President Lai thanks Canada for its support
President Lai thanks Canada for its supportReutersPresident William Lai (賴清德) yesterday thanked Canada for its support during recent Chinese military drills and praised the deepening of ties between the two sides, shortly ahead of a visit to China by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. President William Lai, center, meets with members of a parliamentary delegation from Canada at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA“Bilateral relations continue to deepen and yield fruitful results,” Lai said at the Presidential Office in Taipei. Melissa Lantsman, deputy coleader of Canada’s Conservatives, told Lai that Taiwan is a trusted partner. In a statement on Monday, the two Liberal Party members — Helena Jaczek and Marie-France Lalonde — said they would end their trip to Taiwan early.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
Chip demand fuels recovery in machine exports
Chip demand fuels recovery in machine exportsBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterThe nation’s machinery industry showed a strong recovery last year, with full-year exports rising 9.1 percent year-on-year to US$31.859 billion, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry said in a report on Monday. It came as machinery exports continued to grow significantly last month, increasing 14.3 percent year-on-year and marking the 11th consecutive month of growth since February last year, the association said. Taiwan’s machinery exports comprise mainly inspection and testing equipment, electronic equipment and machine tools. Exports of inspection and testing equipment increased 15 percent to US$5.484 billion, and those of electronic equipment rose 10.2 percent to US$5.456 billion, while exports of machine tools fell 9.6 percent to US$2.004 billion last year, association data showed. For the whole of last year, exports to the US increased 16 percent to US$8.34 billion and those to China rose 5 percent to US$7.18 billion, association data showed.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
EDITORIAL: Invisible hands at work
EDITORIAL: Invisible hands at workOn today’s page, Masahiro Matsumura, a professor of international politics and national security at St Andrew’s University in Osaka, questions the viability and advisability of the government’s proposed “T-Dome” missile defense system. A rational, robust debate over the specifics, not the scale or the necessity, of the government’s proposed national defense budget is precisely what should be happening in the legislature. Instead, through a series of obfuscations, distractions and delays, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) are preventing any review of the national defense budget. The visible hands behind the obstructionist behavior are KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), KMT legislative caucus leader Fu Kun-chi (?) That is, we might be seeing the effect of another pair of invisible hands at work.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
Japan can no longer afford strategic confusion
Japan can no longer afford strategic confusionIf Japan wants to preserve its strategic autonomy, it must explain convincingly why it cannot and should not fall under China’s influenceBy Taniguchi TomohikoIt is not too dramatic to say that Japan has only 12 years left to secure its future. A crucial first step is to recognize that Japan’s post-World War II strategic framework has become obsolete. While the principles Japan upheld throughout the post-war period were not inherently mistaken, restraint now carries growing strategic costs. The US, Japan’s strategic guarantor since the end of the war, is no longer the country it once was. The result has been a narrowing of debate over Japan’s strategic choices, delaying necessary decisions.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
Taiwan, US reach consensus on tariffs
Taiwan and US flags are pictured next to a stack of US$50 bills in an illustration yesterday. Taiwan and the US are scheduling a final wrap-up meeting, after which they would publicly announce the details of the deal, the office said. In the first phase of Taiwan-US trade talks from April to the end of July last year, both sides negotiated tariffs, trade barriers, economic security, procurement and supply chain issues, the office said in previous statements. Taiwan earlier concluded trade discussions with the Office of the US Trade Representative, then continued to discuss Section 232 tariffs and TSMC’s investment plans with the US Department of Commerce, the New York Times said. TSMC has three fabs at various stages of development in Arizona under a previous US$65 billion investment commitment.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
Prices of 8-inch wafers to rise 20 percent
Prices of 8-inch wafers to rise 20 percentSIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce saidBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporterChipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year and plans to halt operations at some of its 8-inch wafer fabs next year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring its 8-inch wafer capacity, the researcher said. Against that backdrop, contract chipmakers are considering raising 8-inch wafer prices by 5 to 20 percent this year, a larger scale than last year when supply started showing signs of slowing down, TrendForce said. Meanwhile, increasing demand for power chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) servers and front-loading demand for chips used in consumer electronics are boosting factory utilization of 8-inch fabs, TrendForce said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
G7, allies discuss cutting reliance on China for rare earths
G7, allies discuss cutting reliance on China for rare earthsReuters, WASHINGTONFinance ministers from the G7 and other major economies on Monday met in Washington to discuss ways to reduce dependence on rare earths from China, including setting a price floor and new partnerships to build up alternative supplies, ministers said. The participating countries and the EU account for 60 percent of global demand for critical minerals. However, China dominates the supply chain, refining between 47 and 87 percent of copper, lithium, cobalt, graphite and rare earths, the International Energy Agency said. Last week, China banned exports of items destined for Japan’s military that have civilian and military uses, including some critical minerals. He said rare earths and critical mineral supplies would be a central topic under the French presidency of the G7 this year.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
APEC Shenzen visit was smooth, safe: ministry official
APEC Shenzen visit was smooth, safe: ministry officialStaff writer, with CNAA Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun speaks to reporters in Taipei yesterday. Sun yesterday confirmed that Taiwan’s plan to attend the APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting in Shenzhen from Feb. 1 to 10 has not changed. Over the past year, Taiwan has been in talks with China to make sure the APEC host guarantees Taiwan’s “equal, dignified and safe involvement” in APEC meetings and activities in Shenzhen.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
KMT must correct stance on China
KMT must correct stance on ChinaBy Tommy Lin 林逸民Early in the new year, then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was deposed by US forces; the country is now on the path to normalization. By the end of last year, Russia, Iran and Venezuela together accounted for more than 40 percent of China’s oil imports. To show support for Somalia, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) had planned to visit the country on Friday, in what would have been the first visit by a Chinese foreign minister in more than 30 years. The KMT should wake up to the international situation: China no longer has a future, and it is time to return to the right path. If Cheng insists on going her own way, other KMT members must have the courage to correct the course and restore order.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
Huang Kuo-chang: from Sunflower to saboteur
Huang Kuo-chang: from Sunflower to saboteurBy John ChengDuring the Sunflower movement, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who is now chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), gave voice to a generation’s anger toward opaque power, procedural abuse and backroom deals. Huang still speaks the language of accountability, invokes constitutional purity and escalates conflict in a show of moral seriousness. It was at that moment that many veterans of the Sunflower movement publicly broke with Huang — not because they opposed reform, but because that goal had been replaced by attrition. The Sunflower movement did not seek to paralyze government; it sought to restore limits on it. The Sunflower movement taught Taiwan that democracy is worth defending even when it is slow, frustrating and imperfect.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
‘T-Dome’ a potential miscalculation
Taiwan’s defense planners have repeatedly emphasized the need to prioritize asymmetric warfare. Missile defense systems are costly, technologically demanding and inherently vulnerable to saturation. Comparisons with other missile defense systems, either existing or planned, further underscore the problem. Japan’s missile defense system offers yet another cautionary case. Once exhausted, even the most advanced missile defense system becomes an expensive irrelevance.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
Protests in Iran persist as concern over deaths rises
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group said at least 648 people had died in the protests by Monday, while estimating the toll could be as high as 6,000. It said the “risk of mass and extrajudicial executions of protesters is extremely serious.”People drive past a billboard reading “Iran is our homeland” at Enghelab Square in Tehran yesterday. The NetBlocks group, which monitors global Internet connectivity, yesterday said that a nationwide Internet shutdown had entered its fifth day. Connecting Iran to the Internet via Elon Musk’s service would not be easy. The military is also working to jam Starlink and is hunting down any users, said Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Internet human rights group Miaan Group.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC
Couple indicted over NT$5.16bn Indonesia remittance scheme
Couple indicted over NT$5.16bn Indonesia remittance schemeStaff writer, with CNAA Taiwanese labor broker and his Indonesian wife have been indicted for allegedly running an underground Taiwan-Indonesia remittance service for more than a decade, handling more than NT$5.16 billion (US$163 million) in transfers and earning at least NT$26.66 million in fees. Chuang partnered with multiple Southeast Asian grocery stores in Taiwan that were unaware of the scheme to solicit customers who wanted to remit money to Indonesia, prosecutors said. After receiving the deposits, Huang would use online banking to transfer the equivalent amount in rupiah to recipients in Indonesia from her account at Bank Central Asia, a private Indonesian bank, prosecutors said. From 2020, the operation switched to using an account opened under the name of one of Chuang's companies at Bank Rakyat Indonesia, they said. The grocery stores, in turn, passed on most of the profits — NT$80 per regular transfer and NT$120 per express transfer — to Chuang's companies, it said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 11:23 UTC
MOFA raises Iran travel advisory
MOFA raises Iran travel advisoryBy Hollie Younger / Staff writer, with CNA and AFPThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has raised its travel advisory for Iran, ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) told a news conference in Taipei today, adding that all five Taiwanese nationals in Iran are safe. Taiwan has updated its travel advisory for Iran, raising the risk to “Level 4: Red — leave as soon as possible,” and would continue to update information and adjust advisories as the situation develops, he said. Protests erupted across Iran 17 days ago, initially due to economic hardships, but since evolving into demonstrations against Iran’s theocratic government, which was established after the 1979 revolution. As the conflict shows no signs of slowing, the government is urging the public not to travel to Iran and has advised those already there to remain alert, Hsiao said. The ministry is also maintaining contact with Taiwanese nationals in Iran through expatriate networks, while the Dubai representative office would take all necessary steps to ensure their continued safety, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 09:22 UTC
US, Taiwan near deal to lower tariffs, boost TSMC investment: report
US, Taiwan near deal to lower tariffs, boost TSMC investment: reportBy Sam Garcia / Staff writer, with CNAThe US and Taiwan have reached a broad consensus on their trade deal and further details would be announced after a final wrap-up meeting, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said today. The New York Times yesterday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. Taiwan and the US are scheduling a final wrap-up meeting, after which they would publicly announce the details of the deal, the office said. Taiwan earlier concluded trade discussions with the Office of the US Trade Representative, then continued to discuss Section 232 tariffs and TSMC’s investment plans with the US Department of Commerce, the New York Times said. Officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration have said companies that invest in the US would not be subject to Section 232 tariffs, but it is unclear exactly how the arrangement would work, it said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 13, 2026 09:04 UTC