Gasoline prices to fall NT$0.1 as crude faltersBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterGasoline and diesel prices are to fall NT$0.1 per liter this week due to a decline in global crude oil prices last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said in separate statements yesterday. CPC said that based on its floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil fell 6 percent last week from a week earlier, as several adverse factors dented market sentiment and depressed oil prices. “Oil prices fell last week on market rumors that OPEC and its allies plan to raise oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in December,” CPC said. A rebound in the US dollar against a collection of major currencies in the week also contributed to the crude oil price decline, CPC said. US gasoline inventories that rose to levels higher than expected and the news that the planned price cap on Russian oil by G7 nations could be above the current market level also caused downward pressure on crude oil prices, Formosa said.

Strategists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc said they expect Asia’s equity leadership to shift from Southeast Asia and India to markets such as China and South Korea next year. Photo: Isaac Lawrence, AFP“Of concern to us is that Southeast Asia is beginning to underperform in the last few weeks, as investors rotate back into North Asia,” CLSA chief equity strategist Alexander Redman said. The brokerage is overweight on Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and South Korea, neutral on Indonesia and underweight on India. That is not to say the road uphill for North Asia will be smooth. Equity benchmarks in China, South Korea and Taiwan are down more than 15 percent year-on-year, while those in Indonesia and India are up about 7 percent each.

Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung, left on car, waves to members of the public in Taipei yesterday to thank them for their support in Saturday’s elections. Former Taipei deputy mayor Vivian Huang, right, who ran as an independent in the mayoral election in Taipei on Saturday, thanks supporters in the city yesterday for their support. Asked about her feelings after the election, Huang said that she believes everything in life is a task. Taipei mayor-elect Chiang Wan-an, leaning down from car, celebrates his election victory with supporters in Taipei yesterday. Huang, who the TPP endorsed ahead of the mayoral election, has abundant political experience and dedication to serve the public, Ko said.

KMT’s win hides vulnerabilitiesBy Chen Wen-ching 陳文卿Saturday’s local elections were a setback for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but it does not necessarily mean that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would be victorious in the 2024 presidential election. In the 2018 local elections, the KMT also claimed victory, but the DPP triumphed in 2020. Second, the KMT is facing a major threat from the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The TPP and Gou would affect the KMT’s plan, and Gou is unlikely to work with the KMT again, after how he was treated in the KMT’s most recent internal elections. Despite its terrible showing in the local elections, the DPP is still the governing party.

President Tsai Ing-wen, left, and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Lin Hsi-yao bow as Tsai announces her resignation as DPP chairperson to take responsibility for the party’s performance in the local elections in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at DPP headquarters in Taipei, Tsai said she “humbly accepts” the results, which fell short of expectations. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu, second right, leads party officials in Taipei yesterday in thanking party supporters for the major win. Photo: CNAThe DPP also conceded the Hsinchu mayorship to the TPP, which has been led by an interim mayor since July when former DPP mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) stepped down to run for Taoyuan mayor. Although she did not win, independent Taipei mayoral candidate Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), who was backed by the TPP, drew 25.14 percent of the vote.

She is to become the first female mayor of Hsinchu and the youngest mayor or county commissioner ever elected in Taiwan. Shen, who trailed Kao by 10,000 votes, conceded defeat before the final results were confirmed and congratulated Kao on her win. Hsinchu City Mayor-elect Ann Kao, center, of the Taiwan People’s Party attends a victory celebration yesterday. Lin Chih-chien defeated his KMT opponent, former Hsinchu mayor Hsu Ming-tsai (許明財), in 2014 and won re-election in 2018 by a large margin over the same opponent, by 49.57 percent of the votes and 27.87 percent respectively. The Hsinchu mayor’s office is a major win for the TPP, which was founded in 2019 and participated in local elections for the first time this year.

TSMC starts construction of new fab in KaohsiungPRIORITY SHIFT: TSMC previously said it would build two new fabs in Kaohsiung, but earlier this month said it was postponing construction of a 7-nanometer factory Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that construction of a factory in Kaohsiung to produce 28-nanometer chips is under way, with mass production set to start in 2024. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, made the announcement after reports about the company’s capacity expansion plans in Kaohsiung. Industry insiders said that TSMC on Friday awarded the contract to build the new fab to Fu Tsu Construction Co (互助營造). The chipmaker, a major Apple Inc supplier, did not directly respond to the reports, saying only that construction had started following the completion of land grading. TSMC previously said it intended to build a

20,000 new hires leave Foxconn’s China plantReuters, TAIPEIMore than 20,000 employees at Apple Inc supplier Foxconn Technology Group’s (富士康) huge Chinese plant, mostly new hires not yet working on production lines, have left, a Foxconn source familiar with the matter said yesterday. Concerns are mounting over Apple’s ability to deliver products for the busy holiday period as the worker unrest lingers at the Zhengzhou plant, which produces the US company’s iPhone 14 models. Photo: REUTERSThe departures could complicate Foxconn’s target of resuming full production by the end of this month, after the sometimes violent unrest, the source said. Foxconn on Thursday offered 10,000 yuan (US$1,395) to protesting recruits who agreed to resign and leave the plant. Another Foxconn source familiar with the matter said some new hires had left the campus, but did not elaborate on how many.

As I live in the US, I was able to receive a Pfizer vaccine, which made me wonder about what has happened with Taiwan’s domestically manufactured COVID-19 vaccine Medigen. Due to the heated local elections, Taiwan’s COVID-19 response has repeatedly been called into question. First, to be fair, Taiwan’s COVID-19 response was the envy of the world. Objectively speaking, the efficacy of the Medigen vaccine was reported to be 84 percent better than that of the AstraZeneca vaccine. They say hindsight is 20/20, but even with 20/20 hindsight, I still find it difficult to criticize Taiwan’s COVID-19 response.

Police rescue man, arrest five people in job scam raidStaff writer, with CNA, TAOYUANA man who had been locked in a room against his will when he went for a purported job interview was rescued on Tuesday by police, who arrested five people during a raid of the building where he was being confined, the Taoyuan Precinct said on Wednesday. The search was carried out after a friend of the victim filed a report that the man had been missing since Monday, the day of the job interview, said the Taoyuan police, who pursued the matter after it was referred to them by Taipei police. Inside the apartment, police found the 28-year-old man in a locked room, where he said he was being held against his will, the precinct said, adding that five suspects of a fraud ring were arrested. Police said they also found the bank cards and passbooks of six other people, who were believed to be victims of other fraudulent schemes. He was contacted for an interview and taken to the address in Taoyuan and locked in the room, said police, who added that the man was not hurt physically.

Alleged intimidation takes place in Kao’s office in recordingsBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterRecordings yesterday emerged with apparent conversations relating to threats and intimidation allegedly being uttered by a supervisor in Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Ann Kao’s (高虹安) office toward staff members. Kao, who is the party’s Hsinchu mayoral candidate in tomorrow’s election, has been involved in controversies and alleged financial improprieties connected with her legislative office. In the recordings, a supervisor at Kao’s legislative office allegedly threatens an assistant Kao fired, after the assistant requested wages owed and severance pay. Meanwhile, former TPP official Lin Guan-nian (林冠年) said he turned over computer data, audio recordings and office accounting documents, obtained from employees in Kao’s legislative office, to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Former assistants have accused Kao of wage fraud, embezzlement and illegal payroll deductions that allegedly were used to pay Kao’s personal expenditures.

They are scattered across India and fragmented into hundreds of clans, with different legends, languages and words for their gods — many, but not all follow Sarna Dharma. Salkhan Murmu, a former lawmaker and community activist who adheres to Sarna Dharma, is at the center of the protests pushing for government recognition. His message: If Sarna Dharma disappears, one of the country’s last links to its early inhabitants goes with it. ‘IDENTITY CRISIS’Some hope giving Sarna Dharma official status could stem their faith’s existential threats, ranging from migration to religious conversions. The gradual embrace of Hindu and Christian values by some indigenous tribal groups has exacerbated his concerns.

The art world’s female revolutionWoman artists are finally getting the recognition they deserve at the world’s top art museums, though non-Western artists are still under-represented. AFP, PARISIt was a relatively promising start for gender equality when London’s Royal Academy of Arts was set up in 1768, with two women artists included among its 40 founding members. “With each rehang at each of Tate’s four galleries, the gender balance improves,” said Polly Staple, head of Tate’s British Art collection. But with women increasingly welcomed into art courses from the late 20th century onwards, the tide is turning here, too. Women artists, such as Italy’s Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656) or Flemish painter Clara Peeters, were “known during their lifetime but have been erased over the centuries”, she said.

Army Colonel Hsiang Te-en, right, and retired lieutenant Shao Wei-chiang, whose faces have been digitally obscured, hold a written pledge of allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party in an undated photograph. Shao is a retired lieutenant who had until June 2019 worked as a Kinmen regional reporter for China Television. Implicated military personnel are being investigated by the Ministry of National Defense, the office said. The incident highlights the threat that Chinese intelligence operations pose to the military, the ministry said, adding that its preventive measures are effective. The ministry would also work closely with national security agencies to thwart Chinese intelligence-gathering efforts, it added.

Ceremony marks handover of new coast guard vesselStaff writer, with CNAA 1,000-tonne patrol vessel christened the Changhua (彰化), built by domestic shipbuilder CSBC Corp, was officially handed over to the Coast Guard Administration at a ceremony at the company’s shipyard in Keelung on Wednesday. The vessel is the longest and largest in Taiwan’s fleet, and can better handle large waves than earlier 1,000-tonne frigates, it said. The 1,000-tonne coast guard patrol vessel Changhua is pictured in Kaohsiung on Wednesday. The new frigate is also equipped with four high-pressure water cannons with a horizontal range of 120m, enabling coast guard officers to repel vessels in rough waters during monsoons, CSBC said. The vessel is also equipped with two security rescue boats with maximum speeds of 35 knots, which can be used to conduct rescue and anti-smuggling tasks, which improves the ability of crews to conduct law enforcement and rescue missions in Taiwan’s waters, it said.