得自慚形穢。呂俍慧則溫柔安慰她：「妳才嫁過去三年，有心學都不會慢。」讓申梅感受到滿滿暖意。她透露，自己的粵語聽力大概能懂八成，但口說只有兩成，「在香港待久會突然變好，可是回台工作一陣子又會退步，一直在進退消長中。」

呂俍慧(左)和吳申梅(右)在MV中飾演母女 照片提供：喜上梅梢娛樂

她也分享曾經鬧過的語言糗事，某次在香港餐廳想向服務生要紙巾，結果遞過來的卻是一支湯匙，讓她當下愣住，但Eric在旁大笑不已，經他解釋才知道廣東話的湯匙叫「匙羹」，和「紙巾」發音類似，加上她的台灣口音，立刻讓店員誤會。梅子尷尬說：「真的超好笑，我講的粵語到底是在幫誰添亂？」

被問到最會講的廣東話是哪一句時，吳申梅笑說：「應該是『來杯黑咖啡』吧！」因為她常到老公 Eric 公司樓下等他下班，順便買杯黑咖啡，「唔該！一杯『齋啡』（黑咖啡）」這句話講到相當熟練。甚至曾被香港店員誤以為她是本地人，直接用一長串廣東話回她，讓她瞬間當機，「雖然不知道怎麼回，但還是覺得超開心，至少這一句被認證了！」

此篇文章最開始出處為: 香港媳婦吳申梅遠嫁海外三年 遊子心心念念的故鄉和老家

countries: 香港 新加坡 台灣

title: 香港媳婦吳申梅遠嫁海外三年 遊子心心念念的故鄉和老家


taiwan-subdivisions: 高雄 安平 高雄市 成功 北港

people: 沈榮津 陳其邁

countries: 臺灣 台灣 丹麥

title: 港灣新聞網 / 投資破130億！華新麗華攜手NKT在高雄港打造全台首座海底電纜廠

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圖說:榮耀見證合照（右二依序為港務公司周永暉董事長、高雄市政府陳其邁市長、華新麗華公司焦佑倫董事長、總統府沈榮津資政顧問、經濟部何晉滄政務次長及台電公司曾文生董事長等）

港灣新聞網/高雄報導

臺灣港務股份有限公司與華新麗華股份有限公司今（6）日在高雄港共同舉辦「華新能源海底電纜廠開幕暨高雄港A6-A碼頭啟用典禮」，象徵南臺灣離岸風電產業鏈正式跨入新的發展階段，也為我國綠色能源產業寫下新的重要篇章。

本次典禮由臺灣港務公司董事長周永暉、華新麗華股份有限公司高層團隊、丹麥 NKT HV Cables AB 集團代表等貴賓出席，中央到地方共同見證這項跨國合作成果。

高雄港A6-A碼頭啟用 打造台灣離岸風電國產化核心樞紐

臺灣港務公司因應政府能源轉型政策，積極投入離岸風電產業鏈建設。針對洲際一期A6區域需求，完成：

A6碼頭護岸與新生地填築工程

斥資逾 30 億元打造2座荷重達每平方公尺 30 噸的重件碼頭

新建8公頃新生地

碼頭長度自330公尺延伸至421公尺

水深約13公尺，可支援重型風電設備運輸

港務公司表示，這項基礎建設不僅對應國家能源政策，也使高雄港獲得發展離岸風電產業鏈的最佳條件，成為國產化供應鏈的重要基地。華新能源海底電纜廠開幕 投資超過130億元

華新麗華股份有限公司自111年進駐A6-A場域後，全面啟動海底電纜生產基地建設，與全球前三大電纜企業——丹麥 NKT HV Cables AB 合資成立：

華新能源電纜系統股份有限公司

此為全台首座海底電纜工廠，具備國際級產線規模。

投資亮點

投資金額逾新臺幣130億元

開發面積約20公頃

預估創造 400 個以上就業機會

成為台灣海底電纜製造與輸出的唯一基地

此一設廠將帶動南台灣製造技術升級，並吸引周邊風電產業聚落加速成形，對地方經濟具有重大意義。

高雄港加入國家級綠能港群 供應鏈完整度再提升

臺灣離岸風電基地佈局已逐漸成形：

台中港：風機零組件製造與預組裝基地

台北港：水下基礎製造基地

安平港：水下基礎備援儲轉用地

高雄港：海底電纜製造與重件碼頭運輸核心

高雄港的加入，讓台灣離岸風電供應鏈更加完整，並提升我國在亞太風電市場的競爭優勢。

周永暉董事長：全力推動港區建設 打造南臺灣綠能樞紐

港務公司董事長周永暉表示：

「在行政院與交通部的政策支持下，港務公司未來五年將投入超過 190 億元深化高雄港建設，並持續與高雄市政府合作，帶動港市共同繁榮。」

周董事長指出，A6-A 的成功合作示範了台灣在能源轉型上的實力，高雄港將持續朝「區域綠能產業鏈中心」邁進。

高雄港A6區：支援國內與亞太風場的重要基地

隨著台灣及亞太風場建設同步推動，高雄港 A6 區將承擔：

海底電纜生產與出口

風電設備運輸

重件碼頭作業支援

國產化供應鏈整合

臺灣港務公司高雄港務分公司承諾，將持續提供優質營運環境，引進更多國際企業，厚植台灣在離岸風電領域的競爭力。

結語

「華新能源海底電纜廠開幕」與「A6-A碼頭啟用」象徵高雄港正式邁入國際級綠能產業港，奠定台灣離岸風電國產化的重要根基，也為高雄港打造未來二十年的產業競爭力。


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圖/國立屏東高級工業職業學校

港灣新聞報/屏東報導國立屏東高級工業職業學校今（6）日盛大舉辦「88相逢、幸福屏工」校友回娘家活動，上午10時至下午2時30分於校內活動中心熱鬧展開。從 1950、1960 年代的早期畢業校友，到近年剛畢業的青年一代，全台各地校友熱情返校，呈現跨越世代的難得團聚畫面，象徵屏東高工 88 年傳承不輟的技職精神與深厚校友情誼。

校園巡禮喚起回憶 傑出校友表揚增添光彩

今年的校友回娘家活動內容多元，包括：

校園導覽與校史館參觀

懷舊時光機紀念區

學生志工陪同走訪實習工場

傑出校友表揚與互動節目

許多校友踏進教室後驚呼：「味道都一樣！」熟悉的實習工場、木作教室、車床聲響，彷彿一秒回到青澀的學生時代。

120桌盛宴 場面如大型家庭團圓

校方今年席開 120桌，規模盛大。多年未見的老同學彼此寒暄問候，交換人生近況，有人相見歡，也有人忍不住熱淚盈眶。活動同時播放歷屆校園影像，掀起一波波「青春回憶殺」。

校長蔡俊彥：屏工精神不變 每位校友都是學校的力量

屏東高工校長 蔡俊彥 在致詞中表示，屏工走過 88 載，靠的是歷任校長、教職員的努力，以及校友們長期以來的無私支持。他強調：

「屏工的精神從未改變，每一位校友都是推動學校前進的重要力量。」

蔡校長也感謝校友會協助活動規劃，讓今年校慶更具意義。

校友會理事長蕭瑞傑：回饋母校是我這輩子的福氣

校友會理事長 蕭瑞傑 感性表示，能擔任第10屆理事長深感榮幸。他提到，屏東高工扎實的技職教育為他奠定日後職涯基礎，讓他有能力在社會上站穩腳步。

「身為屏工人能回饋母校、投入教育，是我這輩子最大的福氣。」

他的話語讓許多校友深受感動。

校友回娘家意義非凡 連結世代、傳承技職精神

屏東高工表示，今年校友返校活動不僅是餐會或慶祝，更是校友與母校情感的重要重連。88 年間，屏工培育無數技術人才，也見證台灣產業發展的歷史軌跡。

校方並宣布活動報名仍持續開放，誠摯邀請更多屏工校友攜家帶眷回到熟悉的校園，再次感受最純粹的青春溫度。

title: 港灣新聞網 / 屏東高工88週年校友返校 竟然湧入百桌盛會！


countries: 日本 加拿大 新加坡 韓國

taiwan-subdivisions: 屏東 嘉義 高雄 田中

title: 港灣新聞網 / 樹人醫專「築夢前行」56週年校慶盛大舉行　國際合作與技職成果亮眼

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圖說:樹人園遊會學生創意多元(圖/樹人醫專)

港灣新聞網/高雄報導樹人醫護管理專科學校於今（12月6日）盛大舉行創校 56 週年校慶，今年以「築夢前行」為主題，象徵學校推動技職教育的扎根與創新，也代表全體師生共同邁向更高教學品質與國際視野。本次校慶不僅學生、教職員全體參與，更吸引國內外姊妹校、醫療院所與傑出校友蒞臨，共同見證樹人醫專邁向下一個里程碑。

【嘉賓雲集 國際交流成果亮眼】

今年校慶邀請海內外姊妹校代表跨海來訪，包括 日本戶田中央看護專門學校校長中村毅 特別到場祝賀，肯定雙方超過 40 年的交流深度，並期待未來加強師生互訪與學術合作。

圖說:林品瑄校長表示樹人醫專走過56周年充滿感謝與感動

現場亦有醫療界代表出席，包括：

高雄榮民總醫院 副院長 陳以書

嘉義長庚紀念醫院 副院長 蕭政廷

屏東義大醫院 副院長 林鴻裕

高雄醫學大學 教務長 陳正生

多位貴賓一致肯定樹人醫專學生的專業能力、考照成績及臨床表現，認為學校長期在技職教育深耕有成，已成為醫事人才的重要培育基地。

【校長與董事長勉勵 打造全國最優技職院校】

校長 林品瑄 在致詞中表示，樹人醫專在董事會支持與師生努力下，持續推動校園升級、改善住宿環境、提升專業教學設備，並積極參與教育部「學海築夢」、「展翅計畫」，讓學生赴日本、加拿大、新加坡、韓國進行海外實習，累積跨國視野。

圖說:日本戶田中央看護專門學校中村毅校長親自跨海來台獻上祝福

林校長強調：「手中有技、心中有愛 是樹人精神，我們正邁向『全國最優技職院校』的願景。」

董事長 林寬碩 亦勉勵學生保持快樂學習、勇敢築夢，將專業與生活能力兼具，成為社會所需的優秀醫事與服務人才。

【政治界肯定教育成果 邱志偉委員親臨祝賀】

立法委員 邱志偉 特地出席校慶並致賀。他表示樹人醫專長年在醫護教育與技職訓練深耕，考照率與就業率成績頂尖，是南部教育的標竿，值得社會各界肯定。

【學生演出展現技職風采 青春活力嗨翻校園】

校慶以原青社迎賓舞揭開序幕，融合原民文化與青春能量，象徵樹人學子勇敢起舞、邁向未來。

接續由：

美容保健科 帶來舞蹈藝術展演

職能治療科（OT） 壓軸演出「青春活力，OT無敵」

特別是 OT 科結合獨輪車、師生共同編舞，展現創意、體能與專業的完美融合，獲得現場熱烈掌聲。

【靜態展與校友活動多元精彩】

校慶期間同步推出多項展覽與體驗活動，包括：

「凝視表象之外的迴響」珍品收藏展（雕塑、繪畫）

原住民服飾文化展示與美食體驗

教職員趣味競賽

學生體育競賽

各科系校友回娘家活動

熱鬧園遊會與社團表演

12 月 10 日更將舉行由學生會主辦的「Merry 我吧！聖誕演唱會」，邀請知名藝人與校內社團登台，預計再次點燃全校氣氛。

【展望未來：樹人醫專以「築夢前行」邁向下一個輝煌】

樹人醫專表示，56 週年象徵新的起點，校方將持續深耕技職教育、強化國際合作、拓展實習基地，並以「築夢前行」為精神，陪伴每一位樹人學子打造更堅實的專業與人生道路。

校方期許全體學生延續「聚樹成林」的力量，攜手為樹人醫專書寫下一個更加璀璨的新篇章。


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SHARED ISSUE: China’s authoritarian expansion impacts the international community, the foreign minister said, calling for a security mechanism with like-minded countries

Taiwan reiterated its commitment to bolstering its self-defense to uphold regional peace, as ranking officials expressed appreciation to the US for prioritizing deterring a conflict over Taiwan and highlighting the importance of the security of the first island chain in the US’ latest National Security Strategy.

“Greatly appreciate that the #US National Security Strategy prioritizes deterring a conflict over Taiwan & highlights the security of the First Island Chain. #Taiwan will continue to be a reliable partner deeply committed to strengthening our self-defense to uphold regional peace,” President William Lai (賴清德) wrote on X yesterday.

The 33-page report comes as Beijing increases pressure on Taiwan and Japan, deploying vessels across East Asian waters last week in its largest maritime show of force to date.

The document’s language on Taiwan is stronger than the National Security Strategy produced during US President Donald Trump’s first term in office. The document in 2017 mentioned Taiwan three times in a single sentence, echoing longstanding diplomatic language.

“Taiwan” was mentioned seven times in the report published under former US president Joe Biden’s administration.

The new report mentions Taiwan eight times across three paragraphs, and concludes that “there is, rightly, much focus on Taiwan,” because of its strategic location in trade-rich waters and dominance in semiconductor manufacturing.

“We will build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere,” in the chain of islands stretching from Japan to Southeast Asia, it said.

“But the American military cannot, and should not have to, do this alone. Our allies must step up and spend — and more importantly do — much more for collective defense,” it added.

That would reinforce “US and allies’ capacity to deny any attempt to seize Taiwan” or any other steps that would “make defending that island impossible,” the report said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked the US for pointing out Taiwan’s importance in key supply chains and geopolitical strategy, as well as stressing that the US and its allies would collaborate to ensure the nation’s safety.

The Trump administration has demonstrated support for Taiwan, including Trump signing the amended Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act and the US announcing planned arms sale to the nation, the ministry added.

Taiwan will continue to work with the US on security to ensure safety and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region, the ministry said.

The government would also continue to take actions that would enhance the nation’s defense capabilities, such as the eight-year NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.8 billion) special defense budget proposed by Lai, to demonstrate Taiwan’s determination and willpower to firmly defend itself and the “status quo,” it added.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said China’s authoritarian expansion does not only affect Taiwan, but also impacts the entire Indo-Pacific region and the international community.

“National security is the basic condition for survival; without security as a guarantee, prosperity cannot be discussed,” Lin wrote on Facebook yesterday, expressing hope that Taiwan could build a security communication mechanism with countries that share the same ideals.

Commenting on Taiwan-US economic and trade cooperation, Lin said that given the US-China competition and the reshuffling of the global supply chain, investments made by Taiwanese companies in the US represent “not risks, but opportunities.”

Taiwan is willing to establish mutually beneficial cooperation with the US in industries such as semiconductors, servers, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), he said, adding that by building a comprehensive AI industry and integrating into the US’ innovation ecosystem, Taiwan and the US could achieve shared prosperity.

people: 賴清德 林佳龍

title: Lai reiterates commitment to defense


title: Hepatitis B shots for newborns to continue: CDC

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EFFECTIVE: Taiwan’s relatively high vaccination coverage rates lowered the disease’s carrier rate among children to less than 0.8 percent, the CDC said

Taiwan’s universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns would continue, as the disease’s prevalence differs among countries, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, in response to US vaccine advisers voting against universal hepatitis B shots for infants.

The US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to overturn a decades-long recommendation to start hepatitis B immunization at birth in the US.

The ACIP voted 8-3 to recommend the vaccine only to babies born to mothers who test positive for hepatitis B, or whose status is unknown.

It recommended “individual-based decisionmaking for parents deciding whether to give the hepatitis B vaccine, including the birth dose, to infants born to women who test negative for the virus,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

“For those infants not receiving the birth dose, ACIP suggested in its recommendation that the initial dose be administered no earlier than two months of age,” it said.

The ACIP recommendation would become part of the centers’ immunization schedule once it is adopted by the agency’s director.

CDC spokesman Lin Min-cheng (林明誠) said Taiwan would not follow the US’ recommendation, adding that the decision was made after consulting with members of Taiwan’s ACIP.

Hepatitis B was relatively prevalent in Taiwan before, usually transmitted from mother to child, so a universal hepatitis B vaccination policy was launched in July 1986.

In November 1992, the recommended hepatitis B vaccination schedule for newborns were three doses, received at “zero, one and six months” after birth, he said, adding that since May 2011, the first dose was recommended within 24 hours after birth.

The first-dose hepatitis B vaccine coverage rate for infants born last year was 93.1 percent, while the second and third dose coverage rates were 98.9 percent and 97.7 percent respectively, Lin said.

The first-dose coverage is lower, because newborns sometimes need emergency treatment due to other conditions or because they were born with a low body weight (below 2kg), so they could not receive the first dose within 24 hours, he said, adding that the babies usually get the vaccine when their conditions are more stable.

Taiwan’s relatively high vaccine coverage rates lowered the hepatitis B carrier rate among children less than 0.8 percent, a significant decline from the 10.5 percent before policy implementation, Lin said.

Given the prevalence of hepatitis B among people who were born before the universal vaccination policy was implemented is still relatively high, and the heavy disease burden — including liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, which might differ from the US — the CDC would continue to implement the universal hepatitis B vaccination policy, he said.


title: Majority of US procurement on schedule: ministry

content_text:
By Huang Tzu-yang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The majority of the 18 ongoing public budget military procurement projects from the US are progressing normally, the Ministry of National Defense said in a report to the Legislative Yuan on Friday.

The second batch of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) multiple-launch rocket launchers, which has extended strike capabilities, is set to be delivered ahead of schedule next year, and 80 M1A2T main battle tanks have already been delivered, the report said.

Taiwan purchased 29 HIMARS launchers from the US worth NT$32.5 billion (US$1.04 billion) and received the first 11 last year, it said.

Taiwanese flags are pictured at the Ministry of National Defense in Taipei on Dec. 26, 2022. Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters

The second batch of 18 HIMARS launchers, originally scheduled for delivery in 2027, has now been confirmed for completion one year earlier, with all units to be delivered next year, the ministry said, adding that it would greatly enhance the military’s cross-region reinforcement and precision strike capabilities.

Eighty M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks have already been delivered, and the delivery of the remaining 39 is on schedule, the report said.

The tanks are gradually replacing older tanks and bolstering the army’s capability to defend the capital and stop an amphibious assault on the beaches, it added.

The delivery of Javelin and TOW missiles, the navy’s Block 1B Phalanx close-in weapons system, and missile-bearing drones highlight the nation’s effort to reinforce its asymmetric combat capabilities, it said.

Regarding delays in the delivery of F-16 Block 70 jets, the report said the first jet was expected to roll off the production line in 2023, but was delayed to this year due to research and development of bespoke systems.

The delivery of the entire order, 66 F-16s, has been set for next year and has not been subject to further delays, it added.

While the 141 F-16A/B block 20s, obtained in 1997, were upgraded to the F-16V standard last year, the AGM-154C Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) missiles they were to be outfitted with have been delayed due to longer production times, as Taiwan purchased the newest model, the ministry said.

Global production capability for the MK-48 heavy torpedo, which Taiwan purchased for the Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, has been affected by the Russia-Ukraine war, and delivery has been pushed back from 2028 to 2030, the report said.

The US government is aware of supply chain issues and has made Taiwan a priority partner, while expediting deliveries and back-end logistics to prevent repeat incidents of completed equipment left to sit in warehouses undelivered, it added.

The military would continue maintain close contact with the US to ensure equipment is delivered and integrated into combat units, the ministry said.


title: Russia attacks Ukraine amid US-Kyiv peace talks

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Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into yesterday, after US and Ukrainian officials said they would meet for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year-long war.

Following talks that made progress on a security framework for postwar Ukraine, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately would depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”

The statement from US special envoy Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day on Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made, as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a US-mediated proposal to end the war.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner meet with Ukrainian Secretary of National Security Rustem Umerov and other members of a Ukrainian delegation in Hallandale Beach, Florida, on Sunday last week. Photo: Reuters

Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching overnight attack on Ukraine, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country’s air force said yesterday morning.

Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.

At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said.

Among these, at least three people were wounded in the Kyiv region, local officials said.

Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv region.

Russia carried out a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday, citing its Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.

The plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shut-down reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.


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A Chinese hospital ship quietly docked in hurricane-hit Jamaica this week, projecting soft power into the heart of the Caribbean, where a US armada is conducting a controversial anti-narcotics mission targeted at Venezuela.

The Silk Road Ark, a massive Chinese navy vessel with 300 hospital beds, and about 100 doctors and support staff, is a symbol of Beijing’s outreach to the Caribbean region, one of the last bastions of diplomatic support for its rival Taiwan.

The floating hospital on Thursday arrived at the Port of Montego Bay, as the island struggled to recover from Hurricane Melissa. The storm tore across Jamaica in late October, killing more than 45 people, destroying hospitals and causing at least US$9 billion in damage.

A man rides a bicycle in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in Black River, Jamaica, on Oct. 30. Photo: AP

Jamaica very much needs the vessel “because of the challenges we face,” Jamaican Minister of Health and Wellness Christopher Tufton said. “This is another big development that shows the spirit of friendship and partnership.”

The US has also played a prominent role in Jamaica’s recovery efforts, with US President Donald Trump’s administration pledging more than US$22 million in aid.

However, the US Navy’s two largest medical ships, the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort, are docked at US ports.

In the hours and days after the hurricane, US Chinook helicopters criss-crossed the sky dropping food and water for communities cut off by the storm, said Wayne Chen, chairman of the southern regional health authority.

“The vast majority of Jamaicans have been very happy and gratified to see the outpouring of international assistance both from our traditional friends, governments, foundations and private groups,” Chen said.

El Salvador sent more than 300 troops to help with the clean up, while the UK and Venezuela provided tangible aid, he said.

Beijing’s timing was fortuitous. The Silk Road Ark left China in early September and had already planned to visit Jamaica, along with Barbados, Brazil, Peru, Chile and other countries in the region, but it adjusted its schedule as the hurricane toll became clear.

The USNS Comfort, by contrast, finished its tour of the Caribbean — but not Jamaica — in August.

China’s hospital ship will perform cataract and hernia surgeries, CT scans and ultrasounds, and bloodwork diagnostics, Jamaican health authorities said.

title: Chinese hospital ship visits hurricane-hit Jamaica


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UNMINDED GAPS: An amendment to the Railway Act would introduce penalties for a whole range of behaviors in and around stations and aboard trains

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications has previewed proposed changes to the Railway Act (鐵路法) that would fine people for playing on or crossing safety lines on railway platforms.

The amendments are due to the frequency of people falling onto the tracks at railway stations, the ministry said.

Currently, there are penalties for trespassing on the tracks, but there are none for crossing the yellow safety lines on platforms.

The proposed amendments say that crossing a platform safety line, playing on a platform, walking or running against the designated direction on escalators, refusing to heed warnings or other behaviors announced by the railway authorities could result in fines ranging from NT$1,500 to NT$7,500.

The proposed amendments introduce penalties for poeple on high-speed or regular railway trains obstructing the closing of train or platform doors, opening doors without authorization or entering or exiting the station or boarding or disembarking without a valid ticket.

According to the draft amendments, fines could be levied for loitering in a station’s passenger hall, mezzanine or platform areas without the intention of boarding, causing obstruction to passenger movement or other activities.

To maintain the safety and order of railway stations and trains, the draft stipulates that if people engage in certain behaviors and refuse to comply after being advised, they could face doubled penalties.

This includes climbing onto or jumping off a moving train, obstructing the closing of train or platform doors or opening them without authorization and not following the prescribed procedures when entering or exiting the station or boarding or alighting from the train.

Other behaviors subject to penalties include soliciting donations, selling goods, distributing advertisements, setting up stalls, building scaffolding, or arranging banquets inside the train or station area without permission; refusing ticket checks by railway staff; spitting betel nut juice or spit in the train or station area; bringing animals into the station or train without permission or unlawfully occupying or damaging railway property or facilities.

The draft amendments state that if train operators are found to be using drugs, the Railway Bureau is required to revoke their driver’s license and prohibit them from operating trains.

A 60-day public announcement period for the preview of the proposed changes began on Friday and after gathering feedback from various sectors, a proposal would be submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval before forwarding it to the Legislative Yuan.

title: Amendment aims to curb unsafe railway horseplay


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HARDEST HIT: In the past decade, the number of attempted suicides involving adolescents tripled, leading organizations to look for new methods of prevention

The Action Alliance on Basic Education on Friday urged the government to step up measures to identify and prevent adolescent suicide, as reports of attempted suicides in that age group grew from 4,389 in 2015 to 14,547 last year.

The group cited statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which showed that suicide rates for Taiwanese between the ages of 15 and 24 have been increasing since 2015.

In 2015, adolescents represented 14.7 percent of all attempted suicides, but had reached 28.7 percent of all attempts by last year.

Alliance president Wang Han-yang (王瀚陽) cited reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stating that pediatricians should include psychiatric, emotional and behavioral issues as part of routine health examinations as an essential strategy for early detection and intervention.

Troubled adolescents often do not directly ask for help, but exhibit other symptoms, such as having irregular sleeping hours, eating more or less, becoming more irritable and refusing to study, Wang said.

Often, the issue is already critical if the teen asks for help or has already manifested obvious signs of distress, he added.

Wang said the government should take guidance from the AAP report and conduct routine physical and mental health checkups and screenings to identify and intervene earlier.

The strategy would not only lessen the burden on consultative services, but also allow a more systematic way to identify and categorize issues, he said, adding that under this method, schools couldconsider redirecting students with needs to specialized facilities.

Wang called on the public to recognize the growing dangers presented by deteriorating psychiatric health among adolescents and to strive to place more emphasis on prevention rather than acting after the fact.

People who are troubled by thoughts of suicide can seek help by calling the Taiwan Lifeline International-run hotline 1995. Information on suicide prevention can be found on Taiwan Lifeline’s Web site: www.life1995.org.tw.

title: New approach needed as teen suicides spike


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By Liu Yu-ching and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taiwanese scientists have hatched the eggs of Penghu Island octopuses under lab conditions, in a potential breakthrough for artificially breeding the endangered species.

The cephalopods, designated octopus sp. TW-10 — which researchers in 2006 identified as a previously undocumented species — is threatened by population decline from overfishing, the National Penghu University of Science and Technology said in a statement last week.

The miniature octopuses are a scientific mystery, famous for being seen almost exclusively during spawning, which takes place between March 29 and April 12, said Lee Meng-fang (李孟芳), an associate professor of aquaculture at the university.

The species’ short lifespan of about a year and its female members’ habit of retreating into the ocean’s depths immediately following mating make the octopuses difficult to observe or study, he said.

The program to breed the octopuses in captivity, which took a decade to achieve results, utilized specimens captured during the spring spawning season, he said.

Female octopuses of the species carry only about 100 of the tiny, 16mm-long eggs, compared with other small cephalopods that lay thousands of eggs at a time, Lee said.

No eggs were documented until the Penghu branch of the Fisheries Research Institute found four caught in the filter of a tank, he added.

Female octopuses of the species carry inseminated eggs internally for between three and four months, then lay clutches of eggs that they protect for three more months, he said, adding that this gestation period takes up almost half of the octopuses’ life cycle.

The research found that female octopuses are highly sensitive to light and other interference when guarding their eggs, often preferring to dispose of the eggs if they are disturbed, he said.

This suggests that light pollution in the seas around Penghu might have contributed to the decline of the octopus population, Lee said.

The study produced 30 octopus larvae, which matured rapidly and attached themselves to the simulated ocean floor as soon as they hatched, bypassing the planktonic phase of normal octopods, he said.

Preliminary success achieved in the captive breeding program could allow the octopuses to be farmed throughout their lifecycle for food, similar to the sea urchins currently being cultivated in Penghu, he said.

title: First Penghu octopus bred in lab


title: Antihistamines could interfere with prostate issue

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Men with benign prostatic hyperplasia — an enlarged prostate — should try manage the condition before traveling abroad, and avoid taking medication that contains first-generation antihistamines, such as Benadryl or Nyquil, to avoid acute urinary retention, said Taipei-based urologist Gu Fang-yu (顧芳瑜).

Gu made the remarks in light of an incident in which a 65-year-old Taiwanese man caught the flu during his trip to Japan with a tour group, and he began having cold-like symptoms, including a runny nose and sore throat.

He took some cold medicine purchased at a local pharmacy, but found the following day he could no longer urinate, and was taken to a local hospital by their tour guide for catheterization, which cost him more than NT$30,000, Gu said.

A doctor points to a model of a human prostate structure in Hsinchu in an undated photograph. Photo courtesy of Tungyuan Hospital

Gu, who shared the case and treated him after he returned to Taiwan, said examination showed his prostate had swollen to about four times its regular size.

The man has a medical history of benign prostatic hyperplasia, but he did not take medicine to reduce swelling regularly, Gu added.

The cold medicine that the man took in Japan contained older antihistamines, which decreased bladder contractility, causing acute urinary retention, Gu said.

Gu said some cold medicines contain first-generation antihistamines or sympathomimetics, which relax the bladder muscle and decrease bladder contractility, leading to dysfunction.

He said some men experience difficulties voiding their bladder but are not aware of it, or some have been diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia but are not managing it by taking medication.

This can be a common result from not taking medication regularly to keep benign prostatic hyperplasia condition under control, Gu said, adding that after acute urinary retention occurred, the man experienced severe pain and had to get emergency urinary catheterization.

Gu suggested men with benign prostatic hyperplasia to see a doctor to check their condition before traveling abroad, and to remember to bring their medicine along and take them regularly during their travel.

They should avoid cold medicine with first-generation antihistamines or sympathomimetics, and tell the doctor about their relevant medical records when seeking medical attention, he said.

They should seek medical attention with a urologist for examinations as soon as possible when they experience symptoms such as difficulty urinating, reduced urine flow rate, waking up frequently to urinate at night and straining to void their bladder, Gu said.

Never wait until they cannot urinate at all to see a doctor, as taking medication and getting follow-up checkups regularly can effectively improve quality and reduce the risk of acute urinary retention.


title: CIB explains ban on RedNote while other apps persist

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ACCOUNTABILITY:

While other apps also have fraud issues, RedNote has still failed to take any corrective action despite repeated requests to do so

The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday justified the government’s decision to block Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu (小紅書, also known as “RedNote” in English) for one year, amid criticism that it is being singled out for sanctions.

In a statement, the CIB said the action was carried out after the app, which has 3 million users in Taiwan, failed to take any corrective action despite repeated demands, and that the move was in line with laws targeting fraud and scams.

The CIB came down on the app after concluding it was enabling fraud and cybersecurity violations and posed risks to national security.

The Xiaohongshu Technology Co app icon is arranged on a smartphone in Shanghai on Sept. 15. Photo: Bloomberg

On Thursday, the government instructed internet service providers to block access to the app effective immediately. Although still downloadable, it takes a long time to load its functions, making it effectively unusable.

Some critics, including Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), have questioned why only RedNote was blocked, but not other platforms that are sources of scams such as Facebook, Instagram, Line, Google, TikTok and Threads.

The CIB said the government treats all non-compliant platforms equally.

Citing Meta as an example, the CIB said the company has been penalized three times this year for undisclosed ads, poor management, and failure to remove scams, with fines totaling about NT$18.5 million (US$591,262).

Unlike RedNote, other major platforms with large user bases — including Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads), TikTok, Google (YouTube), and Line —- have all complied with government regulations, the CIB said.

Also, these platforms have legal representatives in Taiwan to handle related disputes and implement anti-fraud measures, such as mandatory identity verification and review of fraud-prevention plans, making them fully accountable, while RedNote does not, it said.

Based on statistics from the 165 Anti-fraud Hotline, from January 2024 to November 2025, local authorities received 1,706 complaints of fraud involving RedNote, resulting in financial losses of more than NT$240 million, it said.

This indicated that the platform has become a hotspot for fraudulent activity, it said.

On July 2, the National Security Bureau conducted cybersecurity checks on five Chinese-made apps, including RedNote.

RedNote failed all 15 testing indicators, including excessive collection of personal data and misuse of permissions, raising serious concerns, according to the CIB.

The use of RedNote for fraud and cybersecurity violations harms public interests, disrupts social order, and poses potential national security risks, it said.

The CIB added that the government’s action complies with Article 42 of the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制條例), which allows authorities to order internet service providers to suspend or restrict access to websites in emergencies so that citizens are less vulnerable to fraudsters.


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‘DEMOCRACY LIGHTHOUSE‘:  The president said that his administration would strive to restore the truth about Taiwan’s history to facilitate a harmonized society

Taiwan will work with democratic partners to address challenges to global democracy, and would not allow any person or power, including external autocratic powers, to deprive it of its democracy and its freedom, President William Lai (賴清德) said at the National Human Rights Museum in New Taipei City yesterday.

Taiwan understands the value of freedom and democracy better than anyone, especially as authoritarianism seeks to expand globally and threaten democracies worldwide, Lai told an event to mark World Human Rights Day, which is on Wednesday.

Taiwan is described as the “lighthouse of democracy in Asia,” Lai said.

The nation belongs to Taiwanese, and only by bolstering national security can Taiwan’s human rights and freedom continue to be protected, he said.

Taiwan cannot return to martial law, he said, adding that former presidents Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) backed human rights in Taiwan in accordance with international standards.

Lai said that his administration would strive to restore the truth about Taiwan’s history, as the truth can help harmonize society and enable future governments to avoid the mistakes of previous administrations.

The government would also preserve sites of injustice and include them in education material so that young people would understand and cherish Taiwan’s hard-won democracy, he said.

Lai said that his administration would continue to seek justice for people who faced hardship or died during the Martial Law period, adding that the government has issued 4,000 restoration of honor certificates to such people or their families.

The certificates would not restore lost lives or time lost in prison, but they show that the government is willing to shoulder responsibility and admit that it was in the wrong, he said.

Transitional justice is not about the past, as it would define what kind of country Taiwan will become, he said, adding that the government would continue to work with civic groups to prompt transitional justice and human rights.

Taiwan is willing to share its experience in resisting authoritarianism with those living under the shadow of oppression and like-minded democratic partners, which would show the world that Taiwan is committed to democracy, and that it stands by peace, human rights and the rule of law, Lai said.

Minister of Culture Li Yuan (李遠) told the event that his ministry would promote Taiwanese films to audiences in Europe to spread the word regarding the nation’s transitional justice efforts and emphasis on human rights issues.

Human rights-related films that won awards at the Taiwan International Human Rights Film Festival would be highlighted, Li said.

The ministry would also continue investigations into sites of injustice and is accepting applications to designate places as areas with transitional justice significance, he said.

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei hosted part of the film festival, playing Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese)-language films to spread awareness of human rights and Taiwan’s embrace of the concept, he said.

For the entire year, the hall has hosted the Flowers of Freedom exhibition, which shows Taiwan’s progress from the Martial Law period to the current day, he added.

people: 陳水扁 蔡英文 賴清德

title: Lai touts value of partnerships


title: US report shows shift in commitment, expert says

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SEMANTICS ANALYSIS:  A former adviser said that the shift from ‘oppose’ to ‘does not support’ regarding changes to the ‘status quo’ was a meaningful downgrade

The National Security Strategy (NSS) report issued by US President Donald Trump’s administration demonstrated Taiwan’s strategic importance, but also showed a shift in Washington’s commitment to Taiwan, a former China policy adviser to the US Department of State said on Friday.

“The NSS correctly identifies Taiwan’s strategic importance beyond semiconductors — recognizing it ‘provides direct access to the second island chain and splits Northeast and Southeast Asia into two distinct theaters,’” said Ryan Fedasiuk, a fellow at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute.

“Hence deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” said the report, which was released earlier on Friday.

A 3D-printed miniature model depicting US President Donald Trump stands in front of Taiwanese and Chinese flags in an arranged photograph taken on April 17. Photo: Reuters

While the report said that the US would maintain its long-standing policy on Taiwan, it changed its wording, saying that Washington “does not support” any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, shifting from using the word “oppose,” which it had done in the previous report issued by the administration of former US president Joe Biden.

Fedasiuk said the shift from “oppose” to “does not support” unilateral changes to the “status quo” was “a meaningful downgrade.”

“Opposes” implies active opposition with potential consequences, but “does not support” suggests passive disapproval without commitment to take any action, he said.

The omissions of “oppose” was significant, as the new expression removes commitments from the US government’s formulaic strategic framework, which has created room for Trump to claim he was not confined by previous formulations in either direction, Fedasiuk said.

The new wording offers “more flexibility for which aspects of its policy the [Trump] administration would prefer to highlight at any given moment,” Fedasiuk said.

“Does not support” was “the clearest evidence of policy drift,” he added.

The weaker language could result in two problems, he said.

First, the shift softens the commitment of the US in the event of unilateral action by China from active opposition to passive disapproval, he said.

The second is that the change establishes downgraded language as the new baseline for future negotiations, he said.

As a result, if Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) meets with Trump next year as planned, the Chinese leader is likely to seek further adjustments, Fedasiuk said.

The 2022 report released by the Biden administration said that the US opposed any unilateral changes to the “status quo” from either side, and it did not support Taiwanese independence, while Washington remained committed to its “one China” policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three joint communiques and the “six assurances.”

During Trump’s first term, the report issued by his administration in 2017 only briefly mentioned Taiwan, saying that the US would maintain its strong ties with the nation based on its “one China” policy, with its commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide for its legitimate defense needs and to deter coercion.

In Taipei yesterday, Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of the Division of Defense Strategy and Resources at the military-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told reporters that the report clearly mentions “collective defense” and the prevention of specific countries from occupying Taiwan, demonstrating that the US’ commitment to the security of the Taiwan Strait is firmly anchored, Su said.

“The prevailing doubts within Taiwan about the US should be dispelled,” he said.

Taiwan is in the “golden egg” zone of the first island chain, controlling the maritime link from Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia, he said.

If Taiwan were to fall under China’s control, it would likely become “China’s Hawaii,” as the People’s Liberation Army could directly use Hualien Port as a base for nuclear submarines to threaten the US West Coast, he said.

That would be a strategic disaster that democratic allies such as the US, Japan, and South Korea could not bear, he added.

Additional reporting by Fang Wei-li


title: Chinese surge may mean ‘hardliners’ taking control

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By Fang Wei-li and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A surge in Chinese maritime military activity across East Asia might be evidence that “hardliners” are gaining ascendancy in Beijing’s leadership, an expert said on Friday.

Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌), a research fellow at the state-run Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that deployments of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy and China Coast Guard vessels — with more than 100 ships reported at sea last week — appear to be Beijing’s response to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s public opposition to any use of force by China against Taiwan.

Beijing appears to be using ships and other military assets already taking part in military exercises to intimidate the US, Japan and the Philippines, Shu said.

A Chinese warship sails during a joint exercise involving the navies of China, Iran and Russia in the Gulf of Oman on March 12. Photo: Reuters

The three governments in the past few months have showed an unfavorable inclination toward China’s aims in the region, he said.

China signaling its displeasure with warships rather than diplomatic protests, as expected of nations that follow international norms, suggests that “hardliners” have seized the reins in Beijing, he said.

The showy and bombastic threats emanating from Beijing are concerning, as they highlight an increasingly dysfunctional decisionmaking process that deliberately pursues counterproductive courses of action, Shu said.

The Chinese government’s rude and extreme reaction to Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks might alienate neighboring countries and give an inadvertent boost to the credibility of political factions opposed to Beijing, he said.

However, it is possible that the show of force is intended for China’s domestic audience, he added.

The Chinese naval activities appear to be a test of logistics, and command and control capabilities during a large deployment, said Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑), an associate professor of international affairs and strategic studies at Tamkang University.

The absence of the Chinese military’s air and rocket forces made the activity distinct from the Joint Sword and Strait Thunderbolt exercises of previous years, Lin said.

The PLA for the moment is content with a display of its numerical strength at sea and waving the Chinese flag in the Pacific by penetrating the first island chain, he said.

That means the chances of China announcing another Joint Sword-type exercise are not high, as naval demonstrations are a sufficient flex of Beijing’s muscles directed at Japan and the Philippines, he said.

Observers are seeking signs that China’s Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian aircraft carriers are conducting simultaneous exercise in the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the western Pacific, he said.

More attention should be paid to the type of drills China conducts and modernization of its armed forces, rather than focusing on the number of aircraft and ships involved in excursions crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, Lin said.

Beijing would continue to use its “salami slice” strategy to pressure Taiwan, with military exercises aimed to compressing the buffer space around Taiwan proper, he added.


title: Apex Aviation seeks role in ‘whole of society’ defense

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By Yimou Lee, Fabian Hamacher and Ann Wang / Reuters

Flying over the blue waters off Taiwan’s east coast, a light aircraft equipped with a powerful US-made radar slung under its belly tracks Chinese warships, collecting data that its operator is keen to provide to Taipei’s security forces.

Small Taiwanese operator Apex Aviation, better known for pilot training and charter flights, is pitching the surveillance flights to a government that has started engaging civilian firms in developing new technologies for its “whole of society resilience” initiative.

The government has invited businesses, research groups and other organizations to take on more active roles, including backing up communications and logistics, shoring up cyberdefenses, and potentially contributing to surveillance and intelligence-gathering.

An Apex Aviation aircraft equipped with a synthetic aperture radar prepares to take off at Taitung Airport on Oct. 13. Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters

While common in countries such as the US, this joint military-civilian approach is new for Taiwan, whose armed forces are increasingly hard-pressed responding to daily Chinese activities in the skies and waters near the nation.

Taipei has said it aims to boost defense spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2030 and would introduce a US$40 billion supplementary budget, including “significant” new US arms purchases.

Apex is seeking a role in that build-up, but unlike companies that have received defense contracts so far, the airline wants to run its surveillance operation in-house, while remaining open to transferring equipment to authorities.

“These Chinese drills are happening more and more frequently, getting closer and closer. That’s what creates that sense of urgency. If we don’t jump in now, we might not even get the chance later,” Apex chairman Wilson Kao (高健祐) told reporters.

Apex declined to give estimates on potential revenue from such a deal.

The Ministry of National Defense has so far been cautious about external partners, telling reporters that it is able to effectively monitor Chinese activities and has no plans for cooperation.

However, it said it was open to new ideas.

“The ministry welcomes discussions on public-private collaboration to strengthen national defense build-up,” it said in a statement.

The Coast Guard Administration said that it is working to boost its own reconnaissance capacity and would prioritize drones before gradually expanding the effort to include crewed aircraft.

Apex has spent more than NT$400 million (US$12.8 million) to convert an 11-seater Italian-made Tecnam P2012 Traveller propeller plane into a reconnaissance aircraft equipped with a US-made synthetic aperture radar under its fuselage.

The company wants to feed data from the radar, which can detect objects as small as 30cm by 30cm, to Taiwan’s military and the coast guard as it tracks Chinese ships near the nation.

The business opportunity goes beyond Taiwan.

Apex said it could also market the relatively low-cost patrol service to friendly governments in the region that monitor Chinese activity, adding that it can quickly build a reconnaissance fleet with aircraft and drones.

Experts said authorities must establish a legal basis to allow civilian aircraft to engage in reconnaissance and also raised concerns about whether they would be made vulnerable to Chinese forces.

“Patrol aircraft involves the use of enforcement. Whether enforcement can be handed off to the private sector is a matter of legal debate,” said Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

The cost of flying a light aircraft on a reconnaissance mission could be as low as one-10th of a military plane.

While Apex only operates in Taiwanese air space, one of its medical charter flights to Kinmen County was repeatedly approached by Chinese military planes for three consecutive days in June.

The incident, condemned by Taipei, raised concerns about the safety of civilian aircraft facing China’s stepped up “gray zone” harassment tactics.

Kao said that Apex’s board had deliberated potential risks before taking on the project.

“I’m just doing the right thing. I’m just steadily moving forward. And I won’t back down just because of any harassment,” he said at Taitung Airport.

Apex has been buoyed by a growing government push for companies with limited or no defense pedigree to develop products for military use. One of the initiative’s biggest highlights is a new generation of sea drones developed by remote control model car, aircraft and boat producer Thunder Tiger.

The company’s SeaShark 800 drone can carry 1.2 tonnes of explosives and travel up to 500km. The craft featured prominently at a summer “beauty show” at which operators offered their wares to Taiwan’s military.

One senior security official said that joint military-civilian initiatives were an idea the government needed to take seriously.

“The operational stress on troops is extremely high. The communist military is creating new forms of pressure, so we must develop new approaches to counter them,” the official said.


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China’s censorship online has reached its limit, MAC says

China’s digital authoritarian model has reached its limit and is now trapped in a loop, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in the latest issue of its quarterly publication on the situation in China (大陸情勢季報).

The classification by Chinese authorities of actor Alan Yu’s (于朦朧) death after falling from a building in Beijing on Sept. 11 as an “accidental fall after drinking” drew widespread skepticism, which is indicative of the cracks forming in its digital authoritarian model, the MAC said.

Audio and video posted online that were purportedly recorded during the incident, as well as rumors linking the actor to Cai Qi (蔡奇), a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Politburo Standing Committee, prompted a flurry of speculation, the report said.

Chinese authorities immediately initiated “stability maintenance” measures, deleting information and posts, and prohibiting further inquiries into the matter, it said.

The Cyberspace Administration of China summoned executives from social media platforms including Sina Weibo, Kuaishou and Douyin, the report said.

The agency fined the companies, ordered them to strictly manage trending topics and set a deadline to rectify the situation to ensure a “clear and bright cyberspace,” the MAC said.

China’s entertainment industry lacks autonomy, as artists can rapidly rise to stardom or be stripped of their influence by political players, the report said.

The reaction to Yu’s death has highlighted how the CCP’s attempts to stifle speech have backfired, with strict censorship only fueling the rapid dissemination of rumors, exposing persistent vulnerabilities in the digital authoritarian framework, it said.

In similar cases, police bureaus have rushed to close investigations and forbidden further probes, leading to a loss of trust in official reports among the Chinese public, it said.

The CCP is caught in a feedback loop — the stricter the censorship, the more prevalent the rumors, it said, paraphrasing a Sept. 30 article in Foreign Policy magazine — “The Chinese public is obsessing over a perceived celebrity cover-up,” by Kevin Hsu, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Censors are so reactive that stories can be buried for any number of reasons... Sometimes, the censorship itself becomes the story, sparking any number of conspiracies to explain why the news is being covered up,” Hsu wrote.

Many commenters on the Yu situation, as well as other censored issues, are bypassing Beijing’s controls by posting on social media platforms outside China, the MAC said, adding that some have organized protests in other countries to demand that the truth be reported, which has prompted reporting in international media.

The CCP’s digital authoritarianism is facing a severe resource strain and it is struggling to cover every front at once, the MAC said, adding that the same sort of situation is arising over its suppression of protests.


content_text: Representative to the Netherlands Tien Chung- kwang, left, and Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che hold a plate of Taiwanese guavas at an event to promote the fruit at a market in Amsterdam on Friday. Taiwanese guavas have hit the European market for the first time after the EU earlier this year approved imports.

title: Good guavas


content_text: Model Candy Wang, left, and actress Sophie Wang pose with their dogs at the opening of the TaiPet Fashion Week in Taipei yesterday.

title: Creature couture


title: Cheery parade

content_text:
PROCEDURE:  Although there is already a cross-strait agreement in place for the extradition of criminals, ample notice is meant to be given to the other side first Ten Taiwanese who were involved in fraud-related crimes in China were extradited back to Taiwan via Kinmen County on Wednesday, four of whom are convicted fraudsters in Taiwan.The 10 people arrived via a ferry operating between Xiamen and Kinmen, also known as the “small three links.”The Kinmen County Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that four of the 10 extradited people were convicted in Taiwan for committing fraud and contravening the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), and were on the wanted list.They were immediately arrested upon arrival and sent to Kinmen Prison to serve their sentences following brief questioning, the office said.

By Shelley Shan


content_text:
Where coal once reigned, Virginia eyes data centersEnvironmental groups criticize the expansion of data centers, which strain power grids and likely require more energy than can be made available, whereas other critics say they might not bring the jobs the area needs

The demise of the coal industry left the US’ Appalachian region in tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water and countless kilometers of abandoned underground mines.

Now entrepreneurs are eyeing the rural region with ambitious visions to rebuild its economy by converting old mines into solar power systems and data centers that could help fuel the increasing power demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

One such project is underway by a non-profit team calling itself Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning and Technology Accelerator) Lab, which is looking to develop energy sources on about 26,305 hectares of old coal land in southwest Virginia.

Will Clear and Will Payne, who help manage Energy DELTA Lab, said they imagine building a massive 182 hectare data center ridge on top of old mining lands that could be powered and cooled using the billions of liters of water that naturally replenish below.

Unlike in some neighboring areas, there is no acid mine drainage, which deposits sulfuric acid and heavy metals from exposed mine rock faces, rendering water unusable, Payne said.

The difference has to do with geology, as the Wise County coal fields lack the mineral pyrite, a key culprit in acid mine drainage, he said.

“So, the water quality is there. Obviously, the cost to use, to circulate this water is low,” Payne said.

In support, a handful of localities, including Wise County, have a special tax rate on data center equipment and resolutions aimed at welcoming regional data center investments.

Payne said that their plan could meet with resistance in an area hard-hit by coal’s decline.

“Anyone looking at expanding in the region, there is skepticism, because there have been so many stories of promises made, but not kept,” Payne said at Squabble State Hard Cider & Spirits, a cider-making business he and Clear run near the state border with Tennessee.

Appalachia was once the heart of the nation’s coal industry, whose decline destroyed local communities.

Amid issues of cost, worker health and the fossil fuel’s contributions to global warming, coal has been dropping as a top source of US fuel for decades.

“If you go through coal mining communities, they’re ghost towns,” United Mine Workers of America director of communications Erin Bates said. “The number of bankruptcies that have happened in the last three decades have destroyed these communities.”

Financially, the data center ridge vision is ambitious. Constructing an average-sized data center facility can cost US$500 million to US$2 billion, Allianz SE said.

The entrepreneurs hope to prove the feasibility of their idea to Texas-based Energy Transfer, which owns the land in question. The land is managed by Penn Virginia Operating Co.

“They’re willing to think about the future, whereas others maybe just don’t have the time or don’t have the interest,” Payne said.

Energy Transfer did not respond to interview requests.

Other coal mine repurposing projects are seeing success, at least on a local scale.

The Mineral Gap Data Center, also in Wise County, came online in 2023 and touts itself as the first abandoned mine land to be converted to solar in the state.

In Martin County, Kentucky, a utility-scale solar project on an old mine site that powers about 18,000 homes, came online this month.

The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit group, is a partner in a 10-megawatt solar project in Wise County built on the former Indian Creek Surface Mine. Start of construction is planned for next year.

The nonprofit is working on a broader conservation effort spanning more than 101,171 hectares in Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee that could include additional solar development, said Brad Kreps, the Conservancy’s Clinch Valley Program director.

“Our projects are definitely among the first that are moving forward in central Appalachia,” Kreps said.

Building new data centers would need on-site renewable energy to be viable, said Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit group.

However, Su questioned building data centers.

“That should be up to every single jurisdiction to have that type of public interest test to figure out whether it is actually serving their constituency or not — understanding environmental harms, water issues and drainage,” Su said.

Environmental groups criticize the expansion of data centers, which strain power grids and likely require significantly more energy than can be made available.

Some critics such as Bates say data centers might not bring the jobs the area desperately needs, but Payne maintains there would be work for local residents.

A typical data center can add up to 1,500 workers on-site during construction and employ about 50 full-time workers when up and running, a Virginia state report said last year.

Based on average spending by the industry from 2021 to 2023, overall the data center industry is estimated to contribute 74,000 jobs, US$5.5 billion in labor income and US$9.1 billion in GDP to Virginia’s economy each year — mostly in the construction phase, the report said.

Those estimates were just 1 percent more than total statewide employment, income and Virginia GDP for those years, it found.

Nationwide, the number of people working in data centers grew from 306,000 to 501,000 between 2016 and 2023, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump’s administration is aiming to reverse the decline of coal use, largely to help fuel AI systems.

In October, the US Department of Energy announced it would make US$100 million available to refurbish and modernize coal-fired power plants.

The mining community would be pleased with almost any job-creating solution, Bates said.

“If a battery plant wants to open up, or any kind of plant wants to open up [in] those areas that’s going to help the areas thrive and not be so devastated as they currently are, we’re absolutely going to welcome it,” she added.


content_text:
Netflix on Friday faced fierce criticism over its blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery.

The streaming giant is already viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices.

As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind Casablanca, the Harry Potter movies and Friends — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition. Titanic director James Cameron called the buyout a “disaster,” while a group of prominent producers are lobbying US Congress to oppose the deal, trade magazine Variety said.

Ted Sarandos arrives at the premiere of The Electric State at The Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles on Feb. 24. Photo: AP

In a letter to US lawmakers, the anonymous filmmakers said that Netflix would “effectively hold a noose around the theatrical marketplace,” further damaging a Hollywood ecosystem already strained by audiences’ shift from theaters and TV to streaming.

“I could not think of a more effective way to reduce competition in Hollywood than selling WBD to Netflix,” former Warner Bros CEO Jason Kilar wrote on X.

At the center of Hollywood’s ire is Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who has declared that the era of moviegoers flocking to theaters is over. During an analyst call on Friday, Sarandos acknowledged surprise over the acquisition, but pledged to maintain Warner Bros’ theatrical releases and preserve the HBO Max brand.

Many industry veterans consider theatrical releases essential to cinema’s appeal and prestige — a stark contrast to streaming content consumed on home sofas or on mobile devices.

Variety captured the industry’s alarm with a front-page headline asking: “Is Netflix Trying to Buy Warner Bros or Kill It?”

Michael O’Leary, CEO of Cinema United, the world’s largest exhibition trade association, said: “Netflix’s success is television, not movies on the big screen. Theaters will close, communities will suffer, jobs will be lost.”

The backlash extended beyond Hollywood. Netflix shares plunged more than 3 percent following the announcement, while The Information, influential among tech industry readers, branded the deal an “US$82.7 Billion Blunder” by a management team that “has rarely put a foot wrong.”

Antitrust concerns loom large, with Netflix poised to control an even greater share of an entertainment industry it already dominates.

Bipartisan opposition has emerged in Washington. US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, said the deal “could force you into higher prices, fewer choices over what and how you watch, and may put American workers at risk.”

Before the deal was announced, Republican US Senator Mike Lee said Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery’s streaming assets “should send alarms to antitrust enforcers around the world.”

The deal’s biggest loser could be Warner Bros competitor Paramount Skydance Corp, the Hollywood studio owned by Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people and a close ally of US President Donald Trump. Ellison’s son David runs Paramount and might lobby the White House directly to block the Netflix-Warner Bros merger.

Unlike Netflix’s targeted acquisition, Paramount had sought to buy Warner Bros in its entirety, including cable networks CNN, TNT and TBS, which are being spun off separately.

In a letter to Warner’s board on Thursday, presumably after it surmised the game was lost, Paramount accused Warner Bros Discovery of running an unfair process that favored Netflix.

title: Warner Bros acquisition by Netflix sparks backlash


title: Chemicals plant in Germany bets on biomass

content_text:
Staring at a pile of freshly cut beechwood, forestry manager Johannes Brodowski wonders if he is looking at the future of Germany’s chemicals industry.

A local factory would use Brodowski’s trees and other organic material — instead of climate-harming fossil fuels — to make chemical products used to manufacture items ranging from packaging to car tires and fleece jackets.

“The innovative part of the whole thing is that a new product is getting made,” Brodowski said. “Namely, chemical materials that were originally made from fossil fuels and now can be made from renewable sources.”

Beech trees in a forest near Annarode, Germany, are pictured from the air on Nov. 14. Photo: AFP

Finnish group UPM Biochemicals unveiled its 1.3 billion euro (US$1.51 billion) biorefinery in Germany’s eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt this year, taking a big risk at a difficult time for the sector.

Germany’s traditional chemicals industry has been battered by high energy prices and cheap competition from Asia, with national output now at its lowest level since 1995.

Still, UPM thinks now is the right time to try, and get chemical giants to break with fossil fuels and switch to renewable biomass, in this case wood which grows abundantly in the region.

UPM Biochemicals site manager Harald Dialer holds a jar containing renewable functional fillers and a jar with the end product monoethylene glycol in the Leuna Chemical Complex in Germany on Nov. 14. Photo: AFP

“With local supply chains, we can be competitive and meet the needs of international markets,” UPM site manager Harald Dialer said.

The opportunity is large: About 80 percent of German chemical products rely on imported fossil-based materials, said Paul Muennich of Agora Energiewende, an energy-transition think tank.

UPM has signed a supply contract with the forest-rich state of Saxony-Anhalt, making use of beech tree branches and twigs for chemical processes in its refinery.

As a result, beech wood production in this corner of Saxony-Anhalt could go up by 20-30 percent, Brodowski said.

He said that the plant uses tree branches, which are less commercially viable than trunks and usually incinerated in factories.

The wood is processed at the Leuna Chemical Park, home to more than 100 different firms.

Most of the factories give out the smell of rotten eggs, but inside some areas of the UPM site, a sweeter smell fills the air.

Wood chips are treated until they burst “like popcorn,” turning into a slurry that is fermented in huge metal tanks, UPM spokesman Martin Ledwon said.

At the end of the process, two types of products emerge: liquids used to make clothing or bottles, and a brown powder that can replace carbon black, a powder used as a filler in tires and other rubber products.

The UPM site should reach full capacity by 2027, with annual output of 220,000 tonnes of chemicals.

That would mark a rare bright spot in Germany’s otherwise stagnant chemicals industry — a trend thrown into stark focus in Leuna where the US group Dow Inc is to soon close two plants.

Opening the plant was a “very bold decision,” Dialer said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic had doubled the timeline and the associated costs of the project.

UPM would like to count on help from the German state, highlighting that its project is more ecologically sustainable than oil-guzzling plants that also accelerate climate change.

However, the federal government led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which took power in May, has been less enthusiastic about environmental and climate protection than its predecessors.

When the project was launched in 2020, sustainability was “more at the center of the debate,” Dialer said.

In his view, Germany and the EU should support European industry by imposing quotas on what he says are cheap but often environmentally damaging imports of Chinese chemicals.

Muennich also said that government intervention with subsidies or tariffs would be “necessary to shift from fossil fuel to sustainable biomass.”


title: EDITORIAL: The CPP’s incremental revisionism

people: 習近平 賴清德

content_text:
An article titled “Xi’s New Language on Taiwan Alters the Diplomatic Starting Point” by Ai Ke, a doctoral researcher specializing in cross-strait relations, was published on Monday on news site The Diplomat.

The “new language” refers to the phrase, as it appeared in the official English-language transcription of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) Nov. 24 phone call with US President Donald Trump: “Taiwan’s return [to China] is an integral part of the post-[World] war [II] international order.”

Ai Ke detected a subtle change in the language in referring to Taiwan, not just the use of the phrase “return to China,” but also in contextualizing this as a necessary completion of the post-war international order, which Xi said was important to “jointly safeguard the victory of WWII.”

The author was right to highlight these shifts. They did not mention the preceding phrase, which was equally as telling: Xi reminded Trump that “China and the US fought shoulder-to-shoulder against fascism and militarism.”

The militarism reference was pointed at Japan; Xi wanted to lock the US into the group that defeated Germany and Japan, consolidating the idea that the US, the UK and China — he glossed over the fact that it was Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) forces, not those of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — had fought together and led to Japan’s surrender.

The phone call was not the first time these ideas arose. Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) has been laying the groundwork for Xi for months. It started in August, in the run-up to the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II — and victory over Japan in the Asian theater — and China’s Sept. 3 military parade to mark the occasion.

On Aug. 15, addressing the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Yunnan, China, Wang said that documents such as the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation “clarified” Japan’s culpability for the war and required that the territories it had “stolen, including Taiwan” be “returned” to China.

He said that was “an integral part of the post-war international order.”

In Chinese, as in English, the phrase was word-for-word identical to Xi’s presentation to Trump.

On Wednesday, on the eve of the meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Xi in Beijing, Wang told his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, that as World War II victors, France and China must not allow Japan to “stir up troubles” over Taiwan.

This is all part of a coordinated effort to vilify Japanese, consolidate a shared historical bond and drive a wedge between the US and Japan. The overblown reaction to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Nov. 7 comments that Chinese military action in the Taiwan Strait would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan was just an opportunistic leveraging of rhetoric planned months ago.

A pattern is clear. First, the slow introduction of a concept, together with the cajoling of pro-Beijing governments and of governments along for the ride out of economic necessity, to endorse the CCP’s position. If that does not work, or if the government is resistant to its advances, Beijing proceeds with the distortion of the other party’s position, as it did with the US and India over their respective “one China” policies. The objective is to normalize the concept in international discourse. It is basically incremental revisionism through the back door.

Singapore arguably has legitimate historical reasons to echo the CCP’s rhetoric, but chooses not to.

Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Nov. 19, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) said he hoped that China would move on, as Southeast Asia has done with Japan.

“With the passage of time ... we have put the history aside and we are moving forward... Singapore and all the Southeast Asian countries support Japan playing a bigger role in our region, including on the security front, because we think that that provides for some stability in the region,” Wong said.

The reality is that Japan is consolidating its ability to defend itself. In this region, South Korea is doing the same, as are Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

President William Lai (賴清德) is working to increase the national defense budget. The opposition in the legislature is doing its level best to hobble those efforts. The US and other allies are wondering why Taiwan is dragging its feet. They have a point.


title: We are not experiencing a Cold War

content_text:
I always dispute the assertion that we are living through a new Cold War.

I suggest looking at Italy’s Years of Lead for inspiration instead.

The Years of Lead occurred during the 1970s, which saw a huge rise in politically motivated violence across democracies. Kidnappings, bombings, assassinations, and other crimes almost unheard of before then, such as plane hijackings and hostage crises, became rampant, and on a massive scale.

Most were committed by terrorist groups with far-left ideas, but many were the work of far-right extremists who were opposing them. Some would perform “false flag” operations to pin the blame on their enemies, increasing the tension. Law enforcement agencies and governments often played ambiguous roles, sometimes attempting to manipulate or hide facts rather than outright protecting citizens.

In 1980, a bomb exploded in Bologna train station, killing 85, the deadliest terrorist attack in Italy’s history to date. For decades it was thought to be caused by far-left terrorists, until it was revealed to be the work of neo-fascists. Italy’s own intelligence services were later shown to have concealed information and tried to suppress the investigation, feeding suspicion that state actors were entangled in the violence they claimed to fight. This is a typical Years of Lead story.

The result of such events was a depressing, heavy mood falling over the public. This was the point: a “strategy of tension” in which people would lose hope and confidence in their democratic institutions and societies.

Radio Free Europe reported that Russian sabotage operations in Europe have quadrupled since 2023, with cases of arson some of the most difficult to track down to their state backers. A couple of months ago, a fire at an Ikea store in Lithuania last year was finally linked to Russian military intelligence. The only point in burning down a furniture store is to scare the public. Similar attacks have been conducted in Poland, Germany, France, and beyond, by Russian or Belarusian actors, always on targets with zero military or political value, such as department stores and retailers. Alongside that, there is jamming of GPS signals for civilian airliners: What purpose does it serve beyond undermining the feeling of safety among European citizens?

The Years of Lead was mostly the work of domestic terrorists with little to no input from foreign powers. Although the Stasi or KGB or even NATO organizations (look up Operation Gladio for some fascinating reading about the CIA’s involvement) occasionally had their hand in, the Years of Lead was mostly about domestic criminal organizations such as the Baader-Meinhof Gang in Germany, the Red Brigades in Italy or the Weathermen in the US, rather than foreign agents.

Although many perpetrators, particularly in the US, are still radicalized homegrown actors, foreign powers such as Russia and China are replicating these methods, with direct engagement far greater than the Soviet Union’s involvement.

Political violence and shootings on famous figures, perpetrated by gunmen with weird and blurry ideological backgrounds, are typical of a Years of Lead scenario: You are not even sure what these shooters stand for, but you can feel it is extreme and scary. They choose targets that seem incongruous with their beliefs, and the more you read about it the less you understand what is going on. It is confusing, it is violent, it is chaotic, but that is the point: You are not supposed to understand, you are just supposed to feel alienated and, if not terrified, at least despondent or even outright desperate. Bonus points if you fight with your family about it over a holiday dinner.

For the most part, that tension is created by state actors replicating the means and goals of the Years of Lead with terrifying efficiency. The lead is slowly shot into the bones of society, weighing it down.

Disinformation and smart use of social media play a role, including in radicalizing more violent actors. The endgame is the same: an essentially psychological warfare in which violence is the cynical tool used to rot collective minds, but not an end in itself.

“Gray zone” warfare is not new. We faced it once before, and we should remember. If you really need to look into the past for clues, do not focus on the Cold War. What you are going through are the new Years of Lead.

Julien Oeuillet hosts the weekly program Taiwan vs The World on Radio Taiwan International and is a co-producer of TaiwanTalks on TaiwanPlus.


content_text:
The 62nd Golden Horse Awards — considered a leading festival and awards ceremony for Chinese-language films — was host to a realist drama of its own this year. Chinese actress and once mega-star Fan Bingbing (范冰冰) won the title of best actress for her uncharacteristically gritty role in the Malaysian film Mother Bhumi (地母). It was hailed as a powerful comeback, but across the Taiwan Strait, her win was met with censored silence. The news was absent from Chinese social media, and mainstream media made no mention of it, and Fan’s personal posts were quietly removed.

The gap between material and digital realities here exhibits, once again, the sweeping ability of the Chinese system to engineer collective amnesia, and wipe out the continued existence, career and achievements of those who cross it. Since a 2018 tax evasion scandal involving the star’s suspected use of so-called “yin-and-yang contracts” — dual contracts, one of which states an actor’s real earnings and the other a lower figure to be given to tax authorities — Fan has been locked out of China’s entertainment industry. The same year also saw the beginning of China’s boycott of the awards, which followed a Taiwanese documentary filmmaker’s remarks on Taiwanese independence during her acceptance speech.

Seven years later, the consequences of these divisions are still palpable. Fan is carving a career path outside the Chinese market and proving her worth at one of Chinese-language cinema’s most prestigious award shows. Of even greater significance is that political pressure is driving the creative energy behind Chinese-language filmmaking south. As China fortifies its wall, the split between it and the entire ecosystem of Chinese-language cinema blossoming on the outside grows ever more striking.

Fan’s win represents more than her skills as an actress, but a victory for the wider world of Chinese-language filmmaking as she circumvents the barricades of authoritarianism. In the past, China’s near-monopoly made it virtually the only option for emerging stars. However, with its tightening political grip and multiplying red lines this position has grown increasingly precarious.

Nicknamed Fan Ye (范爺) — a title meaning “Master Fan” that is usually reserved for men — the actress’ decision to star in director Chong Keat-aun’s (張吉安) Mother Bhumi took her deep into the rice fields of Malaysia’s Kedah state. It comes as a striking departure from her past of red carpet glamor; Fan portrays the ruin and resolve of Hong Im, a widowed farmer and ritual healer in a village on the Thai-Malaysian border. Described as unrecognizable in the role, her transformation was also a strategic professional shift. Despite losing a 1.4 billion-strong Chinese audience, Fan has, through returning to the essence of filmmaking and in collaboration with Chong, an artist of true humanistic depth, once again won international acclaim through the Golden Horse Awards.

There is a lesson here for all Chinese artists and creators at the mercy of political constraints: For those condemned to “social death,” there remains recourse for a real comeback through international collaboration and artistic engagement. Fan’s success is a sleek yet forceful answer to China’s political blacklisting.

Amid silence from China after her win, Fan in an Instagram post more than 500 characters long shared with her fans her experience through hardships over the past years and her resolve to continue. Her choice of a social media platform blocked in China and the closing line that “each hurdle is hard, but each will be passed — the rainbow shall come after rain,” are undoubtedly messages to her fans, but also speak to her personal situation. She thanked her Malaysian costars for their warmth, and praised Chong as a kind and inspired director. Her words stood in stark and implicit contrast to the coldness Fan has faced from her home country.

The “rainbow in Kedah’s skies” she closes with is about an artist, after seven years in the dark, finding her place and a haven for her art on foreign soil. China’s censorship system might be able to block information and remove posts, but it alone cannot obstruct the flow of talent — or indeed the reach and resonance of projects they might go on to work on. In fact, Fan’s disappearance and re-emergence only attracted more eyes and even extra weight to this year’s Golden Horse Awards. We are reminded of the power of artistic achievement to overcome political iron curtains and leave a mark on the long arc of history.

Eason Chen is an engineer.

Translated by Gilda Knox Streader

title: Fan Bingbing’s triumph in adversity


content_text:
In Taiwan, information security often only becomes a public issue after disaster strikes — everyone has some memory of someone in their life falling victim to a scam. The government on Thursday ordered Internet service providers to block access to the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu (小紅書, also known as “RedNote” in English) under the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制條例), citing security risks and instances of fraud on the app. This move was not a sudden political gesture, but a reflection of the reality Taiwan has long grown accustomed to — when a platform refuses to engage with the nation’s legal system, user safety is put at risk.

The National Security Bureau’s cybersecurity review showed that Xiaohongshu is not just a social media platform with a few vulnerabilities — it is a data-harvesting engine. It collects all manner of users’ sensitive information — geolocation, contact lists, screenshots, connected devices, facial features and other biometric information — and even quietly sends that data when the app is not running. It failed to meet all 15 of the nation’s cybersecurity standards governing online platforms. This is not just one red light malfunctioning, but an entire stretch of traffic lights going out at once. The government has requested data security improvements, but the platform has yet to respond, signaling that it has already chosen to detach itself from Taiwan’s legal order.

In a short period, scams involving Xiaohongshu in Taiwan have expanded, from fake online shopping to fake investment schemes, from canceling installment payments to fraudulent online dating. In the past year alone, 1,706 cases of fraud have been identified through the app. Loose management and anonymous, untraceable cross-border accounts have turned Xiaohongshu into the preferred platform for scammer groups. The government is not punishing the app for being “too truthful,” but for leaving its moderation and oversight up to sheer luck.

Other major platforms such as Meta platforms, Google, Line and TikTok have legal representatives in Taiwan, and are willing to remove suspicious accounts or provide necessary information when requested. They are not perfect, but they try to comply with Taiwan’s laws.

This ban is not about some political confrontation or an expansion of digital oversight. It stems from a fundamental question — if you want to conduct business in Taiwan, can you choose to disregard its laws?

Critics are questioning why the government banned only Xiaohongshu instead of dealing with other China-based platforms that also pose cybersecurity risks. However, this overlooks the premise that the strength of law enforcement response is based on the degree and severity of harm. Xiaohongshu has seen the largest number of fraud cases in the past two years. The platform refuses to communicate, has no legal representation in Taiwan and has offered no data security improvement plan. Other platforms at least leave the door slightly open, while Xiaohongshu has shut it completely.

When a company treats Taiwan’s regulations as optional, the risks faced by the public become the government’s primary concern, and a ban becomes the government’s fast-acting preventative tool. The ban is not the end goal itself — it is a way to make the platform understand that Taiwan is not some open ground for harvesting personal data.

In a democratic society, freedom does not mean allowing platforms to treat users as resources to be mined at will. Whether a platform deserves trust is not determined by its style and design, but by whether it is willing to respond when regulators seek answers. Xiaohongshu chose silence, and the government was left with no choice but to say “no” on the public’s behalf.

Liu Che-ting is a writer.

Translated by Kyra Gustavsen

title: RedNote app ban is reasonable and needed


content_text:
Apart from the first arms sales approval for Taiwan since US President Donald Trump took office, last month also witnessed another milestone for Taiwan-US relations. Trump signed the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act into law on Tuesday. Its passing without objection in the US Senate underscores how bipartisan US support for Taiwan has evolved.The new law would further help normalize exchanges between Taiwanese and US government officials. We have already seen a flurry of visits to Washington earlier this summer, not only with Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), but also delegations led by National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu

By Rath Wang 王健智

When the towers of Wang Fuk Court turned into a seven-building inferno on Wednesday last week, killing 128 people, including a firefighter, Hong Kong officials promised investigations, pledged to review regulations and within hours issued a plan to replace bamboo scaffolding with steel. It sounded decisive. It was not.The gestures are about political optics, not accountability. The tragedy was not caused by bamboo or by outdated laws. Flame-retardant netting is already required. Under Hong Kong’s Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme — which requires buildings more than 30 years old to undergo inspection every decade and compulsory repairs — the framework for

By John Cheng

title: EDITORIAL CARTOON


content_text:
As the state-supported company attempts to leap ahead, there are lessons it can learn from TSMC and from even further back

It is no exaggeration to say that what Japan’s Rapidus Corp is trying to do requires the same kind of technical precision and government support as the Apollo missions.

The barely three-year-old state-backed venture aims to leapfrog generations of innovation, vaulting straight into mass production of bleeding-edge 2-nanometer logic chips, the most advanced engines of digital devices — a feat so complex and expensive that just a few chipmakers in the world even dare try it. Attempting the impossible, and requiring a mountain of government funding in the process, give skeptics a lot of ammunition.

If Rapidus pulls it off, however, this attempt could rewrite the history of Japan’s tech industry.

Today, the world relies on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which enjoys a virtual monopoly over the world’s most advanced chips. That dominance was not pre-ordained. When founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) reflected on his decision some 15 years ago to go all-in on what was then the cutting edge — 28-nanometer production — he quoted Shakespeare.

“There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,” the now 94-year-old said in a rare interview earlier this year. “I decided that 28-nanometer was going to be our tide.”

It is easy to opine in retrospect, but it was far from a clear bet at the time. The gamble required TSMC to triple its capital spending, a move that Chang said took convincing the board. Competition back then was still fierce and the fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis sowed uncertainty over demand. TSMC’s previous 40-nanometer rollout was beset with yield problems (which refers to how many usable chips come out of production) that threatened ties with one of its most important customers — Nvidia Corp.

It turned out to be one of the defining decisions of TSMC’s existence, launching it to its leadership role in the industry. It coincided with the onset of the smartphone boom and an explosion of demand for ever-smaller chips. For Taiwan, the move unlocked a new era of economic legitimacy, raising its “silicon shield.” Over the years, TSMC cleared the field of many of its rivals.

Japan’s ambitions are on a grander scale, but it faces its own version of that moment. Doing nothing would be easy. Standing still now would risk missing a fleeting opportunity.

The artificial intelligence and data-center boom has intensified global demand for ultra-advanced processors. The pandemic exposed how easily chip shortages can cripple entire industries. And a phone call from a legendary IBM Corp researcher to the now-chairman of Rapidus offered Japan critical knowledge of the making of 2-nanometer chips, giving it a partnership and intellectual jump-start money alone cannot buy.

A sliver of opportunity has opened to rebuild the domestic chip ecosystem it lost decades ago. Geopolitical winds are shifting. The diplomatic firestorm between Japan and China over Taiwan has made the government acutely aware of the risk of depending on a place China claims as its own for the world’s most strategic technology.

Rapidus still faces towering challenges. One of TSMC’s chief advantages is its local supply-chain ecosystem that took decades to build. Japanese firms already make many of the materials required for production, and TSMC’s own expansion in Kumamoto, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, underscores its chip manufacturing appeal. Chang himself framed the move as the start of a “renaissance of semiconductors” in the country at an opening ceremony for the TSMC plant last year, suggesting Rapidus could now jump on this bandwagon. Chang’s admiration dates back to the 1980s, when he visited a Japanese factory while at Texas Instruments Inc and found yields double those of its US plants.

Talent is one of the hardest gaps to close. Over the next decade, Japan is forecast to be short at least 40,000 semiconductor engineers — part of a global crunch that even Taiwan has not escaped. Even here there are lessons from TSMC: It has responded by creating a deep-rooted pipeline on the island, launching 57 semiconductor programs across 17 local universities, according to SemiAnalysis. Rapidus’ partnership with Hokkaido University is a start, but much more needs to be done.

Equally critical for Rapidus’ success is winning over the public. TSMC’s ascent in making the world’s most-advanced chips has become a point of national pride in Taiwan, and many believe, a deterrent against the threat of Chinese expansionism. Citizens and armies of retail investors are cheering for its success. For Rapidus to endure the public scrutiny that accompanies such vast government funding, Tokyo needs to articulate, bluntly and repeatedly, the national security stakes. Making tiny pieces of silicon might not be as glamorous as putting a man on the moon, but the geopolitical payoff is just as real. The more Tokyo can drive home the geopolitical glory of restoring chip manufacturing at home, the more likely it would drive support.

The tide is rising — whether Japan rides it or is swept aside is going to define its technological future for decades. In semiconductor production as in Shakespeare, timing is everything.

Catherine Thorbecke is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia tech. Previously she was a tech reporter at CNN and ABC News. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

title: What TSMC and Shakespeare  can teach Rapidus