When Tsai Ing-wen visited Washington four year ago as the DPP presidential candidate, an unnamed U.S. “senior official” leaked comments to the Financial Times expressing doubts about her ability to properly manage cross-Straits relations. The incident was widely seen as a sign that the U.S. government favored the election of her KMT rival, Ma Ying-jeou….
At its national party congress on July 19, the ruling Kuomingtang (KMT) officially named Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu as its candidate for the January 2016 presidential election. The nomination put an end to months of speculation about who would be the KMT standard-bearer. When Party Chairman Eric Chu, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, and other…
Taiwan’s economy entered 2015 on a high after coming off a year of resurgence in tech exports. As first half numbers come in now, however, the economy looks set to miss nearly all of its targets. At the beginning of the year, Taiwan’s Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) forecast GDP growth at…
HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang faced some disappointing news as she closed her first month concurrently serving as CEO of the local smartphone maker, which she co-founded in 1997. For April, HTC reported a steep 39% year-on-year drop in sales and a 2% drop in share price. April income came to NT$13.5 billion (US$440 million), which…
On April 28, the TAIEX benchmark index briefly touched 10,002.58 points – the first time it had surpassed the 10,000-point mark in 15 years – mainly due to stock purchases by foreign investors. While the index retreated later in the morning to close at 9,973.12, it was the highest close since April 11, 2000. Daily…
Cathay Life Insurance won the reverse auction to acquire troubled firms Global Life Insurance Co. and Singfor Life Insurance Co., with a bid of NT$30.3 billion (about US$1 billion) – meaning that is the amount it will receive from the government to take over the two companies. Both of the acquired firms were taken into…
Food safety issues emerged once again last month with the revelation that potentially radioactive food has been imported into Taiwan. Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) announced on April 16 that it will tighten rules on food imports from Japan after it was revealed that bogus labels on certain products misidentified the origin of the…
The Cloud Gate Dance Troupe, considered among the world’s top contemporary dance troupes, inaugurated a new theater on April 19, nearly seven years after a fire destroyed its original home. The new site, located in the Tamsui District of New Taipei City, will not only showcase Cloud Gate productions but also works by young artists,…
Following heavy rains in northern Taiwan in early May, phase-three water rationing in Taoyuan and parts of New Taipei City and Hsinchu County has been suspended until at least mid-May. Since early April, water supply to households in the affected areas has been cut off two days per week on a rotational basis. This year…
Four people were killed and four others injured in Taichung when a massive steel girder suspended over an MRT construction site fell the height of three stories, crushing a car and killing its driver and three construction workers. The four injured were also construction workers. Witnesses said that no traffic control was in place at…
