EDITORIAL: Walesa’s thought experimentIn the week leading up to the 30th anniversary of Taiwan’s first direct presidential elections, former Polish president Lech Walesa visited the nation. One could approach Walesa’s ideas as a thought experiment. This was almost certainly only meant to be a thought experiment, too, to serve as pushback against the CCP narrative. Walesa’s ideas were avidly dissected in the media, albeit through the lens of ideological bias. As an ally, on equal footing within the context of regional integration, Taiwan would be of huge benefit to China.

Habermas and the world we have lostBy Peter J. VerovsekJurgen Habermas, who died recently at 96, was a titan of postwar philosophy. Habermas was an active participant in the public sphere he had theorized, a relentless provocateur who shaped nearly every major postwar German debate. However, Habermas knew how the world really works. While Habermas indelibly shaped politics and culture in postwar Germany, he increasingly turned his attention outward following the Cold War. Still, it must have been difficult for him to see how often his fellow participants in public debate rejected his positions.

Firefighters spray water to extinguish a fire at a car parts plant in Daejeon, South Korea, on Friday. A witness told Yonhap they heard an explosion. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung told officials to mobilize all available resources — including personnel and equipment — for rescue operations, his office said. In September last year, South Korea sentenced the CEO of battery maker Aricell to 15 years in prison over one of the country’s worst industrial fires. The 2024 blaze at the lithium battery factory in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, killed 22 people, most of them Chinese nationals.

Find stillness in the spring equinoxBy Hugo Tseng 曾泰元As the lingering chill of Jingzhe — the “Emergence from Hibernation” — begins to retreat, the celestial clock strikes a moment of rare, perfect stillness: the Spring Equinox. In the Chinese intellectual tradition, the equinox — or Chunfen — is more than a coordinate on a star chart; it is a manifestation of cosmic symmetry. The character fen carries a double meaning: It bisects the 24-hour day into equal light and dark and it cleaves the 90-day spring season into two 45-day chapters. While the world uses several variants, such as the formal vernal equinox, the term Spring Equinox remains the gold standard for its clarity and grace. Just as the ancients practiced the “Spring Sacrifice” at the Altar of the Sun to honor the solar light, modern health wisdom echoes a cautionary proverb: “Bundle up in spring” (chun wu).

Iran’s women’s soccer and ChinaBy Yeh Yu-cheng 葉昱呈The decision by five members of Iran’s women’s national soccer team to withdraw their asylum application in Australia has drawn global attention. The use of family members as leverage is a familiar tactic across authoritarian systems. In the past few years, China has repeatedly been accused of harassing and intimidating dissidents overseas. Those who openly criticize the regime face phone harassment, online smear campaigns, surveillance, and — most tellingly — pressure exerted through family members back home. This strategy of using family as leverage mirrors, almost exactly, what the Iranian player experienced.

Kenya and Uganda revive stalled railway extensionAFP, NAIROBIThe presidents of Kenya and Uganda yesterday met near their shared border to mark the multi-billion dollar, long-delayed extension of a Chinese-built railway that has left Kenya heavily in debt. Kenya spends roughly US$1 billion a year servicing Chinese debt, most of it borrowed to build the railway. Kenyan President William Ruto, left, and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni launch construction of the Kisumu-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway line in Kisumu yesterday. “The railway is part of the rationalization of our transport system, especially on the Uganda side, which is irrational and wasteful,” he said. China lent Kenya US$9.7 billion between 2000 and 2019, according to the Chinese Loans to Africa Database by Boston University, with around half of that going to the railway.

The Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIR) on Wednesday convened its second annual plenary meeting, the US Department of Defense said. Photo: BloombergThe conference reaffirmed the partnership’s commitment to accelerating defense industrial cooperation, the department said. Taiwan presented in an advisory capacity at the meeting, a department official told the Central News Agency. The conference featured a tabletop exercise aimed at identifying supply chain vulnerabilities and emphasized the need to accelerate the revival of arms production, Su said. Taiwan’s presence at the partnership’s meeting signaled a deepening in Taiwan-US supply chain cooperation, he said.

US mission to UN backs Taiwan’s participationBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterSupporting Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations remains a key part of the US Mission to the UN, US Representative to the UN Mike Waltz said on Friday. He also reiterated the US’ opposition to China’s distortion of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, saying it was an attempt to isolate Taiwan from the international community. “The continual support of Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations is a key part of our charge here,” Waltz said. “The world benefits from Taiwan’s expertise and resources, addressing some of the most critical challenges, particularly with the technology that they bring,” he said. Only by allowing Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the world could the world benefit from Taiwan — this is widely recognized and highly anticipated by many democratic countries, Lin said.

The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County is pictured in an undated photograph. The amendments provide a legislative basis for the continuation of nuclear power plant operations even after entering the decommissioning stage. Photo: CNAThe Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant and the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant were selected for the restart plan after Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) preliminary evaluations found the plants fit for reactivation, Lai said. Lai reiterated that nuclear safety, nuclear waste disposal and public consensus are the three key factors the Nuclear Safety Commission would consider. Sources said Taipower plans to submit the restart plan for the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant to the Nuclear Safety Commission on Friday.

Revenue generated from air navigation service charges rose 6.72 percent to about NT$2 billion, it said. The overflight air navigation service charge refers specifically to the fee charged to aircraft passing through a country’s airspace without landing, covering the air navigation and air traffic control services provided while the aircraft is en route. They were followed by VietJet Air, Jeju Air, Hong Kong Airlines, T’way Air, Asiana Airlines, Thai Airways and All Nippon Airways. The Hong Kong-Taipei route retained its position as the world’s busiest international air route last year, with 6,829,184 available seats, according to Official Aviation Guide data. FedEx, a US-based cargo-focused carrier, was ranked seventh in terms of the amount of air navigation service charges paid.

‘Hai Kun’ submarine issues ‘cosmetic,’ contractor saysStaff writer, with CNACSBC Corp, Taiwan, the main contractor for Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, has pledged to promptly address issues in the vessel’s interior raised by an opposition lawmaker on Friday, but said that it did not expect ongoing tests to be affected. In a statement later on Friday, CSBC categorized the issues raised by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) as “cosmetic issues” and said they could be immediately rectified. Ma raised questions on social media about the submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤), or Narwhal, citing photos and footage of President William Lai’s (賴清德) visit onboard the docked vessel on Thursday released by the Presidential Office. The indigenous submarine Hai Kun undergoes tests in Kaohsiung on Feb. 6. Former indigenous submarine program convener Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光) said in September 2023, when the submarine prototype was unveiled, that the submarine could be delivered to the navy before the end of 2024, but that did not happen.

US floats ‘winding down’ the war as bombings continueBloombergUS President Donald Trump has allowed the sale of some Iranian oil to contain surging crude prices and floated “winding down” military efforts. Trump’s comments came shortly after he ruled out a ceasefire and kept the door open to deploying ground troops. “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East,” Trump wrote on social media. The war also continued to affect Gulf neighbors, including the United Arab Emirates, which said Iran had fired eight drones and three missiles at the country. Iranian officials have become reluctant to even discuss reopening the Strait of Hormuz amid the intense bombing campaign, which continued overnight.

Singapore Airlines adding four more flights to TaipeiINCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, FridayBy Shelley Shan

TSMC chair gets honorary degreeBy Chen Chien-chih / Staff reporterCurrently, 95 percent of the world’s robot “brains” are manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), TSMC chairman C.C. Wei made the remarks after being awarded an honorary doctorate by Asia University yesterday for his long-standing leadership of the company and his significant contributions to the global semiconductor industry. Wei speaks after being awarded an honorary doctorate by Asia University in Taichung yesterday. Companies such as Nvidia, AMD and other US firms design these brains, but 95 percent of them are manufactured by TSMC, he said. He said that he hopes all the transistors are made by TSMC, because the “reliability of robots cannot be compromised.”

Lung surgeries not overused: ministryStaff writer, with CNALobectomy numbers have not risen significantly, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said on Wednesday in response to reports that the government’s lung cancer screening program has led to overdiagnosis. Types of lung resection surgeries include lobectomy, segmentectomy and wedge resection. LDCT screening has been promoted for three years, but the number of surgeries has not shown a significant deviation, Chen said. For hospitals seeing a higher volume of surgeries where the final diagnosis turns out not to be lung cancer, Chen added that the NHIA has stepped in to help review and guide their surgical practices. In the future, the NHIA would compare data with the HPA to better track the subsequent treatment of people who test positive in LDCT screening, Chen said.