Chinese Defector Makes Espionage Claims Australian media on November 23 reported that a man claiming to be a former Chinese intelligence agent had defected to Australian authorities in October, requesting asylum there. Wang Liqiang, 23, whose wife and young child currently live in Australia, claims to have taken part in several espionage activities. These include…
Offshore Wind Enters Commercial Stage President Tsai Ing-wen attended the inauguration of Taiwan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, Formosa 1, on November 12 in a ceremony at the Longfeng Fishing Harbor in Miaoli. Located between two and six kilometers off the coast of Miaoli, the NT$18.7 billion (over US$623 million), 128-megawatt (MW) project is designed…
Tsai, Han Announce Running Mates President Tsai Ing-wen, who is up for re-election in January, on November 17 announced that she had chosen former premier William Lai as her vice-presidential running mate on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ticket. Lai also previously served in Taiwan’s legislature from 1999 to 2010 and as Mayor of Tainan…
Record Retail Consumption in Q3 Taiwanese consumers increased their retail purchases last month, defying a sluggish economy and unfavorable trade conditions. Retail sales for October rose 4.2% year-on-year to NT$340.7 billion (US$11.2 billion), a record-breaking figure for that month, apparently encouraged by the recent boom in Taiwan and U.S. stock markets, department store anniversary sales,…
Bridge Collapse in Eastern Taiwan The Nanfang’ao Bridge, a suspension bridge in Yilan County on Taiwan’s northeast coast, collapsed on October 1, killing six Indonesian and Filipino migrant fisherman stationed aboard boats berthed under the bridge. The collapse – thought to be the result of corrosion of the suspension cables – also injured several other…
Food Delivery Platforms Face New Scrutiny Food delivery online service providers Foodpanda and Uber Eats are in hot water after it was found that the companies either did not adequately report the fatal crashes of two of their delivery drivers, or did not do so in a timely manner. Two incidents in early October involved…
Foreign Dignitaries Attend National Day Observance of the 2019 National Day – also known as Double Ten because it occurs on October 10 – featured Taiwan’s new immigrant communities and attendance by a large number of foreign dignitaries. More than 6,000 Taiwanese living abroad returned for the celebration, the highest number in three years. A…
2019 Outlook Positive as Exports Increase Taiwan finished out the third quarter with year-on-year export growth exceeding 2%, bringing it ahead of the other three Asian Tigers for the first nine months of 2019. The figure indicates real export growth after adjusting for inflation. The Ministry of Finance notes that this growth rate has increased…
Construction Loans Hit Seven-Year High Taiwan’s Central Bank on September 25 reported that the balance of construction loans in August reached NT$1.9 trillion, up NT$20.5 billion from July, for a year-on-year increase of 11.4%. The bank credits the spike in loans to the return from China of numerous Taiwanese businesspeople who are now looking to…
Oil Prices Are Up And So Are Exports Fuel prices have been rising in Taiwan in recent months, a result of fluctuations in global crude prices brought on by tensions in the Middle East. The latest hikes are tied to the drone strikes on Saudi Aramco facilities that took place in mid-September. Gasoline prices in…
