Eye On Taiwan

Rest of CPBL to have commentary in English Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:41 PM PDT Taipei Times Date: Apr 24, 2020 By: Staff writer, with CNA English-language commentary is to soon be available for all four Taiwanese professional baseball league teams to meet increasing demand from non-Chinese speaking fans, as the CPBL is the only league hosting games worldwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The games are being held behind closed doors with just the players, coaches, referees and cheerleaders due to social distancing rules. The Taoyuan-based Rakuten Monkeys began offering English-language commentary on Wednesday last week through their broadcaster, Eleven Sports, in addition to their existing Chinese-language broadcasts on local cable TV channels and online. The English-language service, featuring World Baseball Softball Confederation Asia correspondent Richard Wang and Web site CPBL English founder Wayne McNeil is available on the network’s Twitter account.    [FULL  STORY]

NVIDIA And AMD Just Bought Up All Excess Capacity At TSMC For Next Generation GPUs And CPUs Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:39 PM PDT Wccf (Where Consumers Come First) tech Date: April 23, 2020 By: Usman Pirzada While the Coronavirus has the business world reeling, NVIDIA and AMD have both swooped in and purchased excess capacity at TSMC by ramping up their orders for next-generation GPUs and CPUs. In a report published by Digitimes, Taiwan's most reliable news source, TSMC is expected to post strong results in 1H 2020 thanks to a sudden ramp-up of orders by NVIDIA and AMD making up for the shortfall. NVIDIA and AMD gobble up spare (7nm) capacity at TSMC for next-generation processors The last flagship release from NVIDIA was back in September 2018. It has been a long time since NVIDIA rolled out a successor and we have a feeling that the company was waiting for TSMC's 7nm node to get mature for high-performance graphics and you are going to see a massive leap with the company's next-generation architecture. Since both NVIDIA and AMD are fab-less design houses there is always a concern whether TSMC can spare capacity (everyone knows Apple is their darling) but it looks like the COVID19 has swung things in their favor as both companies have been gobbling up space yielded by other customers. This includes next-generation CPUs and GPUs from both NVIDIA and AMD.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan to counter OTT streaming services by Chinese TV groups Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:34 PM PDT Loopholes amount to breach of democracy: Cabinet Taiwan News Date: 2020/04/23 By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Following reports that even China’s state-owned CCTV group was planning to launch over-the-top (OTT) streaming services in Taiwan, the government said Thursday (April 23) it would not sit back and allow Chinese media groups to exploit loopholes. Media organizations from China are banned from setting up Taiwan-based services, but companies like Tencent Holdings Ltd. and iQiyi have formed alliances with local broadcasters and distributors to promote and sell their video streaming services on the island.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan shares close up 0.57% Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:31 PM PDT Focus Taiwan Date: 04/23/2020 By: Y.F. Low Taipei, April 23 (CNA) Taiwan shares closed up 58.77 points, or 0.57 percent, at 10,366.51 Thursday on turnover of NT$154.76 billion (US$5.14 billion).    [SOURCE]

Industrial data increases 10.41% Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:28 PM PDT COMPONENTS BOOST: An official said local panel makers have received orders from China amid a production hiatus, while South Korean companies have exited Taipei Times Date: Apr 24, 2020 By: Natasha Li / Staff reporter Industrial production last month increased 10.41 percent year-on-year, driven by transferred orders and recovering market demand in the manufacturing sector, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Statistics said yesterday. Output from the manufacturing sector, which contributes more than 90 percent of total industrial production, last month grew 11.09 percent year-on-year. The increase was mainly due to strong growth in the electronic components industry and the computers, electronics and optical components industry, department Director-General Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) told a news conference in Taipei. “Despite the spread of the coronavirus [COVID-19], the electronic components industry was mostly unaffected, hitting a record high last month, surging 26.04 percent year-on-year thanks to vigorous production of integrated circuit boards,” Wang said, adding that production jumped 40.26 percent on an annual basis as demand for 5G communications and high-performance computing expanded. [FULL  STORY]

VIDEO: Causeway Bay Books owner vows to fight on, despite attack Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:11 PM PDT Radio Taiwan International Date  23 April, 2020/ By: Paula Chao Hong Kong bookstore owner Lam Wing-kee Hong Kong bookstore owner Lam Wing-kee says his Causeway Bay Books will reopen in Taipei on Saturday according to schedule. That’s despite an attack on him Tuesday, in which he had red paint splashed on him. Lam says he believes China is behind the attack. Lam has been living in Taiwan for about a year after fleeing Hong Kong due to the threat of Chinese persecution. In 2015, Lam was arrested after crossing Hong Kong’s border into the Chinese city of Shenzhen. He was released in 2016 after nearly eight months in detention, and he remains a wanted person for “selling books illegally.” Lam Wing-kee’s Causeway Bay Books in Taipei should be getting ready for a grand opening this week. Instead, it’s been filled with police gathering evidence.    [FULL  STORY]

TAIWANESE MINISTRY IS USING ANIMAL CROSSING TO PROMOTE SOCIAL DISTANCING Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:22 AM PDT It’s a good idea! GameByte Date: 23 April 2020 By: Lara Jackson| As Animal Crossing: New Horizons continues to jump from strength to strength, Taiwan has decided to use the Nintendo game to promote social distancing practices during the global lockdown. The Taiwanese Ministry of Interior has created a series of AC-inspired “guides” to help people to stick to the rules, offering advice including how to keep your distance from people and the importance of wearing a mask. Video you'll love from around the web The images include models bearing bug-catching nets and AC-like attire, and include similar text bubbles as seen in the game. What a cute way to get the message across! As reported by TheGamer, The Taiwanese Ministry of Interior recommends citizens stay one meter apart while in public, and 1.5 meters apart when indoors. As you can see in the image below, it’s a unique and memorable way to show that in practice!    [FULL  STORY]

CORONAVIRUS/Taiwan-developed rapid screening reagent put into trial production Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:14 AM PDT Focus Taiwan Date:\ 04/23/2020 By: Wu Hsin-yun and Evelyn Kao Taipei, April 23 (CNA) A research team at Academia Sinica has developed a key reagent for a pioneering rapid screening test for the COVID-19 coronavirus disease and the technology has been transferred to seven companies, one or two of which will be chosen for possible mass production, James Liao (廖俊智), president of Taiwan's most prestigious research institution, said Thursday. The team led by Yang An-suei (楊安綏), a research fellow at the institution's Genomics Research Center, has yielded the unprecedented results at unimaginable speed, Liao said at a legislative hearing, adding that it took only one month for the team to create a product prototype, compared with the three-six months normally required for such development. He was responding to a question about the progress after Academia Sinica announced last month that the research team had synthesized monoclonal antibodies that can identify the protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The reagent will be able to provide COVID-19 test results within just 15 minutes, according to Academia Sinica.    [FULL  STORY]

HK bookseller says China behind attack Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:08 AM PDT SUSPECTS OUT ON BAIL: The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said it has applied with the High Court to have the three returned to detention as it searches for others involved Taipei Times Date: Apr 24, 2020 By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter A message posted yesterday by “Jonathan Gao” on the Mainland Affairs Council’s Facebook page, making a threat to Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee, who plans to open a new bookstore in Taipei tomorrow. Photo taken from the Mainland Affairs Council’s Facebook page Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee (林榮基) said that China was behind an attack against him, after his three alleged assailants were released on bail yesterday. “The Chinese Communist Party’s proxies have a history of attacks carried out against Hong Kongers who fled to Taiwan,” Lam told reporters. “Now they are only causing trouble for Hong Kongers, but later they will make trouble for Taiwanese.” Lam said that he would be more vigilant. “I was quite surprised to hear that the suspects got released on bail so quickly,” he added. “I am, of course, fearful and will avoid walking down dark alleys.” Lam was co-owner of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books (銅鑼灣書店), but was kidnapped in 2015 and detained in China for eight months for selling books banned by the Chinese government. [FULL  STORY]

Operations of China-based OTT content providers illegal: Official Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:04 AM PDT Radio Taiwan International Date: 23 April, 2020 By: Paula Chao Cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka says the operations of China-based OTT content providers in Taiwan Cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka (CNA file photo) are illegal. OTT is an over-the-top platform like Netflix. It refers to film and television content provided via a high-speed Internet connection rather than a cable or satellite provider. Under existing laws, China is barred from investing in Taiwan’s media industry, nor are its OTT content providers allowed to operate in Taiwan without government permission. However, several Chinese OTT service providers such as Tencent and iQIYI have already entered the Taiwanese market during the COVID-19 pandemic. To attract a local audience, they offer free services to six counties and cities. [FULL  STORY]