Councilors in HK swear new oath after hundreds quitAFP, HONG KONGDozens of local community politicians in Hong Kong yesterday swore a newly required loyalty oath to China, after hundreds of their colleagues quit in protest as authorities try to purge the territory of “unpatriotic” elements. Yesterday, the first 24 councillors took the oath in a closed-door ceremony, the Hong Kong government said. About 180 district councilors are expected to take oaths in the coming weeks, and those who refuse to attend would lose their seats. However, a majority of the elected councilors have quit rather than adhere to the vetting process. The three leaders were hit with a subversion charge after they refused to cooperate with a national security investigation.

Biden calls Xi as faltering talks draw ire in the USAP, WASHINGTONUS President Joe Biden on Thursday spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) amid growing frustration in Washington that high-level engagement between the leaders’ top advisers has been largely unfruitful in the early months of the Biden presidency. US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on Thursday. He told Biden that the two sides should cooperate on climate change, epidemic prevention, economic recovery and other issues, Xinhua reported. Ahead of the call, a senior US official said that the White House has been unsatisfied with early engagements with Beijing. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that White House officials were hopeful that Xi hearing directly from Biden could prove beneficial.

Eslite Spectrum’s online sales double amid level 3 alertBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterEslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活), which runs the Eslite bookstore chain and department stores, has seen e-commerce sales double from June to last month compared with a year earlier, it said on Thursday, as online shopping soared during a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert earlier this year. The boost in online sales came as strict disease prevention regulations in May to curb local COVID-19 infections affected sales at traditional retail outlets. Eslite in December last year launched a new Web site and mobile app to further tap into the e-commerce market. Black card status is awarded to “gold card” members who make NT$50,000 in purchases, they said, adding that this low barrier to entry led to the rapid increase of black card members. Black card members on average make 1.2 purchases per week, both online and at retail outlets, they said.

Air force’s operational costs surge as China steps up warplane incursionsBy Aaron Tu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerPeople’s Liberation Army (PLA) incursions into Taiwan’s airspace have led to a surge in the operational costs of the Republic of China Air Force, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force’s equipment and facility costs are projected to reach a record NT$29.2 billion (US$1.05 billion) next fiscal year, the ministry said in a budget report dated Tuesday. They include NT$17.2 billion for maintenance and NT$11.9 billion for purchasing new materiel, up 56 percent from fiscal 2016, the ministry said. These costs conform to the trend of rising year-on-year maintenance costs, which stem from missions to intercept PLA aircraft, it said. In 2018, it shifted its focus from aerial circumnavigation of Taiwan’s airspace to incursions of the southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ), it said.

Taipower breaks ground for data hub in ChanghuaBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterState-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday broke ground for a cloud data center in Changhua County, as the firm is seeking to build a smart grid to handle rising electricity consumption amid increasing demand for energy from renewable sources. “Taiwan is undergoing an energy transition,” Taipower spokesman Chang Ting-shu (張廷舒), said. Officials and Taipower representatives attend the groundbreaking ceremony for a cloud data center in Changhua County yesterday. “We are planning to build smaller, more responsive gas plants that can be very responsive to demand,” Chang said. The center is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified “green building,” using 25 percent less energy than an average data center, Taipower said, adding that it would run on locally generated renewable energy.

Premier Su Tseng-chang provides details about the Quintuple Stimulus Voucher program at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Tainan City Councilor Tsai Yu-hui holds a sign that reads: “I don’t want Quintuple Stimulus Vouchers, I want vaccines,” at his office in Tainan yesterday. Photo: Wang Shu-hsiu, Taipei TimesIn exchange for being allowed to participate, online businesses would reduce transaction and advertisement fees charged to small businesses and farmers, Su said. The vouchers could not be used for transactions connected with stock trades, investment products, taxes, credit card fees, fines, foreign-based online retailers, tobacco products or buying other types of vouchers, Su said. The 13,000 foreigners who were eligible for the Triple Stimulus Voucher program would also be eligible for the Quintuple Stimulus Vouchers, the official added.

COVID-19: CECC adds four cases linked to clusterBy Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterA cluster of COVID-19 infections involving a preschool and a housing complex in New Taipei City has grown to 27 cases, after the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported four locally transmitted infections and two imported cases. The Taipei cases were an employee of a remodeling firm who was working at the New Taipei City housing complex and his wife, Chen said. A member of the New Taipei City Environmental Protection Bureau sanitizes an apartment building in the city yesterday, after several COVID-19 cases were reported at the building. The other two local cases were people living in the same household in New Taipei City, Chen said, adding that a connection with the cluster is unlikely. As of yesterday, the center had reported 16,062 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 1,447 imported and 14,561 domestic infections, as well as 838 deaths.

Fidelity cuts Ant valuation amid PRC crackdownBloombergFidelity Investments has slashed its estimate of Ant Group Co’s (螞蟻集團) valuation for at least the second time this year, underscoring the deteriorating outlook for Jack Ma’s (馬雲) fintech giant as the Chinese government ramps up regulation of the industry. Another filing showed that Fidelity might have reduced its valuation even further in July, to about US$67 billion. BlackRock Inc assigned Ant a valuation of US$174 billion, its filing showed on Aug. 26. T Rowe Price Group Inc set it at US$189 billion, its filing showed on Aug. 25. Fidelity’s valuation for Ant in June was 48 percent lower than when it invested in the company in 2018.

Australia threaten to cancel match with AfghanistanAFP, SYDNEYCricket Australia yesterday said that it would cancel a maiden Test match against Afghanistan unless the Taliban backtracks on a reported ban on women playing sport. “I don’t think women will be allowed to play cricket, because it is not necessary that women should play cricket,” Wasiq told Australian broadcaster SBS on Wednesday. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this.”Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan reacts during their Cricket World Cup match against Pakistan at Headingley in Leeds, England, on June 29, 2019. “If recent media reports that women’s cricket will not be supported in Afghanistan are substantiated, Cricket Australia would have no alternative but to not host Afghanistan for the proposed Test Match due to be played in Hobart.”The Australian Cricketers’ Association said it “unequivocally” supported Cricket Australia’s position. “What is happening now in Afghanistan is a human rights issue that transcends the game of cricket,” the association said.

Squeezed into a cluttered corner of Singan Temple’s courtyard, this depiction of Chu Yi-kuei is easy to overlook. The more obvious of the two Chu Yi-kuei statues in Yamuliao Chu Yi-kuei Culture Park in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District. Chu Yi-kuei has been deified as the Second City God in Tainan’s Siaonan Chenghuang. To celebrate the exploits of Chu Yi-kuei, in 1998 the government unveiled the Yamuliao Chu Yi-kuei Culture Park (鴨母寮朱一貴文化園區) in a rural part of Neimen. I’ve not been able to visit or even confirm a formal address for what’s known simply as the Duck King Temple (鴨母王廟).

Sea aiming for US$6.3bn equity dealRAPID EXPANSION: The pandemic helped the gaming and onine shopping firm’s shares grow 70 percent, and now 11 million shares worth US$3.8 billion are on offerBloombergSea Ltd aims to raise US$6.3 billion in the largest equity offering of this year, which would propel Southeast Asia’s largest company’s global expansion. Including convertible bonds, the overall deal would be the biggest equity raise since the one by T-Mobile US Inc in June last year. The deal, offered via Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America, comes at a time of resurgence in cross-border issuance from Asia. Sea’s latest raising of capital follows a US$2.6 billion stock sale in December last year and a US$1.35 billion deal in 2019. Sea is now turning to fintech for further growth beyond gaming and e-commerce, while also expanding beyond the region.

EU-Taipei ties rise as China faltersBy Huynh Tam Sang and Tran Hoang NhungWhile China is losing its luster in Europe, Taiwan’s importance is growing in the eyes of European countries. On Wednesday last week, the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs hailed Taiwan as a “key partner” in the Indo-Pacific region, and urged the EU to push for stronger ties with Taiwan amid China’s rise. As central and eastern European countries are less economically dependent on China, they might not be as impacted by China’s heavy sanctions. European countries are forging relations with Taiwan while re-evaluating their ties with China. Instead, Taiwan should focus on tightening diplomatic and economic relations with central and eastern European countries, and seek cooperation with like-minded partners.

Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei TimesThe show will open on Sept. 18 to mark the launch of the Taipei Music Center’s Cultural Cube, which will be the nation’s first exhibition hall dedicated to Taiwan’s pop music. Many people hear the words “pop music” in Taiwan and immediately think of Mandopop crooners wailing about their lost love, or teenybopper idol groups dancing frenetically to upbeat electronic grooves. As time moves ever forward, pop music has truthfully documented society’s sweeping transformation.”The exhibition is thoughtfully designed, with many specially-themed rooms designed to provide an immersive experience. With towels from various music festivals hanging from the ceiling, this room reflects the importance that independent acts have had on the nation’s music scene. A view of the Taipei Music Center complex and its surroundings from the stairwell.

Cannabis use booms on campusesBy Chen Hung-hui 陳宏煇On Aug. 27, the Executive Yuan announced that it would make cannabis the main target in the government’s fight against drugs and adopt three major strategies to tackle it. Cannabis users are by no means few in number. Many of them have high social status or returned to Taiwan after studying overseas, and most of them started smoking cannabis while at university. One day, after a student society event, he and his friends went to his rented apartment to smoke cannabis; the student later died. They are out of their parents’ control and it is not easy for the police to monitor them, so they can easily be influenced by their peers to fall into bad habits, such as smoking cannabis.

EDITORIAL: Change hall to help nation healAfter the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949, it retreated to Taiwan to establish the Republic of China’s government-in-exile. Led by self-styled “Generalissimo” Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), the government lacked money to rebuild Taipei, which had been heavily bombed during World War II. The Executive Yuan established a funeral committee to construct a lavish memorial to Chiang, selecting architect Yang Cho-cheng (楊卓成) as lead designer. The hall, which sits at the eastern side of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park, is flanked by the National Theater and National Concert Hall. On Wednesday, the Transitional Justice Commission announced its plan to transform the hall, which includes removing a large bronze statue of Chiang.