people: 蕭美琴 賴清德

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ARIZONA EXCHANGES: The delegation is to celebrate the inaugural flights between Taipei and Phoenix, as well as meet with President Lai and city governments

Visiting Mayor of Phoenix Kate Gallego on Wednesday highlighted advanced air mobility, aviation and sports as key areas for expanded cooperation during a meeting with President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei.

"The city of Phoenix wants to be a leader in advanced air mobility," Gallego said, noting that Phoenix is the first major U.S. city to implement drone package delivery. Given Taiwan’s strengths in the field, she said, "we hope to have additional collaboration."

Although semiconductor cooperation between Taiwan and Arizona has drawn the most attention -- particularly Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s (TSMC) pledged US$165 billion investment in Phoenix -- Gallego said the two sides have a much longer history of cooperation in aerospace, including training military and commercial pilots for Taiwan.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, left, meets with President William Lai, right, at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA

"Arizona and Phoenix are very sunny. We have wonderful conditions for aviation," Gallego said, adding that the city hopes to "build on that aerospace collaboration."

She also pointed to people-to-people exchanges, citing a friendly youth baseball game held Sunday between the Phoenix Arcadia U12 team, part of her delegation, and a youth team from Tainan.

"We do report that the young men of Tainan beat the young men of Phoenix by a wide margin," Gallego said.

"Our Arizona Diamondbacks are already recruiting and have talent from Taiwan in their community, and we will tell them to look at the young baseball players in Tainan," she added.

According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gallego is also scheduled to meet Vice President Hsiao Bi- khim (蕭美琴), representatives from Taiwan’s high- technology sector, and officials from the Taipei and Tainan city governments to discuss cooperation in technology and trade.

Thanking Gallego for her third visit to Taiwan since taking office in 2019, Lai praised her for taking "concrete actions" to deepen bilateral ties.

He also thanked her administration and the Phoenix City Council for creating a business-friendly environment that has enabled Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers to establish operations and helped Phoenix emerge as a strategically important global technology hub.

He expressed hope that a bilateral agreement to avoid double taxation can be signed as soon as possible. Such an agreement, Lai said, would help companies such as TSMC establish a long-term presence in the United States while also creating high-paying jobs for local communities.

title: Phoenix mayor pledges deeper ties during visit


title: Tsai Yi-yu wins DPP poll for Chiayi County nominee

people: 王育敏 陳亭妃 蔡易餘 賴瑞隆 林俊憲

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Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) is set to be nominated by his party as its candidate for Chiayi County commissioner after securing a decisive victory in the party’s primary.

In the primary, determined by opinion polls conducted by three polling firms on Tuesday night, Tsai performed far better against the likely Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate, Legislator Wang Yu-min (王育敏), than the other candidate vying for the DPP nomination, Chiayi County Councilor Huang Jung-li (黃榮利).

Both Tsai and Huang easily beat Wang in the polls, but Tsai won by a much bigger margin.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Yi-yu, second right, celebrates after learning the primary result at his office in Chiayi yesterday. Photo: Wang Shang-yen, Taipei Times

He garnered 64.8 percent support against Wang’s 14.2 percent, while Huang received 38.1 percent compared with Wang’s 16.3 percent.

The polls, conducted on Tuesday from 6pm to 10:30pm over landlines, garnered a combined 1,200 valid samples.

Tsai is expected to be formally nominated by the DPP at its Central Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday next week.

Meanwhile, the DPP conducted polls for its Tainan mayoral primary last night, in which DPP legislators Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) and Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) are vying to represent the party in the mayoral race in the traditional DPP stronghold.

The result of the Tainan poll is to be announced at 10am today.

Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) won the DPP’s Kaohsiung mayoral primary on Tuesday, defeating three other candidates, all of them lawmakers representing constituencies in the city.

The DPP employs a hybrid system for picking mayoral and commissioner nominees, sometimes having the party directly select a candidate and sometimes holding primaries using telephone polling.

In the run-up to Taiwan’s local elections in November, the DPP has opted to internally select most of its candidates for KMT-held or KMT-leaning municipalities, including in New Taipei City, Miaoli County, Taichung and Keelung.

It has organized primaries in races where an incumbent DPP mayor or commissioner is leaving office, such as in Chiayi County.

The next local elections to choose city and county leaders are to be held on Nov. 28.


title: TPP to propose ‘revised’ special defense budget

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MIXED MESSAGES: Huang said that Taiwan needs to strengthen its defense, but he has blocked review of the defense bill and said his opposition to it had increased

The opposition Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) would propose a revised special defense budget bill, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday, following his return from meetings with US government officials in Washington.

Speaking at the TPP headquarters after returning to Taiwan yesterday morning, Huang said he met with US trade, defense and state department officials during a whirlwind visit to the US capital on Monday.

He did not mention the names of the US officials he met, and said that the American Institute in Taiwan asked him not to disclose the content of their meetings.

Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang, second right, speaks at a news conference at the party’s headquarters in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times

The TPP delegation has expressed its reservations about the government’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.52 billion) special defense budget, including the “lack of clarity” about how the money would be spent, Huang said.

Huang was referring to the special defense budget proposed by the Cabinet on Nov. 27 last year to fund weapons procurement and joint development programs with the US from this year to 2033.

A special budget is funding outside of the central government’s general budget (which already includes defense spending) that is financed by issuing debt.

Huang said he told US officials that the legislature of a democratic country like Taiwan could not accept reviewing a budget with unclear or unknown spending items, and that the US “understood and agreed with” his concerns.

A “relatively high proportion” of the proposed budget’s NT$1.25 trillion would not be allotted to US arms purchases, Huang said, without elaborating.

To date, the TPP and the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have teamed up six times to block review of the bill in the legislature.

Asked by reporters if his position on the budget had changed after visiting the US, Huang said his opposition to the bill had in fact become stronger.

“Taiwan needs to strengthen its defense, but the budget can’t be wasted or treated like spoils in the eyes of arms dealers or middlemen,” he said.

The TPP would wait to hear a closed legislative committee briefing on the special budget next week by the Ministry of National Defense, after which it would propose its own version of the bill, Huang said.

Asked if the TPP budget would be smaller than the government’s and if it had received backing from the US, Huang said it did not require consent from the US, as Taiwan and the US each have their own respective positions.

As for the size of the TPP’s budget proposal, Huang said it was too early to say, as it would be based on information from the ministry’s report on the budget next week.

Meanwhile, the New York Times on Monday reported that the US and Taiwan are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent, which prompted speculation on whether Huang would discuss the tariff issue during his US trip.

Huang said the TPP delegation visited the Office of the US Trade Representative, but he only found out that negotiations regarding the tariff had basically been settled before his arrival.

“We were also quite shocked,” he said about when he realized that the terms had been decided.


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In the event of a cross-Taiwan Strait crisis, China would likely wage an information operation in Japan to make people question why they should “risk their lives for Taiwan,” a Japanese international relations expert said.

Satoru Mori, deputy director of the Keio Center for Strategy at Keio University, made the comments on Monday during a forum on the US-Japan Alliance hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It’s going to be a pretty potent strategic communication tactic that the Chinese would likely use,” and since Japan is a parliamentary democracy, any loss of public opinion could lead to a change of government, Mori said.

A Japanese student holds the national flags of Japan and Taiwan at Haneda International Airport in Japan on July 19, 2021. Photo: Yang Ming-chu, Taipei Times

Any such reversal would be a “nightmare scenario” for the Japan-US alliance, as the US would no longer be able to wage effective military operations to defend Taiwan, Mori said.

Seeing Japan opt out of such an effort could also cause Taiwan to “lose faith” and undermine its will to fight, Mori said, adding that China would thus be able to “kill three birds with one stone” by going after Japanese public opinion.

To avoid such a situation, efforts should be taken during peacetime to convince the Japanese public that Taiwan matters very much for Japan’s security, thereby building public resolve to withstand such information operations in the event of a crisis, Mori said.

Motohiro Tsuchiya, a professor at Keio University’s Graduate School of Media and Governance, said it is instructive to look at Taiwan’s elections — including the upcoming local elections in November — to understand how such information operations are waged.

“From my experiences in Taiwan, there are a lot of interference interventions,” although it is not always clear if they are coming from China, from actors within Taiwan, or from other countries, he said.

In some cases, these messages could be easily identified, such as those using simplified Chinese characters, but they could still sway people’s mindset due to their huge volume, Tsuchiya said.

To date, Japan has not faced extensive interference in its elections, Tsuchiya said, adding that that could change if Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi — who has taken a strong stance in support of Taiwan — decides to call elections next month.

According to Reuters, Japanese media reported that Takaichi is considering dissolving the lower house next week and calling snap elections for Feb. 8 to capitalize on her high approval ratings and stabilize her coalition.

title: Beijing would try to sway Japan on Taiwan: expert


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ROCK AND SOIL: The National Land Management Agency is planning to expand the number of final disposal sites and install temporary storage facilities nationwide

The National Land Management Agency yesterday proposed solutions to speed up the removal of excess soil and rock from constructions sites, after a new policy governing the management of vehicles for removing excavated material triggered criticism from the construction industry.

The new policy, which took effect on Jan. 1, stipulates that GPS must be installed in machinery and vehicles to avert environmental degradation resulting from improper disposal of excavated soil and rock.

However, construction firms claimed that they were forced to suspend work, as their progress in removing excess soil and rock was hampered by a shortage of disposal sites.

National Land Management Agency officials hold a news conference at the agency’s office in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times

About 4,260 vehicles have installed GPS, agency data showed.

The agency said that it is considering giving construction firms a grace period until the end of next month to change a Ministry of Environment GPS to that of the National Land Management Agency.

As of last month, the nation recorded about 36.86 million cubic meters of construction waste, of which 12.31 million cubic meters can be reused, agency data showed.

About 24.55 million cubic meters of soil and rock were delivered to storage and treatment facilities.

In addition, 69.14 million cubic meters of soil waste were sent to processing facilities, where it was mixed with other types of construction waste.

The agency yesterday hosted a news conference, in which it proposed to expand the number of final disposal sites and install temporary storage facilities nationwide.

The final disposal site from construction sites in Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu County would be at the Port of Taipei, which can store 30 million cubic meters, the agency said.

The port would only accept soil and rock from public construction projects, legal storage and treatment facilities, privately funded projects serving the public interest and those producing at least 50,000m3 of soil, it said.

The Taipei and New Taipei City governments are also planning to lease properties from the port to sort construction waste from urban development projects.

Temporary soil and rock storage and processing facilities in central Taiwan would be at the Port of Taichung and Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, the agency said.

The former, which can accommodate 2 million cubic meters of soil and rock, would be operational by the end of this year, while the latter would be able to accommodate 1 million cubic meters after an environmental impact assessment is complete.

Temporary disposal facilities for Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung would be in the zone designated for the South Star project in Kaohsiung and at the Port of Kaohsiung, which can accommodate approximately 7 million and 36.15 million cubic meters respectively, the agency said.

The former has begun to accept rock and soil, while the latter is scheduled to become operational by 2029, the agency said.

“Discussions about the policy began in 2024 and all construction firms were told in August last year that the new policy would be implemented as planned. However, most of the construction firms waited until last month to have GPS installed, which takes no more than three days to complete,” National Land Management Agency Director-General Wu Hsin-hsiu (吳欣修) said.

Wu said that it would take time for construction firms to change how they handle waste, which must be sorted at treatment facilities before being shipped to disposal sites.

Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said that the central government is working with local government officials to set up more temporary storage facilities.

“We have identified sites with a total capacity of up to 150 million cubic meters,” Peng said.

National Federation of Real Estate and Construction Developers chairman Yang Yu-chuan (楊玉全) said that the government’s efforts have helped construction firms save time and money in processing excavated rock and soil.

While it is crucial for the Ministry of the Interior to increase the number of disposal sites, the government must also establish clear regulations that allow privately funded construction projects to trade reusable rock and soil, he said.

title: Construction waste solutions proposed


title: Tropical storm forming, cold air mass expected

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BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan

A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week.

CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today.

The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan, Cheng said.

From today through Sunday, daytime temperatures are forecast to rise above 22°C nationwide, reaching 26°C to 28°C in central and southern Taiwan. Nighttime and early morning temperatures would range from 12°C to 16°C in northern and central Taiwan, and Yilan County, 15°C to 17°C in southern Taiwan, and 17°C to 19°C in Hualien and Taitung counties, he said.

Despite sunny to partly cloudy days, temperatures in early mornings and evenings would remain low due to radiational cooling, with scattered showers in Taitung and the Hengchun Peninsula, he said, adding that fog and low clouds might affect visibility south of Taoyuan.

Rainfall is forecast to increase on windward sides from tomorrow to Sunday, especially along the north coast, in mountainous areas of Taipei, eastern Taiwan and the Hengchun Peninsula, Cheng said.

Coastal areas in Hualien and Taitung counties, Orchid Island (Lanyu) and Green Island might also experience large waves tomorrow and Saturday, he said.

Starting on Monday next week, the northeast monsoon would lower early morning and nighttime temperatures in western Taiwan and Yilan County to 14°C to 17°C, and to about 18°C in Hualien and Taitung counties, Cheng said.

On Tuesday, a strong continental cold air mass would move south, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan and Yilan County, while southern Taiwan would experience cool mornings and evenings.

From Wednesday onward, mornings and evenings would be chilly nationwide, with northern Taiwan and Yilan County being cold throughout the day, Cheng said.

From Monday to Wednesday next week, rainfall on windward sides would become more pronounced, with high chances of rain on the north coast, mountainous areas of Taipei and Yilan County.

There might be regional showers north of Taoyuan, while Hualien and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula would experience scattered showers, Cheng said, adding that other areas would remain partly cloudy or sunny.


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Parents’ groups yesterday urged that the debate over a proposed amendment to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) consider the need for greater disclosure to patients of potential health risks associated with assisted reproduction.

“Before any amendments are made, stakeholders should disclose impact assessment reports and clarify whether any related risks have been overlooked,” Action Alliance on Basic Education chairman Wang Han-yang (王瀚陽) said at a news conference in Taipei.

Wang said the three parents’ groups at the news conference were not against the proposed amendment, which would grant single women and married female couples access to assisted reproductive technology.

Members of parents’ groups hold placards at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA

However, assisted reproductive technology-related health risks have not been fully addressed in public hearings or legislative deliberations related to the proposed amendment, he said.

Article 12 of the Assisted Reproduction Act currently stipulates that a medical institution must explain “any possible complications or hazards” of assisted reproduction to the recipient couple, without clearly spelling out what information must be disclosed.

Wang said that the “possible complications or hazards” cited in Article 12 mainly focus on risks to the woman during pregnancy rather than the potential health risks for the child.

Those child-related risks, including preterm and underweight births, should be clearly included in the informed consent form signed by both parties, and medical institutions should be required to ensure that applicants fully understand the information, he said.

He called for those specific disclosure requirements to be written into the law.

To push for such changes, Wang said parents’ groups reached out to lawmakers and the Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday, and planned to hold meetings to press their case.

Among the risks is that babies conceived through assisted reproductive technology have a prematurity rate (defined as delivery before 37 weeks of pregnancy) of 26.4 percent, Health Promotion Administration 2023 data showed, Wang said.

The 26.4 percent rate was about 2.4 times the national average, he said.

Also, the low birth weight rate, defined as weighing less than 2.5kg at birth, was 25.7 percent among assisted reproductive technology births, about 2.3 times the national average, he added.

In a prerecorded video, neonatologist Cheng Yi (鄭弋) said preterm infants conceived through assisted reproduction tend to have poorer lung function because their lungs are not fully developed, and that the gap with full-term infants could persist into adulthood.

Low birth weight babies are 2.5 times more likely to develop diabetes later in life than those born at a normal weight, Cheng said.

“We can help them survive and grow up, but the problem is their health might still not be good,” Cheng added.

Wang said preterm birth and low birth weight are also “major risk factors” for developmental delays, and that children with these issues often need long-term medical rehabilitation and special education support.

He said that if the proposed amendment led to a surge in newborns at high risk of health complications, the already strained National Health Insurance system and special education services could be pushed to the brink.

title: Assisted reproduction health risks highlighted


title: Women’s group argues against surrogacy legalization

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The Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation on Monday argued against the legalization of surrogacy, saying that the procedure “treats women’s wombs as tools.”

The foundation on social media said that “wombs should not be treated as tools or commodities for producing children for others,” and that it was necessary to “safeguard women’s reproductive autonomy and bodily autonomy.”

Surrogacy would introduce risks of physical and psychological harm, it said.

A pregnant woman is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo: Taipei Times

“The Artificial Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) and surrogacy fall under different policy domains,” the foundation said.

Single women and married female couples should have access to assisted reproductive technologies to ensure a woman’s right to bear and raise her own biological children, it said.

The Executive Yuan last month proposed amendments to the act, which includes granting married female couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services.

However, the Taiwan People’s Party also proposed an amendment that would legalize surrogacy in addition to assisted reproductive treatment for married female couples and single women.

The foundation said assisted reproductive technologies are different from surrogacy, which could lead to the exploitation of women, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“Pregnancy involves risks related to prenatal care and childbirth, as well as emotional attachment to the child, all of which can have significant impacts on women’s physical and mental health, and could even affect the fetus,” it said.

Those concerns involve not only the human rights of women and children, but also health, legal and other broader issues, and therefore should not be addressed through amendments to the Artificial Reproduction Act, the foundation said.

The most common assisted reproductive techniques used in surrogacy are artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization, it said.

“However, regardless of whether artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization is used, both involve renting or borrowing another woman’s womb, effectively treating it as a reproductive tool and giving rise to concerns about commodification,” the foundation said.

Even with the most comprehensive legal safeguards — such as screening requirements to ensure surrogate mothers have sound mental health and adequate family support — it would still be impossible to prevent women from being coerced into surrogacy, it said.

“Women facing economic hardship or at a social disadvantage might choose surrogacy as a means of increasing their income,” the foundation said. “While such choices might appear to be made freely, the power imbalances between the commissioning parties and surrogate mothers often result in the latter’s autonomy being overlooked.”


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By Huang Ching-yi and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Nuclear reactors last year made up 9 percent of the world’s commercial electricity, marking nuclear power’s lowest share of the global energy structure in 40 years, an environmental group said yesterday.

Green Citizens’ Action Alliance and partnered environmental groups made the remarks at a news conference in Taipei, citing The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2025.

The study suggests that renewables remain the key to effecting the energy transition needed to deal with the challenge posed by climate change, said the group, which has been authorized by the document’s authors to publish its Chinese-language translation.

Green Citizens’ Action Alliance secretary-general Tsui Shu-hsin, left, with civic group members and academics, speaks at a news conference about nuclear energy in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA

Nuclear energy’s decline in significance came despite accomplishing a record 2.9 percent growth in raw output, the highest in the technology’s history, alliance researcher Chen Shih-ting (陳詩婷) said.

Nuclear power’s share of global energy structure last year represented a 45 percent plummet from its peak of 17.5 percent in 1996, she said, adding that wind and solar energy would overtake nuclear power five years after that.

The world is expected to decommission 243 nuclear reactors by 2050, reducing nuclear energy output by 203 gigawatts, counting possible delays, Chen said.

Chen Bing-huei (陳炳輝), professor of mechanical engineering at National Taiwan University, said that totalitarian regimes are responsible for 58 of the 63 planned nuclear power plants being built globally.

Most of the reactors are commissioned by China, which still invests a higher amount in solar energy, he said.

Even the most optimistic projections showed that small modular reactors would not account for more than 5 percent of global nuclear energy generation by 2050, Taiwan Climate Action Network Research Center director Chao Chia-wei (趙家緯) said.

Such reactors require significantly higher costs, and create two to 30 times more radioactive waste compared with current-generation nuclear reactors, exacerbating nuclear energy’s problems, he said.

Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology associate research fellow Paul Jobin said that Taiwan’s growing dependence on natural gas and stalling the development of renewables underscored the nation’s “gas poisoning.”

title: Nuclear provides only 9% of global electricity


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A forest fire that broke out in Yunlin County’s Gukeng Township (古坑) early on Monday has been brought under control, but continued to burn sporadically yesterday as firefighting teams struggled with the area’s harsh terrain and lack of water.

The Yunlin County Fire Department yesterday said that the burned area had not expanded beyond an estimated 8 hectares of woodland as of Tuesday afternoon, after putting the damage at 5 hectares earlier on Tuesday.

However, small blazes were still being detected yesterday below a high-altitude wooden skywalk within a restricted area, and open flames were also reported in bamboo groves above the mountainous area’s Shoutian Temple.

A firefighter helps put out a forest fire in Yunlin County yesterday. Photo courtesy of reader Chen Jung-pin

Firefighting operations continued during the day, with ground crews divided into two teams to contain and monitor the fire in forested areas and near the temple.

As of about 8am, air crews had completed three additional water-dropping runs, the department said.

The fire began early on Monday morning in mountainous forestland behind Shibi Hotel (also known as Rocky Hotel) in Caoling Village (草嶺), but the cause of the fire has yet to be determined and remains under investigation, the department said.

Firefighting operations have been hampered by the lack of nearby water sources and the area’s steep, rugged terrain, which has forced firefighters to hike to the site on foot and complicated containment efforts, officials said.

Firefighters, volunteer fire brigades and Caoling residents on Tuesday joined forces at the scene, and helicopters carried out 13 water drops, helping to eventually bring the fire under control, the department said.

Meanwhile, amid concerns about the risk of landslides that threaten residents, the Yunlin County Agricultural Department said it would begin forest restoration efforts once the safety alert had been lifted.

title: Forest fire in Yunlin County now under control: department


title: Additional THSRC trains to run at Lunar New Year

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Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) yesterday said it would operate 395 additional train services during this year’s Lunar New Year transportation period, with tickets going on sale at midnight tomorrow.

The Lunar New Year holiday this year runs from Feb. 14 to Feb. 22, while the expanded service schedule would cover 11 days from Feb. 13 to Feb. 23 to accommodate expected heavy passenger demand, the company said.

The additional services would bring the total number of trains operating during the period to 2,162. Of the extra services, 170 would run southbound and 225 northbound, THSRC said.

A high-speed rail train enters Taichung High Speed Rail Station in an undated photograph. Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times

During the peak travel period, each train would be equipped with two to nine non-reserved seating cars to boost capacity and provide greater flexibility for passengers.

Tickets would be available for purchase from tomorrow via the T-EX mobile app, THSRC’s online booking system, ticketing services at partner convenience stores, station ticket counters and automated ticket machines.

Tickets for the entire Lunar New Year transportation period could be booked in a single transaction, the company said.

To encourage off-peak travel, THSRC said it would continue to offer early-bird discounts during the holiday period.

A total of 617 designated off-peak services would offer limited early-bird fares with 50 percent, 20 percent or 10 percent discounts, providing more than 84,000 discounted seats over the 11-day period, the company added.


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Kimlan Reimagines Classic Taiwanese Cuisine with Soy Paste, Bringing ’Taiwanese Flavors’ to the Global Stage

Taiwan’s culinary culture possesses a profound heritage, and how to present local flavors in a more international context has become a major focal point for the food and beverage industry in recent years. As Kimlan Foods approaches its centennial milestone, the company has launched its first-ever partnership with a Bib Gourmand chef. By utilizing the “national staple” seasoning—Kimlan Soy Paste—as the soul of contemporary gastronomy, they are reimagining classic Taiwanese dishes to introduce the world to the island’s unique culinary culture and iconic sauces.

Min Chung, Chairman of Kimlan Foods, stated: “Soy paste represents the very essence of Taiwanese culinary culture. Its unique savory-sweet profile carries the collective taste memories of the Taiwanese people. We hope Kimlan Soy Paste remains a daily staple in Taiwanese households, but beyond that, we aim to collaborate with more culinary brands and chefs to promote ‘Taiwanese Flavor Diplomacy,’ bringing our local tastes onto the global stage.”

Kimlan Soy Paste is widely regarded as Taiwan’s most iconic soy paste product. For nearly a century, it has connected the daily dining habits of generations, serving as a microcosm of Taiwanese food culture. From humble home cooking to grand banquets, it is not only a key element in shaping flavor but also a symbol of the inclusiveness and innovative spirit of Taiwanese cuisine. It preserves tradition while seamlessly integrating with diverse ingredients and modern techniques to showcase the multifaceted charm of “Taiwanese flavor.”

Kimlan Foods chairman Min Chung, right, and chef Craig Yang of Tableau by Craig Yang collaborate on reimagining classic Taiwanese cuisine.

In this collaboration, Kimlan partnered with Chef Craig Yang—the third-generation descendant of a legendary Ban-toh (traditional banquet) family. Under Yang’s expert interpretation, Kimlan Soy Paste is no longer just a condiment; it is the flavor cornerstone of his signature dish: Honey-Glazed Black Pork Ribs. This dish, which carries the chef’s own family memories and Lunar New Year traditions, gains an even more profound symbolic connection to Taiwan through the inclusion of Kimlan Soy Paste.

Chef Craig Yang capitalized on the natural viscosity and sheen of Kimlan Soy Paste, utilizing its superior adhesion to ensure the sauce evenly coats the meat, creating a polished and delicate presentation. Its characteristic sweet finish and balanced salinity further elevate the dish’s complexity. Yang noted that the recipe harmonizes elements representing Taiwan (Kimlan Soy Paste), Japan (dried bonito), and the West (sherry vinegar). By leveraging the versatile and inclusive profile of the soy paste, he successfully balanced these international elements—a tangible expression of the idea that “deliciousness knows no borders.”

To allow more diners to experience the magic of Kimlan Soy Paste in classic Taiwanese cuisine, the reinterpreted Honey-Glazed Black Pork Ribs will be available for a limited time as part of a set menu at Tableau by Craig Yang from now through the end of March. We invite gourmands to experience this feast where a classic staple meets the “New Taiwanese Flavor.”

Kimlan Soy Paste contains glutinous rice, which imparts a natural viscosity that allows the sauce to coat the ingredients perfectly, showcasing a refined texture while elevating the layers of flavor.


content_text: People walk pass bald cypress trees in Dahu Park in Taipei’s Neihu District yesterday. The leaves have turned red and orange due to low temperatures brought by cold fronts. Many people took advantage of yesterday’s good weather to take pictures of the trees at the park.

title: Out for a stroll


content_text: Young Taiwan Power Co employees climb up 9m utility poles to compete in line fixing operations during power outage simulations in the company’s annual skills competition at its Kaohsiung Training Center yesterday.

title: Power climbers


content_text: Two women in traditional clothing hold promotional posters while standing behind a table full of Lunar New Year dishes at Taipei’s Nanmen Market yesterday. The traditional market is famous for ready-to-eat dishes and seasonal treats for the Lunar New Year, and it announced its holiday discounts and dishes at a news conference yesterday.

title: New year nibbles


title: Chinese customs restrict Nvidia chips

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‘BASICALLY A BAN’: Sources said the wording governing H200 imports from officials was severe, but added that the regulations might change if the situation evolves

Chinese customs authorities told customs agents this week that Nvidia Corp’s H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips are not permitted to enter China, three people briefed on the matter said.

Chinese government officials also summoned domestic technology companies to meetings on Tuesday, at which they were explicitly instructed not to purchase the chips unless necessary, two of the people and a third source said.

“The wording from the officials is so severe that it is basically a ban for now, though this might change in the future should things evolve,” one of the people said.

An NVIDIA logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. Photo: Reuters

The H200, Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chip, is one of the biggest flashpoints in US-China relations.

Although there is demand from Chinese firms, it remains unclear whether Beijing wants to ban it outright so that domestic chip companies can flourish or is still chewing over restrictions, or whether these measures could be used as a bargaining tactic in talks with Washington.

US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday gave a formal green light to China-bound sales of the Nvidia chips with conditions, despite concerns among many China hawks in Washington that the chips could supercharge the Chinese military and erode the US’ advantage in AI.

According to the regulations, the chips would be reviewed by a third-party testing lab to confirm their technical AI capabilities before they can be shipped to China, which cannot receive more than 50 percent of the total amount of chips sold to US-based customers.

Nvidia would need to certify that there are enough H200s in the US, while Chinese customers must demonstrate “sufficient security procedures” and cannot use the chips for military purposes.

Those conditions had not been established previously.

The Information news Web site on Tuesday reported that the Chinese government this week told some tech companies that it would only approve their H200 purchases under special circumstances, such as for research and development (R&D) conducted in partnerships at universities.

Exemptions are being discussed for R&D purposes and universities, one of the sources said.

While Chinese chipmakers have developed AI processors like Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) Ascend 910C, the H200 is considered far more efficient for the large-scale training of advanced AI models.

Chinese technology companies have placed orders for more than 3 million H200 chips priced at about US$27,000 each, far exceeding Nvidia’s inventory of 700,000 chips, sources said last month.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said the firm was ramping up production of H200 chips amid robust demand that was driving up the price to rent the H200 chips sitting in cloud computing data centers.


title: Gallant annual profit reaches 19-year high

content_text:
STRONG SALES: The company said that revenue growth momentum would remain strong this year and next year as major customers continue to buy new equipment

Semiconductor equipment supplier Gallant Precision Machining Co (均豪) yesterday reported its best annual profit in 19 years last year, as booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand boosted sales of its advanced packaging equipment.

Net profit surged about 40 percent to NT$415 million (US$13.12 million), compared with NT$297 million in 2024, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Earnings per share rose to NT$2.58 from NT$1.82.

The signages of Gallant Precision Machining Co and Gallant Micro Machining Co are pictured at a booth at a semiconductor trade show in Taipei on Aug. 19 last year. Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times

Revenue grew 5.18 percent annually to NT$4.67 billion from NT$4.44 billion in 2024.

Gallant Precision said revenue growth momentum would remain strong this year and next year as major customers continue to spend heavily on new equipment to boost chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging capacity amid strong AI chip demand.

In addition, accelerating development of new AI chips among major chipmakers is expected to help boost demand for semiconductor components and equipment, Gallant Precision said.

CoWoS technology is mostly used to package AI chips for Nvidia Corp, the company told investors in November last year.

Gallant Micro Machining Co (均華), Gallant Precision’s 58 percent-held subsidiary, specializes in supplying chip sorters and die bonders for advanced packaging technologies such as CoWoS, it said.

Gallant Precision supplies strip grinders and automated optical inspection (AOI) equipment and services for the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), and major chip packaging and testing service providers led by ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控).

In addition, the company supplies chemical-mechanical polishing and cleaning equipment, and AOI equipment and services for reclaimed-wafer companies.

The company remains positive over the mid-to-longer term, as one of its key customers aims to increase local component supply to 30 percent of its total by 2030, up from 10 percent, Gallant Precision said.

It is also mulling overseas deployment, especially in the US, Japan and Germany, following the lead of its key customer, it said.

Semiconductor equipment made up about half of Gallant Precision’s revenue in the third quarter of last year.

The company redirected its resources to semiconductor equipment manufacturing from flat-panel equipment in 2023.

The strategic change helped improve the company’s gross margin to 35.9 percent in the third quarter last year, from 25.2 percent in 2023, it said.


content_text:
Taiwan’s swelling ranks of wealthy people are reshaping how capital is deployed, with overseas investments shifting from optional diversification tools to a core pillar of long-term wealth strategy, a study released yesterday by CTBC Commercial Bank Co (中信銀行) showed.

Total personal wealth in Taiwan is projected to grow at an average annual rate of about 6 percent from last year through 2029, reaching about NT$279 trillion (US$8.82 trillion), CTBC Bank senior vice president John Yang (楊子宏) told a news conference in Taipei.

The expansion reflects Taiwan’s deepening role in the global technology supply chain, which has bolstered corporate earnings, equity valuations and private wealth, Yang said.

From left, CTBC Commercial Bank Co senior vice president John Yang, wealth management head Suei Jung-hsin, retail banking head Amy Yang, president Tony Yang, Boston Consulting Group managing director David Chan and partner Sharon Weng pose for a photograph in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA

“Succession sits atop the list of concerns among high-net-worth individuals, both young and old,” Yang said.

Assets held by high-net-worth individuals — defined as those with at least NT$100 million — are expected to increase even faster, rising at a pace of about 10 percent per year to NT$59 trillion by 2029, said the study, which is conducted every two years.

The divergence signals a rapid concentration of wealth among the richest households, said Sharon Weng (翁詩涵), a partner at Boston Consulting Group, which conducted the study.

The number of high-net-worth individuals is forecast to climb from an estimated 123,000 last year to 155,000 by 2029, the study showed.

Within that group, ultra-high-net-worth individuals — those with more than NT$1 billion in personal assets — are set to increase to 11,000 from 8,000, far outpacing growth in the broader market, it showed.

As fortunes scale up, offshore investment has evolved from a risk-hedging tool into a structural foundation supporting family assets, operating businesses and intergenerational succession, the study showed.

About 74 percent of high-net-worth individuals hold overseas assets, while an additional 14 percent plan to invest abroad, it showed.

Among ultra-high-net-worth families, the proportion rises to 86 percent, underscoring cross-border deployment as a central feature of wealth planning, Weng said.

Geographically, wealthy people in Taiwan are becoming more selective, she said.

Singapore and Japan have emerged as favored destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, while exposure to US assets continues to rise, she said.

Holdings in Hong Kong and Macau have stabilized after earlier pullbacks, as investors adopt a wait-and-see stance, while allocations to mainland China remain broadly cautious, Weng said.

The shift reflects a growing emphasis on resilience and risk control as families navigate geopolitical tensions, regulatory uncertainty and market volatility, she said.

The survey also points to a generational divide, she said.

First-generation wealth creators, typically aged 55 to 74, prioritize capital preservation, liquidity and structural stability, favoring lower-volatility instruments, she said.

Second and third-generation family members, primarily aged 35 to 54, are demonstrating a stronger appetite for growth-oriented and globally diversified assets, including cryptocurrency, while also showing greater involvement in education, family values and governance, she added.

title: Taiwan Total Personal Wealth to grow annual 6% through 2029


content_text:
Leadtek Research Inc (麗臺), a distributor of graphics cards, artificial intelligence (AI) workstations and AI servers, yesterday said that it expects revenue this quarter to decline from last quarter due to a seasonal slowdown before rebounding in the second quarter.

The company’s revenue last quarter fell 43 percent year-on-year to NT$927.97 million (US$29.34 million), but full-year revenue last year rose 3.78 percent annually to NT$4.45 billion, company data showed.

The first quarter is a low season for the electronics industry, as the Lunar New Year holiday results in fewer working days.

The Leadtek Research Inc logo is pictured at a computer trade show in Taipei in an undated photograph. Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times

Leadtek’s first-quarter revenue over the past three years ranged from NT$774.09 million to NT$939.82 million, company data showed.

Revenue is expected to rebound in the second quarter, thanks to stabilized supply of Nvidia Corp’s RTX 50-series and RTX PRO 6000 graphics cards, a Leadtek source said by telephone.

Contributions from Nvidia’s AI workstations and servers are expected to continue growing this year and the company expects further revenue growth if China fully opens to Nvidia’s advanced H200 AI processors, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

China accounts for less than 80 percent of Leadtek’s total revenue, the source said, adding that the company aims to reduce the figure to about 50 percent this year.

A recent surge in memory prices has had limited effect on Leadtek, as consumer graphics cards account for a relatively small share of its revenue, they said.

That is because most of the memory chips used in the company’s products are GDDR — mainly for graphics cards — rather than DDR4 or DDR5 used in systems, which have borne the brunt of the price increases, the source said, adding that Leadtek would continue to pay close attention to memory price volatility.

title: Leadtek expects revenue decline


title: Tong Yang reports net profit of NT$3.904 billion

content_text:
Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業), a maker of automotive plastics, sheet metal parts and cooling products, yesterday reported net profit last year was NT$3.904 billion (US$123.43 million), or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$6.43, the second-highest in the company’s history.

Tong Yang in 2024 posted record profit of NT$4.38 billion, or EPS of NT$7.4.

The company reported that pretax profit last month rose 3 percent year-on-year to NT$550 million, the sixth consecutive month of growth and a nine-month high.

A man looks at a Tong Yang Industry Co automotive bumper at an auto parts trade show in Taipei in an undated photograph. Photo: Lin Jin-hua, Taipei

Excluding the effects of foreign-exchange volatility, the growth could have been 10 percent, the company said in a statement.

For the whole of last year, pretax profit decreased 13.3 percent from the previous year to NT$4.792 billion, or NT$7.87 per share, Tong Yang said.

The company attributed the decline in profit to foreign exchange volatility and US tariffs.

“Since April last year, with a 25 percent tariff under Section 232 [of the US Trade Expansion Act] on top of existing 2.5 percent tariffs, levies imposed on our products sold to the US have reached a staggering 27.5 percent — compared with only 15 percent for Japan, South Korea and the EU, posing a significant challenge to our business,” Tong Yang said in the statement.

“Despite drastic changes in the external environment, such as tariffs and foreign-exchange rates, the company still delivered impressive results over the year,” it said.

Consolidated revenue last year fell 1.97 percent to NT$25.093 billion, but was still the second-highest in the company’s history, following record revenue of NT$25.596 billion a year earlier, company data showed.

Tong Yang supplies auto components for global brands through original equipment manufacturing or aftermarket (AM) channels. The company operates 25 sites worldwide, including in Taiwan, China, the US and Italy.

Winter storms in North America have led to a surge in demand for AM automobile components and Tong Yang’s North American customers have been actively placing orders, which is expected to further boost the company’s aftermarket parts business, analysts said.

“We expect robust demand for AM parts given higher possibility of collisions under extreme weather in late 2025, and a longer vehicle average age of 12.6 years in the US,” Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a note.


title: ASE unit purchases factory to expand assembly capacity

taiwan-subdivisions: 新竹 潭子

content_text:
ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) subsidiary Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) has acquired factory buildings and attached equipment from solar energy developer United Renewable Energy Co (聯合再生) for about NT$2.8 billion (US$88.52 million).

ASE Technology, the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, in a statement on Tuesday said that the factory, which has five levels above ground and three basement levels, has a total floor area of 41,030.55m2.

The property is in Hsinchu Science Park’s (新竹科學園區) Miaoli section, the statement said.

The Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL) logo is pictured at the company’s plant in Changhua County’s Erlin Township on Sunday. Photo: CNA

Industrial sources said that SPIL would use the space to expand its capacity to meet robust demand amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

The disposal of the property allowed United Renewable Energy to pocket NT$2.1 billion in profit, the solar energy developer said in a separate statement.

ASE Technology is expecting an order backlog for AI-related advanced 3D chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging services, industry sources said.

SPIL said at the weekend that it is planning to construct five factory buildings to expand capacity at its compound in Changhua County, with the new facilities scheduled to start operations next year.

SPIL in April last year secured the surface rights for a parcel of land in the Central Taiwan Science Park’s (中部科學園區) Houli section in Taichung for 20 years to build new facilities, and expand advanced IC packaging and testing production.

The firm in January last year inaugurated a new plant in Taichung’s Tanzi Technology Industrial Park (潭子科技產業園區) to secure more CoWoS capacity.

ASE Technology posted consolidated sales of NT$645.39 billion for last year, up 8.4 percent from a year earlier, company data showed.


content_text:
China’s trade surplus surges 20 percent to a record US$1.2 trillion

China’s trade surplus surged to a record of almost US$1.2 trillion last year, the government said yesterday, as exports to other countries made up for slowing shipments to the US under US President Donald Trump’s onslaught of higher tariffs.

China’s exports rose 5.5 percent for the whole of last year to US$3.77 trillion, customs data showed, as Chinese automakers and other manufacturers expanded into markets across the globe. Imports flatlined at US$2.58 trillion.

The results came as China’s exports last month climbed 6.6 percent from the year before in US dollar terms, better than economists’ estimates and higher than November’s 5.9 percent year-on-year increase. Imports last month were up 5.7 percent, compared to November’s 1.9 percent rise.

Shipping containers at the Longtan port in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, are pictured yesterday. Photo: AFP

Economists expect exports will continue to support China’s economy this year, despite trade friction and geopolitical tensions.

“We continue to expect exports to act as a big growth driver in 2026,” BNP Paribas SA chief China economist Jacqueline Rong (榮靜) said.

While China’s exports to the US fell sharply after Trump returned to office and escalated his trade war with the world’s second-largest economy, that decline has been largely offset by shipments to other markets in South America, Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

For the whole of last year, China’s exports to the US fell 20 percent. In contrast, exports to Africa surged 26 percent and those to Southeast Asian countries jumped 13 percent; to the European Union 8 percent, and to Latin America, 7 percent.

Strong global demand for computer chips and other devices and the materials needed to make them were among categories that supported China’s exports, analysts said.

Exports of electronics and electrical equipment were by far the largest export category, rising 8.4 percent from a year earlier.

Car exports also grew last year. Auto exports surged 21 percent last year to more than 7 million units, driven by electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.

China also exported more grain and fertilizer, while its sales of furniture, shoes and other labor intensive products fell.

Strong exports have helped keep China’s economy growing at an annual rate close to its official target of about 5 percent. That has triggered alarm in countries that fear a flood of cheap imports is damaging local industries.

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva last month called for China to fix its economic imbalances and speed up its shift from reliance on exports by boosting domestic demand and investment.

A prolonged property downturn in China after the authorities cracked down on excessive borrowing, triggering defaults by many developers, is still weighing on consumer confidence and domestic demand.

China’s leaders have made increasing spending by consumers and businesses a focus of economic policy, but actions taken so far have had a limited impact. That included government trade-in subsidies over the past months that encouraged consumers to buy newer, more energy efficient items, such as home appliances and vehicles.

“We expect domestic demand growth to stay tepid,” Rong said. “In fact, the policy boost to domestic demand looks weaker than last year — in particular the fiscal subsidy program for consumer goods.”

In the case of autos, domestic sales rose 6 percent last year, but they fell back toward the end of the year as those subsidies were scaled back or phased out in some areas.

Natixis SA senior economist Gary Ng (吳卓殷) said that China’s exports would grow about 3 percent this year, less than the 5.5 percent growth last year. With slow import growth, he expects China’s trade surplus to remain above US$1 trillion this year.


title: Nanmen deals

content_text: People shop at Nanmen Market in Taipei yesterday. Vendors at the market started taking preorders of Lunar New Year dishes yesterday.


content_text:
Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells to meet growing demand, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) said on Monday.

Lin cited strong demand for 155mm shells in Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion, as well as Taiwan’s own defensive requirements. If the cooperation proves successful, it could be expanded to other types of munitions, he added.

The announcement follows remarks by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) and Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) in February last year that Taiwan should improve the domestic arms industry by amending Article 22 of the National Defense Act (國防法). Chiu also proposed that Taiwan seek original manufacturer certification, and promote the development of its defense industry through international cooperation and investment, an approach that has received support in Washington.

Alexander Velez-Green, senior adviser to the US undersecretary of defense for policy, said during a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing last year — when he was a nominee for US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy — that joint weapons production could proceed by focusing on projects that are less complex and within Taiwan’s existing industrial capabilities.

The cooperation would initially involve drones and artillery shells, before being expanded to precision-guided munitions and artificial intelligence-assisted decisionmaking systems, a source said on Jan. 3.

However, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) has cautioned that even the domestic production of relatively simple munitions would likely involve higher per-unit costs than purchasing them overseas. Officials have also warned that no cooperation initiative can move forward if the opposition continues to refuse to review the defense budget.

A special act for improving defense resilience and asymmetric capabilities has already been submitted to the legislature, but it has been blocked by opposition parties and prevented from being placed on the agenda since last month.

The DPP should work to persuade Koo and opposition parties to consider the broader strategic picture. Domestic production of munitions — and potentially other arms — would help meet Taiwan’s own defense needs, while also offering the possibility of supporting US requirements in the Asia-Pacific region or those of its allies.

US officials have suggested building a munitions stockpile in Taiwan to reduce logistical burdens in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait. During a legislative question-and-answer session on March 6, 2023, Chiu said that Taipei was “in talks” with the US military on relocating its East Asia stockpile to Taiwan. Domestic production would facilitate such an arrangement and improve Taiwan’s resilience against a potential blockade.

Building facilities for the domestic production of 155mm artillery shells would require upfront investment, but it would also help lower long-term costs for the military, shorten procurement times and create employment opportunities. Improved access to shells would also enhance military training. The armed forces fired 23.4 million rounds of ammunition in 2021, a figure that more than doubled to 58.81 million rounds by last year, Koo said.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has said it wants greater clarity regarding how funds under the special defense budget would be spent, arguing that the government’s proposal was rushed, lacked sufficient consultation and risked bypassing legislative oversight.

The DPP should seek to address those concerns directly and publicly. Doing so could open the door to compromise over spending priorities, and to a substantive discussion of whether domestic munitions production is economically viable and in Taiwan’s long-term interest.

The nation is already engaged in humanitarian and development assistance in Ukraine. Helping to supply munitions for its war effort would be consistent with those commitments.

Joint munitions production with the US could significantly improve Taiwan’s defense self-reliance. However, the initial investment required to make such cooperation possible depends on cross-party consensus. The ruling and opposition parties should engage seriously on the issue, weighing the long-term economic and security benefits to the nation.

people: 顧立雄 林俊憲 邱志偉

title: EDITORIAL: Expanding domestic arms production


content_text:
As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) races toward its 2027 modernization goals, most analysts fixate on ship counts, missile ranges and artificial intelligence. Those metrics matter — but they obscure a deeper vulnerability. The true future of the PLA, and by extension Taiwan’s security, might hinge less on hardware than on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can preserve ideological loyalty inside its own armed forces.

Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrated how even a technologically advanced military can collapse when the social environment surrounding it shifts. That lesson has renewed relevance as fresh unrest shakes Iran today — and it should command close attention in Washington and Taipei.

Before the Iranian revolution, the shah commanded one of the best-equipped militaries in the developing world. Yet it disintegrated not in war, but in the streets. As mass protests expanded, conscripts were ordered to fire on neighbors, classmates and relatives. Psychological resistance quickly overwhelmed institutional discipline.

Political sociologist Theda Skocpol described how state coercive power became paralyzed once urban civil resistance reached a critical scale. When social bonds between soldiers and protesters grew too strong to sever, the military opted for neutrality rather than internal fragmentation. The regime collapsed without a decisive battle.

The lesson was simple: A military socially embedded in the population cannot reliably sustain large-scale domestic coercion.

The CCP absorbed this lesson early. It deliberately structured the PLA less like a national army and more like Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a force designed primarily to safeguard regime survival rather than defend borders.

Two features stand out:

First, ideological loyalty over national loyalty. The PLA is explicitly the armed wing of the ruling party. Political commissars shape recruitment, promotion and daily indoctrination to anchor loyalty directly to party ideology rather than national identity.

Second, moral exclusion. To prevent the fraternization that crippled the shah’s army, the CCP systematically frames adversaries as hostile forces threatening a “sacred national mission.” This psychological boundary makes coercion easier and institutional defection less likely.

At the same time, Beijing pursues a parallel and seemingly contradictory narrative toward Taiwan that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one family.” This softer identity framing aims to reduce resistance and encourage political accommodation without force from Taiwan. In practice, Beijing manages a dual-track strategy — conciliatory language externally, securitized enemy framing internally and during escalation.

Effective coercion requires a clear psychological boundary between “us” and “them.” Framing the target population as socially and culturally intimate risks blurring that boundary, increasing hesitation, cognitive dissonance and internal friction. What functions as persuasion in peacetime can become a liability in wartime.

Iran’s renewed protests this year offer a revealing stress test. Despite decades of indoctrination, Tehran has increasingly relied on elite security units to suppress unrest even in traditionally loyal sectors such as the Tehran Bazaar. Economic exhaustion and generational frustration are eroding ideological insulation.

When a regime must treat large portions of its own population as internally occupied territory, the costs of repression escalate rapidly — financially, psychologically and politically. Even highly ideological forces face strain when coercion becomes permanent rather than episodic.

For Beijing, this is an uncomfortable preview. No amount of political control can indefinitely shield a military from a deteriorating domestic social environment. Ideological loyalty is not infinitely renewable.

For Taiwan, deterrence should not be defined solely by missiles and submarines. The psychological and cognitive dimensions of conflict matter just as much as kinetic capability.

First, the porcupine strategy must include narrative warfare. If Taiwan demonstrates that resistance would be broad-based, societal and resilient — not merely a government project — it complicates the PLA’s internal psychology. A conscript-heavy force confronting a mobilized society risks precisely the social pressure that historically undermines coercive cohesion.

Second, Taiwan should challenge Beijing’s moral exclusion framing. Strategic communication that humanizes Taiwanese society and highlights social, cultural and personal connections increases the psychological cost of repression. The CCP’s greatest fear is not battlefield defeat alone, but erosion of the enemy image that sustains ideological discipline inside the PLA.

Above all, a failed invasion of Taiwan would almost certainly place Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — and potentially the CCP’s rule itself — in grave political danger. Deterrence therefore depends not only on Taiwan’s military resilience, but also on whether Beijing fully recognizes how profoundly such a failure could threaten regime stability.

China’s long-term stability depends on whether the PLA remains a purely ideological guard force or gradually reverts toward the characteristics of a national military embedded in society. History suggests that ideological insulation can delay — but not permanently defeat — social reality.

For Taiwan, security lies in ensuring that the cost of crossing the Strait is not merely operational risk, but the possibility of triggering a legitimacy and loyalty crisis that the CCP itself might struggle to contain.

Simon Tang is an adjunct professor at California State University, Fullerton, who lectures on international relations.

title: The warning to Beijing from Iran


title: Building a sustainable birthrate

content_text:
Taiwan’s low birthrate is no longer an abstract statistical concern, but an unfolding structural crisis. Demographic dividends — economic growth driven by a large working population — are fast evaporating. With compounding effects, the trend is set to exert long-term and potentially irreversible pressure on state governance, industrial competitiveness, social security and intergenerational support systems.

The issue has also drawn international attention, with technology leaders repeatedly warning of the fundamental threat that declining birthrates pose to a nation’s future.

Neither the government nor society can afford to sit back or avoid the issue amid such urgency. Much like national defense, there are many policy decisions to be made that, if delayed, would only come at a higher cost further down the road.

To address low fertility seriously, policy thinking must simultaneously focus on reducing the costs associated with having children and substantially increasing access to reproductive health services. The former involves lowering the economic, caregiving and career burdens borne by individuals during childrearing.

However, this article focuses on the latter — an issue that has long been neglected.

In reality, there are many who are willing to become parents and capable of raising children responsibly, yet are unable to conceive through traditional means. “Traditional” here refers to natural conception through sexual intercourse within a heterosexual marriage. Surrogacy legislation is designed precisely to respond to these genuine yet institutionally marginalized reproductive needs. Any form of reproduction that departs from traditional family models is often scrutinized, and questioned on matters of ethics and social consensus. This raises a fundamental question: Should something that is different, uncommon or new be automatically subjected to moral judgement?

History shows that many rights and institutions now taken for granted were once labeled “unnatural” or “ethically problematic” when they first emerged. It is the responsibility of law and public policy not to conform to entrenched prejudices, but to respond mindfully to legitimate human needs and design well-regulated and transparent systems to serve them. Choosing inaction simply because something feels unfamiliar is not a sign of mature governance.

From a constitutional perspective, reproductive freedom, human dignity and fundamental rights are deserving of robust protection. As long as there are no violations of the rights of others or public order, the state should not impose a single “normal” family model to restrict people’s ability to become parents. Allowing people to have children through means such as surrogacy does not negate traditional families; rather, it acknowledges the legitimacy of diverse life choices.

Opponents to surrogacy programs frequently invoke the “best interests of the child.”

However, a simple truth must be acknowledged: Children raised within traditional family structures are not inherently healthier or happier, nor are children raised in nontraditional families necessarily disadvantaged. What is important is that a child receives stable care, love and commitment — the gender composition of their parents or the method of conception are secondary. Holding up one single family structure as the ideal standard is baseless and ignores the diversity of real-world society.

The international reality is that many countries recognized for their commitment to human rights and the rule of law have long permitted surrogacy under a closely regulated system. This is a response to individual needs and also part of an emerging recognition of surrogacy as a necessary component of the population policy toolkit.

If the government is sincere about addressing low fertility, continuing to postpone surrogacy legislation indefinitely is no longer tenable. Instead, it should be brought under rational public debate, institutional planning and democratic supervision.

Hopefully, single adult men and women will, in the near future, be able to realize their aspirations of parenthood through surrogacy within a sound legal framework and human rights protections. Unless a particular reproductive method clearly violates human rights or public morals, the state and society should approach it with cautious recognition rather than instinctive rejection. Only by doing so can Taiwan build a truly healthy and sustainable future.

Tsai Yu-te is a cross-border governance consultant and founder of Governance Edge.

Translated by Gilda Knox Streader


title: Diplomacy potential of overseas groups

people: 李登輝 林佳龍

content_text:
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) recently said that NT$41.5 billion (US$1.31 billion) in diplomatic funding has been stalled, affecting many of Taiwan’s diplomatic initiatives.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has deliberately attempted to sabotage those efforts to prevent Taiwan’s diplomatic expansion, he said.

However, that line of thinking is flawed. Diplomacy is not the issue. Instead, the government must prioritize a goals-oriented approach, rather than repeating vague claims of “continued efforts” — a model that has persisted for three decades since the administration of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), yet has no tangible progress to show for it.

That is because Taiwan lacks initiative and strategy. Whether to establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan, sign a free-trade agreement or station troops here are ultimately decisions to be made by US President Donald Trump and the US Congress. In other words, if even the quasi-official Taiwan-US relationship is subject to such constraints, Taiwan’s prospects with other countries are even less optimistic.

If half of that NT$41.5 billion were allocated to the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the benefits would likely outweigh those of formal diplomacy. Although Taiwan’s international status is relatively low, the Republic of China’s (ROC) visibility would be higher in the eyes of overseas communities. Compared with the complex diplomatic considerations of countries such as the US, Japan and South Korea, hometown associations and immigrant communities in the US — regardless of which flag they display — ultimately align with either Taiwan or China. Thus, increasing the ROC’s visibility among those communities would naturally bolster its voice and overall influence overseas.

The council could work through Chinese and Taiwanese-style restaurants willing to operate as intermediaries in the US to win over hometown associations that fly the Chinese flag, enlisting them to influence the Republican Party and mobilize pro-ROC groups in the US. If Taiwan fails to even persuade or convert pro-Beijing overseas communities and associations, initiating Taiwan-US diplomatic recognition talks with Trump, or even with figures such as US Vice President J.D. Vance or US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, would be virtually impossible.

The primary reason for relying on restaurants is their strong cultural recognizability. Pro-Beijing overseas groups and hometown associations are eager to gain access to the Republican Party. Taiwan would not even need to persuade them to fly the ROC flag — instead, it could leverage their “united front” resources. If such channels could assist Taiwan in reaching figures it has thus far struggled to engage with — such as Trump and the “make America great again” camp — the impact on China would not only be damaging, but also deeply humiliating.

There is another advantage to this approach. Amid the US’ broader shift to the right, pro-Beijing overseas communities are themselves eager to engage in “united front” work targeting the Republican Party. If, more than two years from now, the Democratic Party were to return to power, Taiwan would not have offended anyone because it would not have bet exclusively on either side. That would be far more practical and likely to yield tangible progress than diplomatic practices such as op-eds, advertisements that sell curated stories, congressional exchanges, informal “track II” engagement with think tanks, or even holding concerts.

Wang Wen-sheng is a doctoral student at Jindal University in India.

Translated by Kyra Gustavsen


title: EDITORIAL CARTOON

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Jan. 1 marks a decade since China repealed its one-child policy. Just 10 days before, Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), who long oversaw the often-brutal enforcement of China’s family-planning rules, died at the age of 96, having never been held accountable for her actions. Obituaries praised Peng for being “reform-minded,” even though, in practice, she only perpetuated an utterly inhumane policy, whose consequences have barely begun to materialize.It was Vice Premier Chen Muhua (陳慕華) who first proposed the one-child policy in 1979, with the endorsement of China’s then-top leaders, Chen Yun (陳雲) and Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), as a means of avoiding the

By Yi Fuxian


title: Why this time is different for Iran

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Iran’s government has been left backed against a wall without easy escape while the economy spirals downward and US pressure builds

Iranians have taken to the streets to protest the collapse of the country’s currency and surging inflation, with many calling for an end to the Islamic republic. Yet the government’s response has differed from earlier waves of unrest. Whereas Iran’s rulers were quick to suppress the 2009 Green Movement and the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, the security forces were slow to react as the current protests intensified. Rather than brutally cracking down, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian initially responded with belt-tightening reforms to free up funds for subsidies to the poor.

However, this stopgap did not hold. While the poor might have been mollified, those in the middle rungs of society bore the costs and joined the protests in greater numbers. What started as an expression of economic discontent soon became a political uprising. Only after protests erupted across the country on Thursday last week did the regime clamp down in earnest.

Why was the reaction to political dissent so different this time? The current protests are taking place in the shadow of Iran’s 12-day war with Israel in June last year. Iranian officials are still reeling from the conflict and operating on the assumption that it could resume at any time. That threat looms larger than domestic political unrest, because Israel’s battering of Hezbollah and the collapse of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime have left Iran with little deterrence against foreign intervention.

Adding insult to injury, Iran is no longer able to prevent foreign actors from boosting popular discontent at home. During last year’s war, Iranians did rally to the flag, and the regime reacted by relaxing its enforcement of religious rules, most notably regarding hijab. However, the current protests pose a dilemma: Cracking down too hard could undo the fragile understanding that the regime forged with the population after the war, while letting them grow could invite foreign intervention.

Iran’s worsening economy has also been a decisive factor. A combination of mismanagement, corruption and crippling sanctions has caused rampant inflation and unemployment, steadily weakening the middle class and expanding the ranks of the struggling poor. The June war accelerated these trends. In the six months following it, the rial lost more than 40 percent of its value and inflation surged by as much as 60 percent. With many assuming that the hobbling of Iran’s nuclear program had reduced its leverage to negotiate sanctions relief, capital flight soon followed.

Thus, as Iran’s rulers see it, the economic plight that has brought protesters to the streets is deeply intertwined with the external threat facing the country. They remember that during last year’s war, Israel called on ordinary Iranians to revolt. The Israelis calculated that eliminating dozens of senior military commanders, and battering military and security institutions would encourage Iran’s restless population to rise up and overwhelm the beleaguered state. When that did not happen, Iran’s leaders were the first to acknowledge that they had survived the war thanks to their people. However, it also became clear to them that a popular uprising was part of Israel’s war strategy, and this realization informs their view of the current protests.

These suspicions were confirmed when US President Donald Trump recently took to social media to declare that the US is “locked and loaded,” ready to intervene to “rescue” Iranian protesters from a violent crackdown. The real threat of the protests lies not in what Iranians could achieve on their own, but in whether they could serve to justify US military action against Iran.

The obvious parallels are to Libya and Syria during the Arab Spring, when the US and some European governments invoked a “responsibility to protect” protesters to justify military intervention. These popular uprisings quickly morphed into foreign-led regime-change efforts, ultimately leading to civil war and state collapse. Notably, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is filled with veterans of the Syria conflict. They witnessed first-hand how quickly peaceful protests with external support can precipitate civil war. The imperative to avoid Libya and Syria’s fate is the driving force behind Iranian decisionmaking today.

Yet another factor in Iranian leaders’ thinking is the US kidnapping of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Like everyone else around the world, Iran’s rulers were stunned. This was not the kind of regime change that the US had carried out in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s, and pursued in Libya and Syria a decade later. Rather than committing troops or advocating nation-building, the Trump administration has left the Chavista power structure in place, demanding that it submit to US imperial control or face economic strangulation.

Could the US pursue a similar strategy against the Islamic republic? If so, it might try to launch a precision military strike to kill Iran’s supreme leader, and key political and military leaders, capture Iranian oil tankers on the high seas, and then demand that whatever is left of the Islamic republic accede to its demands (which would include abandoning its nuclear and missile programs and handing over control of its natural resources). Even short of killing Iranian leaders, a US strategy of bombing and oil-export interdiction could bring the regime to its knees.

Faced with these scenarios, Iran’s immediate response was to point to the potential costs of US aggression. On Tuesday last week, the Iranian Defense Council revised its strategic posture, announcing that Tehran could pursue “pre-emptive measures” if faced with “objective signs of threat.” Although a pre-emptive strike on US targets in the Middle East would surely invite a war that Iran does not want and could well be the end of the regime, it cannot afford to give the impression that defeating it would be cost-free.

Even if Iran could avoid a direct confrontation with the US, and even if the current wave of protests subsides, the country’s economy is in a downward spiral. That means public anger would only grow over the medium and long term. The Islamic republic is in a vice, squeezed by the external threat from the US and Israel, and the internal threat of a mass uprising. There is no easy escape from this impasse. A total collapse of the Islamic republic is not necessarily imminent, but Iran’s revolution is now nearing its end.

Vali Nasr, professor of Middle East studies and international affairs at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, is the author, most recently, of Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History.

Copyright: Project Syndicate


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Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, famously titled his 1964 independence day address Tahun vivere pericoloso — the year of living dangerously. The phrase, later immortalized in a book and film, captured a period of deep political and economic turmoil.

More than six decades on, Southeast Asia’s largest economy is again confronting a perilous moment. To be sure, Indonesia is at little risk of the Cold War coup that toppled Sukarno and led to 32 years of dictatorship by a hitherto obscure general, Suharto. However, growth is sluggish, global trade is fragmenting, and new geopolitical tensions — not least an increasingly unpredictable US-China relationship — are complicating policy choices. The top-down governing style of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto — a military man who was once Suharto’s son-in-law — risks compounding this uncertainty and deterring overseas investment.

The high-profile trial of Nadiem Makarim, a former education minister and founder of popular ride-hailing giant Gojek, is the latest event to cause anxiety. In 2019, then-Indonesian president Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi, appointed him to modernize the education system in the hope that the dynamic start-up boss who had successfully developed a super app would be able to execute his vision of building a 21st century Indonesia.

Instead, prosecutors last week opened proceedings against Makarim over alleged graft linked to the procurement of Google Chromebooks for schools, saying the project caused 2.1 trillion rupiah (US$125 million) in state losses. They also claim the process involved undisclosed conflicts of interest and improper gains of about 809 billion rupiah for Makarim. He denies all charges and has entered what is known in the Indonesian legal system as an objection plea, challenging the validity of the case.

In a statement to the court, he argued that the case reflects resistance to reform.

“My case is not a criminal case, but rather a narrative of friction between a new group seeking change and old players seeking to preserve the ‘status quo,’” he wrote.

That framing resonates in a country long held back by entrenched interests and a lack of transparency. The trial is being closely watched by investors concerned about legal predictability in the archipelago, home to more than 280 million people and regularly ranked by Transparency International as one of the world’s most corrupt nations. The US Department of State’s latest assessment cites legal and regulatory uncertainty, corruption and vested interests as obstacles to pursuing business opportunities.

Legal experts warn that applying criminal law to policy and procurement decisions, as prosecutors have done in this case, risks creating a chilling precedent. The issue goes beyond one person, said Bert Hofman, a former World Bank official who has advised governments across Asia.

“It speaks to governance, and whether the system attracts or deters young and capable technocrats from entering public service,” he said.

It is becoming a worrying pattern. Former Indonesian minister of trade Thomas Lembong, known for his reformist views, was convicted in a sugar import case in July last year, as speculation grew that the charges leveled against him — a key ally of an opposition figure — were politically motivated. He denied all charges and maintained his innocence, but was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison. Prabowo later granted him a full pardon, a rarely used presidential power, meaning that his conviction was overturned. That decision has added to the unease over the president’s expanding influence over legal and political issues.

The former general has brought the military back into civilian life, raising fears of a return to Indonesia’s authoritarian past, when the army played a dual role. Soldiers were used to implement Prabowo’s signature free meal program for school children, and have been deployed in controversial land seizures and forest clearances for a state-backed agricultural project (although the move has been framed as protecting national assets from foreign exploitation). Millions of hectares have already been reclaimed from plantation owners and private companies, with more likely to follow this year.

Civil liberties are also under renewed pressure. A new criminal code came into force on Jan. 2, and includes provisions penalizing insults to the president and state institutions. Human rights groups warn this could be used to stifle dissent, such as last year’s nationwide protests sparked by parliamentarians’ perks, or concerns raised over government failures exposed by disasters such as the recent Aceh floods.

Markets are not happy. Global funds sold Indonesian bonds between September and November last year, erasing billions of dollars in net inflows, following the social unrest. Confidence was further shaken by the dismissal of then Indonesian minister of finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who was widely regarded as an anchor of fiscal credibility, but became a particular focus of the protests. Flows stabilized somewhat last month, but only modestly. Foreign investment has also been lackluster.

Jakarta has promised to improve the investment climate, but this would require transparency and institutional reform at a time when Prabowo seems more inclined toward populist programs. He has set an ambitious 8 percent growth target, which would be difficult to achieve without foreign capital, policy credibility and a new set of young, educated technocrats willing to bring change to an arcane bureaucratic system.

Prabowo has earned strong approval ratings. However, power in Indonesia has long been understood through the Javanese concept of wahyu, authority granted on the chosen few, similar to China’s mandate of heaven. The archipelago’s own history has shown power is never permanent. He should remember that authority weakens when it drives away the very people — reformers, investors and technocrats — needed to secure Indonesia’s future.

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC’s lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades. 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: Indonesia needs to break the habit of living dangerously


title: Semenyo an instant hit as Man City win

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COMPLAINT: Newcastle coach Eddie Howe made clear his dissatisfaction with a rule change this season that allows players to play for two clubs in the one campaign

Antoine Semenyo made himself an instant Manchester City hero as Pep Guardiola’s men took a giant stride toward the English League Cup final with a 2-0 win at Newcastle United.

The Ghana international, who joined from AFC Bournemouth for ￡65 million (US$87 million) last week, opened the scoring and also had a second goal controversially ruled out.

However, Rayan Cherki delivered what could be the knockout blow to the holders in the 98th minute.

Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo, front, celebrates a goal that was later disallowed by a video-assistant-referee decision during their English League Cup semi-final first leg match against Newcastle United in Newcastle, England, on Tuesday. Photo: AP

The Magpies ended a 70-year wait for a domestic trophy by winning the League Cup last season, but would need a heroic fightback to reach Wembley when the sides meet again for the second leg of the semi-final on Feb. 4.

Semenyo also scored on his debut on Saturday in a 10-1 demolition of Exeter in the FA Cup.

In previous years he would have been cup-tied after featuring for Bournemouth earlier in the competition.

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe made clear his dissatisfaction before the game with a rule change this season that allows players to play for two clubs in one campaign, and City took full advantage.

Guardiola showed his desire to reach the final for the first time since 2021 as Erling Haaland made a first League Cup start in three years in a strong City selection just days before they visit Manchester United in the English Premier League.

Yoane Wissa blazed a glorious early chance over the bar as Newcastle roared out of the blocks in front of a packed St James’ Park.

However, that was the closest either side came in a cagey first half.

City goalkeeper James Trafford had been a long-term target for Newcastle prior to his return to the Etihad from Burnley in July.

The England under-21 international has had to play second fiddle to Gianluigi Donnarumma for most of the season, but proved his worth with a stunning save to claw away Wissa’s looping header early in the second half.

Seconds later, Bruno Guimaraes blasted against the post as Newcastle pressed for the opening.

However, they were caught with a sucker punch at the other end when Jeremy Doku sped toward the byline and his cross was turned by Bernardo Silva into the path of Semenyo to prod home from close range.

Semenyo thought he had a third City goal in two appearances when he acrobatically flicked in from a corner.

However, after a video assistant referee review lasting more than five minutes, the officials finally adjudged that Haaland had prevented Malick Thiaw’s ability to play the ball from an offside position.


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The Taiwan Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association (TLPGA) and the Japan Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association (JLPGA) yesterday announced that this year’s Taiwan Foxconn Ladies Golf Tournament would be officially included as part of the JLPGA tour.

It is the first time in 46 years the JLPGA has included an overseas event and would make Taiwan the only overseas stop on the tour this year.

The tournament’s purse has also been raised to a record US$2 million, the second-highest prize pool on the JLPGA circuit.

Japan-based Taiwanese golfer Wu Chia-yen, left, and Japanese golfer Yui Kawamoto pose for a photograph at a news conference yesterday. Photo: CNA

Japanese golfer Yui Kawamoto and Japan-based Taiwanese golfer Wu Chia-yen attended a news conference announcing the development.

Kawamoto, who is also to compete in the TLPGA event, said this was her first visit to Taiwan, adding that the country’s warm hospitality and close ties with Japan gave her a sense of security.

She expressed hope that the tournament would allow fans to experience the “energy” of women’s golf.

Wu, 21, won her first JLPGA title in November last year.

The Taiwan Foxconn Ladies Golf Tournament is to be held from March 12 to 15 at the Orient Golf and Country Club in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山).

title: Taiwanese golf contest included on JLPGA tour


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AP, BERN Olympic medalist dies in Switzerland avalanche

Snowboarder Ueli Kestenholz, who won a bronze medal in the sport’s first Olympic race, died after being trapped in an avalanche, the Swiss ski federation said on Tuesday.

He was 50.

Kestenholz was third in snowboard giant slalom at the 1998 Nagano Olympics in Japan — a debut event that became a story of the Games when Canadian gold medalist Ross Rebagliati fought to keep his title after a positive test for cannabis.

Swiss snowboarder Ueli Kestenholz poses for a photograph at the Shiga Kogen ski resort in Japan on Feb. 9, 1998. Photo: EPA

The Swiss racer competed at two more Winter Games, was twice snowboardcross champion at the X-Games and continued a professional career in extreme sports.

Kestenholz was on Sunday snowboarding with a friend who was skiing in the Lotschental valley of Valais. The avalanche started at an altitude of 2,400m for unknown reasons, Valais police said in a statement.

Kestenholz was trapped by snow and helped by his friend before being airlifted by helicopter to the hospital, first to Visp then to Sion which is close to Crans-Montana.

Swiss daily Berner Zeitung first reported on Tuesday the victim was Kestenholz.

Recent posts on his Instagram account included film of Kestenholz paragliding and landing on frozen lakes near St. Moritz.

“To enjoy those rare moments when nature‘s wonders align you need to be ready to drop everything and go!” he wrote.


title: Manchester United tap Carrick as interim coach

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Manchester United on Tuesday confirmed Michael Carrick as interim manager until the end of the season, tasking him with leading the Red Devils back into the UEFA Champions League.

“Having the responsibility to lead Manchester United is an honor,” said Carrick, 44, who won 12 major trophies in his 12-year playing career at United.

The former midfielder previously had an unbeaten three-game stint as caretaker boss at Old Trafford in 2021.

Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick looks on during their English FA cup third-round match against Aston Villa at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough, England, on Jan. 6, 2023. Photo: AFP

Carrick then took on his first permanent managerial role at second-tier Middlesbrough in October 2022 and was sacked in June last year after the club finished 10th in the Championship.

He has a daunting first task, preparing his men to face local rivals Manchester City in the English Premier League on Sunday.

United are seventh in the table, but are in the race to qualify for the lucrative Champions League for the first time in three seasons.

The Red Devils are three points adrift of fourth-placed Liverpool and only one point behind Brentford, in fifth spot.

A top-four finish would guarantee Champions League qualification, and top five is likely to be enough thanks to the strong performance of English sides in European competition.

“I know what it takes to succeed here; my focus is now on helping the players to reach the standards that we expect at this incredible club, which we know that this group is more than capable of producing,” Carrick said. “There is still a lot to fight for this season. We are ready to pull everyone together and give the fans the performances that their loyal support deserves.”

The Red Devils dismissed Ruben Amorim last week after a dismal 14-month stint at Old Trafford for the Portuguese.

However, hopes of an immediate bounce were dashed, with caretaker boss Darren Fletcher overseeing a 2-2 draw against lowly Burnley in the Premier League and a 2-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup.

United’s exit from both domestic cup competitions at the first hurdle, plus a lack of European football, means they will play only 40 matches this season — their lowest number since the 1914-1915 campaign.

Carrick’s experience at United as a player and coach are understood to have convinced the club’s hierarchy that he is the safe pair of hands they need over the coming months.

“Michael is an excellent coach and knows exactly what it takes to win at Manchester United,” the club’s director of football Jason Wilcox said. “He is ready to lead our talented and determined group of players for the remainder of the season as we continue to build the club towards regular and sustained success.”

After spells at West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur as a player, he moved to United, winning five league titles and the Champions League in a 12-year stay.

When his playing career came to an end in 2018, Carrick joined the United coaching staff as an assistant to Jose Mourinho and then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Following Solskjaer’s dismissal five years ago he briefly took charge of the first team, securing impressive results against Chelsea, Arsenal and Villarreal.

However, his time at Middlesbrough ultimately proved a disappointment.

Boro finished eighth and 10th in Carrick’s two full campaigns in charge, and he was sacked at the end of last season for failing to achieve promotion back to the Premier League.