US remains largest debtor to TaiwanGROWING OWINGS: While Luxembourg and China swapped the top three spots, the US continued to be the largest exposure for Taiwan for the 41st consecutive quarterBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterThe US remained the largest debtor nation to Taiwan’s banking sector for the 41st consecutive quarter at the end of September, after local banks’ exposure to the US market rose more than 2 percent from three months earlier, the central bank said. Exposure to the US increased to US$198.896 billion, up US$4.026 billion, or 2.07 percent, from US$194.87 billion in the previous quarter, data released by the central bank showed on Friday. Photo: BloombergLuxembourg, known as a leader in providing global cross-border fund registration services, rose a spot to become the second largest debtor nation, with Taiwanese banks’ exposure increasing US$2.706 billion to US$50.767 billion, a record high, the central bank said. China slipped one spot from a quarter earlier down to third-largest debtor nation, despite Taiwanese banks’ exposure growing US$1.065 billion to US$49.561 billion last quarter, central bank data showed. The mild increase in Taiwanese banks’ exposure to China primarily reflected the market’s cautious sentiment toward China’s economic prospects, it said.

Taiwan stock market outperforms Japan, South KoreaAI AUGMENTED: A national economic specialization on artificial intelligence and adjacent industries has pushed Taiwan further and faster than neighbors in recent yearsStaff writer, with CNATaiwan’s stock market has outperformed markets in Japan and South Korea for the past four years because of the strong growth in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware, a particular strength of Taiwan’s economy, the central bank said. The central bank said the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s benchmark TAIEX index has risen about 120 percent from a low of 12,666 points in 2022 to 27,867 on Dec. 15. A woman walks past signage at the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp headquarters in Taipei on May 6. The central bank said AI applications for end-users still need more time to mature and downside risks are possible for the global supply chain, which could create uncertainty over the local economy. However, corrections should occur over time and the evolution of AI technology would evolve and pave the way for longer term economic growth, the central bank said.

DPP legislator Lai Hui-yuan (賴惠員) also warned that the budget impasse could disrupt the nationwide TPASS system for public transport. The proposed special budget for defense spending was blocked in committee again last week. For example, the indispensable Taiwan Defense News Tracker pointed out on X that the first 60 Paladin self-propelled artillery systems come out of the special budget, while the second batch of 60 are planned for the annual defense budget. The noise they make about spouses from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and their rights, the defense budget, and similar, are intended to distract from this real, distressing fact. The budget battle conceals that in these revolutionary times, this is a business-as-usual budget, funding large projects and handing out subsidies.

EDITORIAL: Cheng forgets what it is to debateChinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) was on Monday last week invited to give a talk to students of Soochow University, but her responses to questions raised by students and lecturers became a controversial incident and sparked public discussion over the following days. Her answers revealed her prejudiced and condescending attitude, and her incapability (or intentional unwillingess) to explain, discuss and defend the KMT’s position and policies on important public issues. As an activist in student movements against the then-KMT’s authoritarian regime during her university years, Cheng should know that university campuses are traditionally hubs for open debate, critical thinking and the clash of diverse viewpoints. However, she chose to stigmatize students and had a disrespectful attitude, which only led people to think that her question dodging was because the KMT’s stance and policies cannot stand up to public scrutiny. Cheng on Saturday finally admitted that she anticipates a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the first half of next year, but denied speculations that the KMT agreed to certain preconditions for the meeting to take place.

‘Bilingual 2030’ needs improvingBy Kuo Chang-yi 郭昌益The government’s “Bilingual 2030” policy is undeniably an ambitious blueprint aimed at enhancing Taiwan’s international competitiveness. In many schools, bilingual education is not implemented across all grade levels due to a lack of resources. A student might have a bilingual physical education class in third grade, only to return to a fully Mandarin-taught curriculum in fourth grade. This is not bilingual education; it is merely a performance that sacrifices the depth of subject knowledge and fails to improve English proficiency. The goal should be to foster the ability to acquire knowledge through English reading, rather than just learning English for tests.

Israel seals off village after attackCONFLICT: Violence has surged in the West Bank in the past two years, and Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, while 44 Israelis have been killedAFP, QABATIYAH, Palestinian TerritoriesIsraeli forces on Saturday imposed a lockdown on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, their second day of operations there after a local resident killed two people in Israel. In the attack on Friday a 34-year-old Palestinian man killed two people in northern Israel. “This period is characterized by lone attackers and individuals staying illegally in [Israel]. During the same period, violence has also surged in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. According to official Israeli figures, at least 44 Israelis, soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the same period in the West Bank.

Corporate AI is a threat to freedomBy Richard K. SherwinEight years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that whoever masters artificial intelligence (AI) “will be the ruler of the world.” Since then, investments in the technology have skyrocketed, with US tech giants (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta) spending more than US$320 billion this year alone. There is a more immediate danger: Increasingly powerful, but opaque, AI algorithms are threatening freedom itself. The threat to freedom is twofold. Users of online services might think they are getting what they want — based, for example, on previous viewing choices or past purchases. Now, corporations seek to increase profits not only by marketing AI services, but also by deploying them to maximize the time users spend online, thereby increasing their exposure to targeted advertising.

The war is not coming, it is already quietly hereBy Hsiao Hsi-huei 蕭錫惠Taiwan does not exist in a state of true peace. Its situation is more akin to a prolonged, unofficial state of political warfare. This is the essence of political warfare: influencing a society’s decisions without ever firing a shot. A series of espionage cases uncovered this year are concrete examples of this kind of political warfare. If legislators’ travel to China continues to lack oversight and transparency, it would leave a gap in the defenses against political warfare.

Households with elderly members increased by 1.15 million in a decadeBy Hsu I-ping and Fion Khan / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe number of households with elderly members has increased by 1.15 million over the past decade, creating a growing scene of aging families across the nation, Ministry of the Interior data showed. The figure represented an increase of about 1.15 million households with elderly residents, compared with about 2.27 million such households, or 26.61 percent, in September 2016 — an increase of more than 8 percentage points over the past decade. Taiwan’s low birthrate has driven household structures to shift from multigenerational families to single-generation households, housing researcher Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said. In 2000, children accounted for 21 percent of the population, while elderly people made up 9 percent, he said. Over the years, the number of children has dropped from 4.7 million to 2.74 million — a decline of 42 percent, while the elderly population has surged from 1.92 million to 4.49 million — an increase of 134 percent, Huang said.

Myanmar’s junta holds election after years of civil warAFP, YANGON, MyanmarVoters yesterday trickled to Myanmar’s heavily restricted polls, with the ruling junta touting the exercise as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government and triggered a civil war. Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, while her hugely popular party has been dissolved and was not taking part. A woman walks past an election banner during the first phase of Myanmar’s general election in Yangon yesterday. “We guarantee it to be a free and fair election,” junta chief Min Aung Hlaing told reporters after casting his ballot in the capital, Naypyidaw. At a downtown Yangon station near the gleaming Sule Pagoda — the site of huge pro-democracy protests after the 2021 coup — 45-year-old Swe Maw dismissed international criticism.

The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. A map with Taiwan’s seven-color earthquake intensity scale shows that an intensity level of 4 was recorded in several administrative regions after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 11:05pm on Saturday. A graphic shows the peak ground acceleration of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 11:05pm on Saturday. The Hualien quake was a shallow fault-zone event, occurring at 15.5km deep, while Saturday’s Yilan quake was a subduction-zone earthquake caused by the Philippine Sea Plate subducting northward beneath the Eurasian Plate, Wu said.

Draft revisions proposed by DDP Legislator Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) and 19 others would introduce the legal designation of “gray zone actors” and mandate that such actors proactively disclose their funding sources. First, “gray zone actors” who accept direct or indirect funding from infiltration sources, but fail to report or deliberately file false reports. Third, any person who, under the instruction, commission or funding of infiltration sources, donates activity funds to “gray zone” actors. “Gray zone” actors who fail to comply with reporting requirements, submit false reports or obstruct official inspections should bear criminal responsibility, it says. Separately, DPP Legislators Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) and Shen Fa-hui (沈發惠) have proposed amendments to the National Security Act (國家安全法) to address gaps in penalties for participating in organizations affiliated with foreign hostile forces or facilitating them.

Trump, Zelenskiy meet to discuss peace planAFP, PALM BEACH, FloridaUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was to sit down with US President Donald Trump yesterday and seek to secure his stamp of approval for a new proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speak to the press as they meet in Halifax, Canada, on Saturday. “This attack is again Russia’s answer on our peace efforts, and this really showed that Putin doesn’t want peace,” he said. Zelenskiy held a conference call while in Canada with European leaders who, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, pledged their full support for his peace efforts. Russia has accused Ukraine and its European backers of trying to “torpedo” a previous US-brokered plan to stop the fighting.

Taiwan celebrates Christmas, kind of, once again after 25 yearsTaiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That

Taiwan celebrates Christmas, kind of, once again after 25 yearsTaiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That