FOR THE PEOPLE: The TPP said its support for the budget was not a bid to pander to voters, but to give Taiwanese a boost in the face of high tariffs and market fluctuations

The legislature yesterday passed the third reading of the government’s special relief package, including approving a NT$10,000 (US$342) cash handout proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which raised the package’s total ceiling from NT$410 billion to NT$545 billion.The Special Act for Str

REASSURANCE: The Financial Supervisory Commission confirmed that Jkopay’s user funds are entirely separate and trust mechanisms are in place to safeguard money Taiwanese digital payment provider Jkopay Co (街口支付) yesterday quickly moved to reassure the public after a court-ordered asset freeze on its parent company triggered a wave of retailer suspensions and user fund withdrawals.The Taipei District Court on Thursday froze assets belonging to parent compan

SUPERMARKET DRILLS: Air raids were simulated at three PX Mart stores across Taiwan with scenarios including calming shoppers and administering first aid The armed forces yesterday conducted the second day of drills in the annual Han Kuang military exercises, featuring a live-fire tank firing exercise and a simulated invasion by Chinese warships.In Hsinchu County, President William Lai (賴清德) monitored a live-fire exercise at the Kengzikou Range (坑子口訓

COMMUNICATIONS TARGET: A US senator said Washington should not stand idle as China ramps up its tactics to isolate Taiwan, including by sabotaging its cables A bill aimed at protecting Taiwan’s undersea communications cables from Chinese “gray zone” tactics was introduced in the US Senate on Wednesday, calling on the US government to help improve cable resilience near Taiwan.The proposed Taiwan undersea cable resilience initiative act was introduced by U

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Hsieh keeps Wimbledon title hopes alive

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CWA issues warnings about Tropical Storm Danas

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Indigenous Kuskus Village exhibition opens in Taipei

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Army establishes HIMARS company

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Nagasaki to invite Taiwan to atomic bomb memorial

AGING SOCIETY: The nation’s ‘Silicon Valley’ project aims to build an AI industrial hub in southern Taiwan, with major investment in elderly-care product manufacturing The Executive Yuan yesterday touted the progress it had made under a multi-ministerial initiative aimed at developing Taiwan’s elderly-care technology sector, a market valued at NT$290 billion (US$9.93 billion), in response to the nation’s rapidly aging population.The senior citizen technology indus

INTEL: China’s ships are mapping strategic ocean floors, including near Guam, which could aid undersea cable targeting and have military applications, a report said China’s oceanographic survey and research ships are collecting data in the Indo-Pacific region — possibly to aid submarine navigation, detect or map undersea cables, and lay naval mines — activities that could have military applications in a conflict with Taiwan or the US, a New York Times report sa

US DELEGATION: The talks have yet to finish, as there are many issues to discuss, but Taiwan’s negotiations are stable and are progressing steadily, a source said The government is optimistic about ongoing negotiations with the US regarding tariffs, which are focused on protecting national and industrial interests, public health and food safety, the Executive Yuan said yesterday.US President Donald Trump has been announcing updated tariffs rates scheduled to

STORM RESPONSE: While ground units mobilized in a simulated attack in Taoyuan, units in southern Taiwan assisted with disaster recovery efforts after a typhoon Disaster relief efforts in southern Taiwan yesterday took units participating in the Han Kuang military exercises out of drill mode, while others set up defensive structures as the simulated war games entered their third day.The first three days of the drills focused on countering China’s “gray zone

50% DUTY: The tax would include semi-finished products and would have far-reaching impacts, raising costs across a myriad of industries and applications reliant on the metal US President Donald Trump’s plans to impose 50 percent tariffs on copper imports are set to include the kinds of materials used for power grids, the military and data centers.Plans involve including semi-finished products, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named as discussions

HISTORIC VICTORY: Amanda Anisimova became only the second player in the Open era to reach a women’s final at a Grand Slam after losing in qualifying the previous year Iga Swiatek on Thursday breezed into her first Wimbledon final, but hopes of a dream matchup with Aryna Sabalenka were dashed when the top seed was stunned by Amanda Anisimova.Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek, not previously known for her prowess on grass, demolished former Olympic champion Bel

CHANGE IN THE SYSTEM: Under the Ukraine campaign, any action or inaction that increases Russia’s vulnerability to hostile actions must be punished, an analyst said The reported suicide of Russia’s transport minister hours after he was dismissed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and amid speculation he would be arrested on corruption charges, has shocked the country’s elite.Several hundred mourners, including ministers and state officials, streamed past the

Donovan’s Deep Dives: Lu Shiow-yen signals her challenge to KMT leadership

Two moves show Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is gunning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party chair and the 2028 presidential election. Technically, these are not yet “officially” official, but by the rules of Taiwan politics, she is now on the dance floor. Earlier this month Lu confirmed in an interview in Japan’s Nikkei that she was considering running for KMT chair. This is not new news, but according to reports from her camp she previously was still considering the case for and against running. By choosing a respected, international news outlet, she declared it to the world. While the outside world likely paid little attention, domestically the message was unmistakable: She is moving on to a larger stage. Part of the dance is to leave options open before formally committing, and with the chair race due in late September, she has time. If something goes wrong in the meantime, or if power brokers in the party offer her a deal that provides more benefits than taking on the role of chair, she can pivot accordingly. Earlier this year, I suggested that strategically, she would be better off concentrating on her job as Taichung mayor until she is term-limited out of office in December next year. Taichung mayor is obviously a full-time job, and concurrently running the Taipei-headquartered party runs the risk of doing one or both jobs poorly and making mistakes that could imperil her shot at the presidency in 2028. The situation has changed. Current KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), knowing he is likely to face challengers of a higher caliber than the three relative nobodies already declared, has gone all in on appealing to the base. The base is more likely to turn out to vote in the chair election, so this makes some strategic sense in the short term.

A battle for historical memory in Thailand’s “Little Taiwan”

Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan. Last spring at Arunothai’s Jiaolian School, principal Wang Mingming (王明明) had forewarned me of the division between villages, saying, “We are not like the people in Mae Salong. They are rich. Because of the Taiwanese.” Arunothai has in recent years become split in its loyalties between Taiwan and China (see part one, “A tale of two schools,” on May 15), but in Mae Salong, links to Taiwan remain strong. Taiwan-funded monuments pay homage to the Lost Army, villagers wear T-shirts emblazoned with the Republic of China (ROC) flag and tea plantations grown Taiwan’s most famous tea varieties, including Dong Ding (“frozen peak”) Oolong, Oriental Beauty and Jin Xuan (Golden Daylily or Milk Oolong). Even the numerical classifications of the teas — Oolong No. 12 or No. 17, for example — are the same, and the shops resemble those found on Alishan. At the tomb of General Tuan Hsi-wen (段希文) — perched on a Mae Salong hilltop with a view of his ancestral homeland in China’s Yunnan province — a third generation villager wearing a vintage KMT army uniform, Yan Si-Chung (岩思中), greets visitors with sharp military salutes. “Both my father and my grandfather were soldiers in the KMT army,” the 44-year-old