CCP seeks to control optics of Lee visit, academic saysBy Chen Yu-fu and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerChina’s state-run Xinhua news agency’s near-exclusive coverage of Monday’s China-South Korea meeting highlighted Beijing’s anxiety over the political optics of the visit and its desire to control the narrative, Tunghai University Cross-Strait Research Center deputy executive director Hung Pu-chao (洪浦釗) said yesterday. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) as part of Lee’s four-day trip to China, his first since taking office in June last year. Xinhua had near-exclusive coverage of the Lee-Xi meeting, showing that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was eager to set a positive tone for the event, Hung said. Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung inspect an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony for the South Korean leader at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. Discussions between Xi and Lee were focused on “resolving bilateral disputes,” and, therefore, issues involving third parties were largely avoided, he added.

No backup plan when TPass funds end, bureau saysBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterThe Highway Bureau yesterday said it does not have a backup plan for when local governments run out of funding for the TPass program at the end of this month. Funding for Phase 1 of the TPass program expired last month and the government has been barred from accessing the remaining funds. Photo: Hung Jui-chin, Taipei TimesHowever, the budget cannot be appropriated, as the legislature has yet to review the budget plan for this year. The budget allocated for the TPass program this year is NT$7.52 billion. There are about 698,000 monthly TPass users and about 379,000 use the TPass’ frequent rider program, bureau data showed.

Lai and Cho to take budget fight to local levelBy Chen Yun and Jason Pan / Staff reportersPresident William Lai (賴清德) is to join Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators in holding public events around the country to promote the passage of this year’s general budget, a source said on Sunday. Cho plans to organize events in collaboration with local leaders to open up discussions about how the blocking of the budget by opposition party legislators would affect people’s livelihoods, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. President William Lai, right, shakes hands with a woman during a visit to a senior care center in Yilan County on Friday last week. Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei TimesLai and Cho in the past few days have emphasized close cooperation between the central and local governments, they said. The DPP plans to commission surveys and publicize the results, to show that the actions of opposition parties to block the budget run contrary to mainstream public sentiment,” they said.

Air quality to deteriorate nationwide from tomorrowA strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants wereBy Kayleigh Madjar

CCP paired Taiwan drills with cyberattacks, cognitive warfare: NSBStaff Wirter, with CNATaipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) Taiwan’s National Security Bureau (NSB) said that between Dec. 29 and Jan. 2 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) paired military drills against Taiwan with information operations and cyberattacks, spreading more than 19,000 "controversial" messages and launching millions of hacking intrusions. Its written report on the drills and related security threats had already been delivered to legislators ahead of the committee session. In its report, the NSB said the CCP launched the drills to counter support for Taiwan from international democratic allies, divert attention from domestic problems and portray military strength as unaffected by anti-corruption efforts. The CCP used targeted drills against Taiwan to redirect public dissatisfaction toward nationalist sentiment framed as resistance to external interference, the agency said. The NSB said the drills featured compound threats including military and gray-zone coercion, cognitive warfare and cyberattacks, with "controversial" content concentrated on platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Threads and X.

Acute hepatitis A hit 9-year high in 2025CASES TOTAL 477: The CDC said only about 10% of people aged 21 to 40 have immunity against hepatitis A, while the rate is 40% among people aged 41 to 50By Lee I-chia / Staff reporterThere were 477 acute hepatitis A cases reported last year, the most in nine years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The hepatitis A case total last year was the highest since 2017, comprising 447 locally acquired cases and 30 imported cases, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. Centers for Disease Control Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin presents data on acute hepatitis A at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. “Unlike hepatitis B or C, acute hepatitis A primarily transmits through the fecal-oral route, meaning that people can become infected by ingesting contaminated food or having close personal contact with an infected person,” CDC Acute Infectious Diseases Division Director Yang Ching-hui (楊靖慧) said. People with pre-existing liver disease or chronic hepatitis who contract the disease have significantly increased risk of developing severe illness, including acute liver failure, but people who fully recover from an acute hepatitis A infection generally obtain lifelong immunity and do not become chronic carriers, she said.

Taiwan not part of China: Hei SekiSANCTIONED: The Japanese lawmaker, who became a Japanese citizen in 2007, was banned last year by Beijing from entering China for his support of TaiwanStaff writer, with CNAChina-born Japanese lawmaker Hei Seki said upon his arrival in Taipei yesterday that his trip proves that “Taiwan is not part of China, Taiwan is Taiwan,” and that the two countries are not subordinate to each other. “The People’s Republic of China [PRC] has sanctioned me and forbidden me from entering PRC territory. Japanese lawmaker Hei Seki, center, waves to supporters gathered to welcome him at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) yesterday. Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times“Taiwan is Taiwan, Taiwan is the ROC, and has no relations with the PRC,” he said, adding that his trip proved that Taiwan is an independent country. Born in China, Seki graduated from Peking University before moving to Japan to study in 1988, one year before the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Cars, industry blamed for southern Taiwan pollutionBy Huang Yi-ching and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerVehicle emissions and industrial pollution play a significant role in triggering poor air quality alerts in the nation’s south, the Ministry of Environment said yesterday, citing research by academics in Taiwan and the US. NASA airplanes equipped with sophisticated sensors conducted three flyovers in 2024 in collaboration with Taiwanese academics to measure air pollution using LIDAR, drones, balloons and observation teams, the researchers told a news conference. Pollutants from vehicles were notable in measurements on days of dangerously poor air quality, showing the effect that private vehicles have on air pollution, said You Chih-yuan (游智淵), a scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Environment. The findings might prompt the ministry to devote more resources to regulating air pollution generated by daily life, You said. Surges in pollution from industrial sources might have tipped the balance during periods of poor or dangerously poor air quality, said Wang Chia-lin (王家麟), a professor of chemistry at the university.

The US is doing the dirty work that Latin America’s leaders would notLatin American governments have a chance to help shape a democratic exit that enables a recovery in Venezuela and limits Trump’s influenceBy J.P. Spinetto / Bloomberg OpinionRemoving Venezuela’s dictator introduced “Trump’s corollary” in Latin America with an exclamation point. Reactions among Latin American leaders split along predictable ideological lines. Rather than strongly protesting a historic US intervention on South American soil, Latin American governments might pause to reflect on the many chances they missed to confront the region’s worst political catastrophe of the century. Latin America’s heavy electoral calendar this year will also test the impact of Trump’s interventionist move. J.P. Spinetto is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Latin American business, economic affairs and politics.

Christian also said the companies would not go back until sanctions against the country are removed. Venezuela would also have to reform its laws to allow for larger investment by foreign oil companies. Venezuela nationalized the industry in the 1970s and in the 2000s ordered a forced migration to joint ventures controlled by its state oil company, PDVSA. Most companies negotiated exits and migrated, including Chevron, while a handful of others did not reach deals and filed for arbitration. Chevron would be positioned to benefit the most from any potential oil opening in Venezuela, said Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin America Energy Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute in Houston, Texas.

Maduro’s capture is a dilemma for BeijingBy Tzou Jiing-wen 鄒景雯The US on Saturday last week moved swiftly and decisively to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, bringing them to New York for trial. Afterward, the streets were full of Venezuelans celebrating Maduro’s downfall — the direct result of a carefully calculated strategy. There have even been reports of Chinese military advisers operating in Venezuela, with the country’s military being touted as the strongest in South America. Yet, when the US military launched its operation, Beijing did nothing beyond verbal protests — incapable and unwilling to intervene or militarily obstruct it. This is the dilemma Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) faces after the failure of the China model.

Bulgaria’s euro moment hurt by political turmoilBy Slav Okov, Andrea Dudik and Irina Vilcu / BloombergIt is hard to ignore Bulgaria’s heart-on-sleeve embrace of the EU. The switch is meant to crown almost two decades of integration after Bulgaria joined the EU and then its Schengen customs-free travel zone. The EU has repeatedly criticized Bulgaria’s failure to improve rule of law and its low efficiency in probing high-ranking officials for corruption. However, unlike in Hungary, Poland or Slovakia, pro-EU parties have dominated the political scene in Bulgaria, affording them some protection. “Those parties have consistently leveraged their standing within their European political families as a form of external validation and whitewashing,” said Goran Georgiev, senior analyst at the Center for the Study of Democracy, an independent think tank in Sofia.

Taiwan invasion would cost China massively: US think tankBy Hollie Younger / Staff writerConflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released yesterday. The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) yesterday released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. It details how a minor conflict or a major war scenario would affect the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in contingencies expected to occur between this year and 2030. As for the international costs, a major conflict could set China back “decades on the global stage,” it says. However, Chinese leaders would likely view the international implications of a minor conflict as “manageable,” it says.

Court sentences ex-coast guard member for spyingBy Sam Garcia / Staff writer, with CNAThe Kaohsiung branch of the High Court today sentenced a former member of the coast guard to seven years and eight months in prison for leaking national and military secrets to China for almost two years, earning more than NT$580,000 (US$18,403) in criminal proceeds. The defendant, surnamed Lee (李), was suspended after the case came to light, the Coast Guard Administration said, adding that he later resigned. Lee had served as a member of the coast guard’s southern fleet branch since 2022, the court said in a statement. Although driven by his family’s financial needs, Lee’s actions endangered national security and damaged public morale in the defense of freedom and democracy, the court said. The court found him guilty of breaching his duties by accepting bribes and intentionally endangering national security by delivering confidential documents, electronic records and state secrets to China.

Taiwan hopes for smooth democratic transition in Venezuela: MOFABy Chen Yu-fu and Hollie Younger / Staff reporter, with staff writerTaiwan hopes that Venezuela can smoothly and peacefully transition to a democratic system and wishes to further bilateral relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said today. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei speaks to reporters at a news conference in Taipei today. Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei TimesThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is closely monitoring Venezuela’s economic and political situation, domestically and internationally, to ensure that it can respond swiftly if necessary. That includes the role of Venezuela in international drug trafficking and the humanitarian crisis caused by its authoritarian rule, which has long affected local and regional stability, the ministry said. Taiwan is also working to protect and assist its citizens in Venezuela, it said.