Combined exposure to China at the nation’s 15 financial services firms fell 3.5 percent to NT$2.55 trillion from NT$2.64 trillion a quarter earlier, mainly because their banking unit’s call loans and deposits declined 13 percent to NT$495 billion, commission data showed. Combined lending to China dropped 2.3 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$722 billion, while investments remained flat at NT$1.33 trillion compared with the previous quarter, data showed. That indicated a change in their attitude toward the market, given their combined exposure to China increased from the first quarter to the second quarter, Hou said. Cathay Financial Holding Co’s (國泰金控) banking unit trimmed its lending to China as it became more conservative amid higher uncertainty, company spokesman Daniel Teng (鄧崇儀) said by telephone. Overall, China and Hong Kong remained local financial services companies’ second and fourth-largest markets respectively in terms of exposure, data showed.

AFP, OTTAWACanada is to impose a levy on Internet giants such as Amazon.com Inc, Google and Facebook Inc similar to France’s digital services tax that created tensions with Washington, two ministers said on Monday. “We’ve been very clear that we want to make sure that digital companies pay their fair share of taxes in our country,” Canadian Minister of Finance Bill Morneau told reporters. Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault said that Ottawa intends to roll out the tax “in the shortest amount of time possible,” without specifying an exact time line. Washington has said that the OECD talks are key to resolving the taxation issue and has threatened to impose tariffs on French products over that nation’s digital services tax. The French tax imposes a 3 percent levy on revenue earned by technology firms in France.

AP, WASHINGTONThe US government across three White House administrations misled the public about failures in the Afghanistan war, often suggesting success where it did not exist, according to thousands of pages of documents obtained by the Washington Post. The documents reveal deep frustrations about the US’ conduct of the Afghanistan war, including the ever-changing US strategy, the struggles to develop an effective Afghan fighting force, and persistent failures to defeat the Taliban and combat corruption throughout the government. SIGAR has produced seven reports so far from the more than 400 interviews, and several more are in the works. The documents quote officials close to the 18-year war effort describing a campaign by the US government to distort the grim reality of the war. The Pentagon released a statement saying there has been “no intent” by the department to mislead Congress or the public.

AP, OTTAWAThe Canadian government on Monday said that it is charging Volkswagen AG for importing vehicles that company executives knew breached the nation’s emissions standards. The German automaker faces 58 charges of contravening the Canadian Environmental Protection Act for importing 128,000 vehicles with illegal emissions standards between 2008 and 2015. “At the hearing, the parties will submit for the court’s consideration a proposed plea resolution and seek its approval,” the statement said. “The details of the proposed plea resolution will be presented at the hearing.”Environment Canada officials on Monday published notice of the charges, but said that they would not comment further because the matter is before the courts. Volkswagen pleaded guilty to charges in the case in the US in March 2017 and was fined more than US$4.3 billion.

Six deaths were confirmed after Monday’s eruption of the White Island volcano. Experts said there was a 50 percent chance of another small eruption within a day and rescue teams did not want to take any chances. The tragedy will have an ongoing effect on the town of Whakatane, which road signs tout as the gateway to White Island. Whether the island would ever host tourists again remains uncertain after the tragedy that unfolded when the volcano exploded a little after 2pm on Monday. He told the New Zealand Herald the eruption at first looked beautiful, but quickly turned menacing.

By Sean Lin / Staff reporterAs the world marked Human Rights Day yesterday, the Legislative Yuan passed the Organic Act of the National Human Rights Committee (國家人權委員會組織法), paving the way for the establishment of a committee to promote human rights as part of the Control Yuan. The committee is to be created to guarantee people’s constitutional rights; lay down conditions necessary for protecting and improving human rights; ensure that social justice and equality are realized; bring the nation in line with international human rights standards; and establish the universal value of human rights and related regulations, the act says. It is to push human rights legislation based on international literature on human rights, the act says. It is to make recommendations on legislation, legal amendments and constitutional amendments based on international standards on human rights, in addition to publishing annual national human rights reports, it stipulates. It is to promote education on human rights and facilitate international exchanges and cooperation on human rights, the act says.

By Shelley Shan / Staff reporterStarLux Airlines Co (星宇航空) has officially become the nation’s seventh international carrier after the Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved its application yesterday. The CAA will be in charge of issuing an air operator’s certificate to the airline following the ministry’s approval, Lin said. Although it has obtained an air operator’s certificate, StarLux still has to apply for an airline call sign from the International Civil Aviation Organization, as well as an airline code from the International Air Transport Association, the company said. The airline code is used to label the flight number in the ticket-booking system, it said. StarLux this year also signed a contract to purchase 17 Airbus A350 aircraft, which are to be delivered between 2021 and 2024.

“They look down on us,” Han said at a rally in Taipei. “Southeast Asian countries are no longer taking Taiwan seriously because of its poor economic performance, diplomatic difficulties and domestic problems.”Although the Thai government has since postponed the implementation of the rule, it should be taken as a sign that Taiwan is “quickly going downhill,” Han said. At a separate rally in Taipei, Han reiterated that neighboring nations no longer consider Taiwan as deserving of their attention. “The world is forgetting Taiwan and Taiwan is forgetting the world,” he said. “This plan would guarantee that Taiwan becomes completely different in 10 years,” he said, adding that he aims to improve the nation’s economy and “revive its lost glory.”

BloombergChina’s exports unexpectedly fell last month as global demand waned and a deal with the US continued to elude negotiators, while imports rebounded. Exports dropped 1.1 percent in US dollar terms from a year earlier, while imports rose 0.3 percent, the customs administration said yesterday. Economists had forecast that exports would rise 0.8 percent while imports would drop by 1.4 percent. The numbers are a bit surprising as exports unexpectedly fell while imports returned to growth, Singapore-based Commerzbank AG senior emerging markets economist Zhou Hao (周浩) said. China’s trade surplus with the US stood at US$24.60 billion last month, easing from the previous month’s surplus of US$26.45 billion.

By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterHundreds of foreign migrant workers yesterday held a rally in Taipei calling for the broker system to be replaced with a “government to government” (G2G) scheme. Starting at about 1:45pm, migrant workers and advocates marched from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters, before stopping outside the Ministry of Labor near Taipei Railway Station. Abolish the broker system.”The rally’s organizers said that they spent a year collecting the stories of 15 migrant workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to be printed as a book. The Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ) Hotline Association has been supporting the rights of migrant workers for many years, association secretary-general Tsai Ying-chih (蔡瑩芝) said. “So as a LGBT group we also wanted to come and support” the migrant workers, she said.

By Shelley Shan / Staff reporterThe Freeway Bureau has finished a feasibility study for extending the freeway overpass connecting New Taipei City’s Wugu District (五股) and Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅) to Miaoli County. The extension of the overpass, which is alongside the National Sun Yat-sen Freeway (National Freeway No. If the overpass extension was built from Yangmei to Toufen City (頭份) in Miaoli, an estimated 30 percent of traffic from Freeway No. The study showed that the proposed overpass extension from Yangmei to Miaoli would be about 39km long, with the estimated construction cost reaching NT$75 billion (US$2.46 billion), and the self-liquidation ratio of the project would be 7.73 percent. The section between Hsinchu and Toufen would be constructed by expanding the lanes on Freeway No.

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporterThe Taipei Construction Management Office on Saturday said that it has drafted regulations requiring safety inspections of the walls of older buildings after reports of falling debris. The regulations would require management committees to inspect the outer walls of aging buildings and report regularly on their condition, the office said, adding that it was prompted to draft the rules following frequent reports of ceramic tiles falling from the outside walls of buildings, which could harm pedestrians. Police said Lee was not hurt because he wore a helmet, but his scooter seat was damaged by fallen tiles. If casualties result from falling building tiles, the owner and management committee would face punishment for breach of construction regulations, and might also face civil and criminal liabilities, he said. The office said people should report falling external wall tiles by calling (02) 2720-8889 extension 2701, or on its Web site, www.dbaweb.tcg.gov.tw/outpfbs.

By Wu Po-hsuan / Staff reporterThe Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy (TYAD) and National Students’ Union of Taiwan (NSUT) said that their “2020 Democracy Youth Homecoming Bus Campaign” donation drive has reached its target, with more than 5,000 people having pledged more than NT$2.5 million (US$81,967) as of yesterday. The campaign aims to help cover traveling expenses for young people to return home to vote in the presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 11. The two associations got together to organize the campaign, because government statistics showed that 1.18 million young people are eligible as first-time voters in the Jan. 11 elections, as they have just turned 20 — the voting age in Taiwan, he said. “As of now, we can send 3,500 young people from various cities home to vote on election day,” he said. “The simplest option for the young generation is to vote for change,” he said.

The rights issue is expected to boost the company’s capital to NT$391 million (US$12.8 million), from NT$355.9 million, said the company, which currently trades its shares on the preparatory Emerging Stock Board. Established in 1980, Value Valves manufactures valves in various specifications, with butterfly valves being its major revenue contributor and accounting for about two-thirds of total sales. Downstream applications of the company’s products extend to various sectors, ranging from energy and gas and semiconductor to industrial sectors. “Even though the global economy this year is full of many uncertainties, shipments of the company’s valve products are still thriving thanks to increased environmental awareness, increasingly stringent safety standards and the global manufacturing relocation amid the Sino-US trade war,” Value Valves said in the statement. Value Valves business department general manager Chien Pei-ling (錢佩玲) said at the presentation that the three major growth drivers next year would come from the petrochemical industry, the shipbuilding industry and the returning Taiwanese businesses.

Young made the remark at a forum in Taipei on Taiwan-US relations hosted by the Taiwan Thinktank and the Washington-based Global Taiwan Institute. Taiwan has an option, “unfortunately, Hong Kong has not,” he said, in reference to China’s “one country, two systems” model. What happened in Hong Kong is a lesson for all that China is not to be trusted, he said, adding that Taiwanese could learn from the Hong Kong situation, despite China trying to convince them to feel easy about unifcation. The US must stand on the side of democratic Taiwan as China seeks to marginalize it internationally, he said. Taiwan is part of the US Visa Waiver and Global Entry program, which allows for expedited entry into the US.