American democracy after Trump
If so, history would view this era as a brief setback for democracy, and Trump as merely the symptom of a larger problem. By exposing the weaknesses of American democracy, MAGA might well serve as a catalyst for the system’s rejuvenation. In the months and years ahead, it would be crucial for democratic forces to explore the reforms needed to revitalize American democracy and strengthen its legitimacy. The era of free-market economic policy has been associated with the greed-is-good ethos that emerged in the 1980s. A firm’s market power originates in its private ownership of innovative technology, which it gains either through invention or acquisition.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 17:23 UTC
Baby on board
China purge could disrupt chain of command: sourceMORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “seriousBy Su Yong-yao, Lo Tien-pin and Esme Yeh
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 17:23 UTC
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SK Hynix posts record operating profit for 2025
SK Hynix posts record operating profit for 2025AFP, SEOULSouth Korean chip giant SK Hynix Inc yesterday said its operating profit doubled last year to a record high after a surge in global demand for technology powering artificial intelligence (AI). A visitor walks past the logo of SK Hynix Inc during the Korea Electronics Show at the COEX convention and exhibition center in Seoul on Oct. 22 last year. Photo: Jung Yeon-je, AFPThe firm said its operating profit soared 101 percent to 47.2 trillion won (US$33 billion) last year. The company "plans to further strengthen its proven quality, technological leadership and mass-production capabilities," by "stably supplying both HBM3E and HBM4" chips, SK Hynix said. "For Samsung and SK Hynix, while AI has driven a meaningful increase in memory demand, the technical barriers for HBM have also risen," she told AFP.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:36 UTC
Incentives attract NT$2.62 trillion in investment
Incentives attract NT$2.62 trillion in investmentBy Meryl Kao / Staff reporterThree government incentive programs launched in 2019 to encourage Taiwanese and foreign firms to invest in Taiwan have attracted NT$2.62 trillion (US$83.65 billion) in combined pledged investment from 1,712 companies and created more than 164,500 jobs as of Friday last week, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The extension is expected to attract an additional NT$1.2 trillion in investment and create about 80,000 more jobs, bringing the total accumulated investment under the programs to at least NT$3.6 trillion, Department of Investment Promotion Deputy Director Rio Lu (呂貞慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Regarding international investment promotion, the ministry secured 25 foreign investment cases in Taiwan last year, with the companies involved expected to invest about NT$160 billion over the next three to five years, she said. The ministry aims to raise the number of investment cases and the total investment value further this year, Lu said. The ministry will continue to help shape industry advantages this year through the three programs to build a more competitive investment environment, Lu said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:27 UTC
KMT-CCP forum harms national dignity: DPP
KMT-CCP forum harms national dignity: DPPBy Jonathan Chin / Staff writerThe Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) cross-strait exchange forum would severely harm national dignity and security, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday. Chinese Nationalist Party Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen, left, and National Policy Foundation chairman Lee Hong-yuan speak at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times“The uncanny coordination calls into question whether the KMT answers to Taiwan or China,” she said. The KMT’s meek acceptance of Beijing’s arrangements for the meeting surrenders the nation’s agency to Chinese whims, which harms national dignity and creates a national security risk, she said. The forum is an opening to broadening exchanges between Taiwan and China that would contribute to peace, stability and prosperity, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:27 UTC
Doomsday Clock set closer than ever to midnight
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the clock to 85 seconds before midnight, the theoretical point of annihilation. That is four seconds closer than it was set last year. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists‘ Doomsday Clock, set at 85 seconds to midnight, is displayed at a news conference on Friday. “No matter the government, a shift towards neo-imperialism and an Orwellian approach to governance will only serve to push the clock toward midnight.”It was the third time in the past four years that the scientists moved the clock closer to midnight. “In terms of nuclear risks, nothing in 2025 trended in the right direction,” Bell said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:27 UTC
Taiwan, US talk AI at high-level forum
US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, left, Representative to the US Alexander Yui, second right, and Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin, right, pose for a photograph after signing statements on the Pax Silica Declaration in Washington on Tuesday. The agreements demonstrate Taiwan’s critical role in the global AI supply chain, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a separate statement. “Taiwan is a vital partner on these and other important economic initiatives and its advanced manufacturing sector plays a key role in fueling the AI revolution,” the state department added. Its initial eight signatories did not include Taiwan, the world’s leading producer of advanced semiconductors. Taiwan and the US earlier this month reached a deal to reduce tariffs on Taiwan’s exports to the US, and boost Taiwanese investment in semiconductors and other sectors in the country.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:27 UTC
Reversing Hakka’s ‘invisibilization’
Reversing Hakka’s ‘invisibilization’By Liao Ching-ting 廖經庭Pingtung County’s National Neipu Senior Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School last weekend hosted a meeting involving six schools and their programs for Hakka-language integration into the 12-year national curriculum. This phenomenon was cited as one of the main reasons that Hakka students are less willing to speak the language. Hakka’s “invisibilization” has been exacerbated by the enforced proliferation of Mandarin in modern society, to the point that students with Hakka background have indistinguishable accents from the rest of their class. Hakka culture should be framed and regarded as an integral part of Taiwanese society. This way, Hakka can continue to thrive, belonging not only to the Hakka people, but to Taiwan as a whole.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:27 UTC
Starmer arrives in Beijing to restore fraught relationship
Starmer arrives in Beijing to restore fraught relationshipAFP, BEIJINGBritish Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday arrived in Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), hoping to restore long fraught relations. Starmer, who is also expected to visit Shanghai tomorrow, would later make a brief stop in Japan to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, receives a bouquet of flowers at an airport in Beijing yesterday, as Chinese Minister of Finance Lan Foan, second left, looks on. Starmer is today to meet with Xi for lunch, followed by a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). Starmer is the latest Western leader to be hosted by Beijing in the past few months, following visits by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:27 UTC
Coast guard flags about 1,900 Chinese vessels
Coast guard flags about 1,900 Chinese vesselsMAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report saidBy Hung Ting-hung and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerAbout 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about 1,900 as the ministry tracked vessels that participated in the exercises, based on reports by the New York Times and Defense News, Hsieh said. Such a force could be used to directly blockade commercial ports, and starve Taiwan of energy and food, it said. It is relatively easy to monitor Chinese fishing ships that could be commandeered for militia use, but roll-on and roll-off freighters, which the Chinese could commandeer to ferry armored military vehicles, are harder to keep an eye on, Hsieh said. If the ships are suspected of having severed or destroyed undersea cables, they would be boarded and inspected, and prosecutors would be alerted, Hsieh said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:27 UTC
Get on board with modern banking Taiwan
Ai said he reactivated his suspended Chinese bank account in minutes (no kidding, he’s a local in the PRC). In Switzerland, I was refused an account at the country’s largest bank, and another bank later closed my account there as well. Similarly, I set up the National Heath Insurance (NHI) to automatically take money from my post office account while I was abroad. “If there was one thing I could change about Taiwan it would be for it to get on board with modern banking systems.”Amen, but the banks simply forward a hollow apology and move on. Despite these measures, in 2024 the UN office on Drugs and Crime identified Taiwan as a major money laundering hub.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:27 UTC
EDITORIAL: Taiwan’s window of opportunity
EDITORIAL: Taiwan’s window of opportunityTaiwan’s export-oriented economy is booming amid strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, the National Development Council (NDC) said on Tuesday. To date, much of Taiwan’s AI-related economic growth has taken the form of semiconductor exports, with Taiwanese chips powering servers that deliver AI services worldwide. AI cannot function without semiconductors, but semiconductors alone do not generate the productivity, automation and innovation that AI enables. A strategic shift toward AI hardware and software systems therefore does not diminish the importance of Taiwan’s semiconductor sector — it reinforces it. Developing AI systems would not only strengthen Taiwan’s economic resilience at a time of growing pressure on globalization, but also deepen its indispensability within global supply chains.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:27 UTC
UMC expects revenue to outpace market growth
UMC’s revenue last year rose 2.3 percent year-on-year to NT$237.55 billion (US$7.58 billion). In addition to AI demand, UMC sees advanced chip packaging and silicon photonics as two new growth engines in the foreseeable future, Wang said. The chipmaker is engaging with 10 customers to supply the advanced chip packaging solutions with more than 20 chips to tape out this year, he said. Revenue from UMC’s advanced packaging technology is expected to become significant next year, attributable to wider adoption of such packaging technology to less advanced chips, Wang said. Regarding silicon photonics, UMC is developing solutions such as photonic integrated circuits and copackaged optics solutions, Wang said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:19 UTC
ASML Q4 orders exceed expectations
That compares with an average analyst estimate of 6.85 billion euros, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Despite the strong orders, ASML also announced plans to cut about 1,700 jobs, mostly in the Netherlands with some in the US, as it seeks to streamline the organization. “This is reflected in a marked step-up in their medium-term capacity plans and in our record order intake.”Net profit last year came in at 9.6 billion euros, compared with 7.6 billion euros for 2024. Revenue is seen at between 34 billion euros and 39 billion euros this year, higher than previous guidance. For the first quarter of this year, the firm predicted it would post between 8.2 billion euros and 8.9 billion euros in sales.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 16:19 UTC
Legislature to open Feb. 24, hold tariff briefing March 3
Legislature to open Feb. 24, hold tariff briefing March 3Staff writer, with CNAThe Legislative Yuan is to open its new session on Feb. 24 and has scheduled a special briefing on the results and impact of Taiwan-US tariff negotiations for March 3, following a consensus reached during cross-party caucus consultations today. Under the agreement, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) is to deliver the government's policy address and administrative report on the afternoon of Feb. 24 and answer lawmakers' questions. The main chamber of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei is pictured in an undated photograph. Questioning at the March 3 session would be conducted by 10 lawmakers nominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus, 10 by the Democratic Progressive Party caucus and two by the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) caucus. The arrangements were made after the TPP called for a dedicated report on the negotiations, with party caucuses agreeing to hold the policy address and the tariff briefing on separate days.
Source:Taipei Times
January 28, 2026 14:00 UTC