HTC’s second quarter shows 10th straight lossBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterHTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday posted a NT$1.83 billion (US$62 million) loss for last quarter, its 10th consecutive quarterly loss, as its expansion into virtual-reality headsets has yet to bear fruit, it said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. On an annual basis, that was an improvement from the NT$2.22 billion loss it registered in the same period last year, but on a quarterly basis, it widened from a loss of NT$1.68 billion in the first quarter. For the first half of this year, HTC posted a net loss of NT$3.5 billion, an improvement from a loss of NT$4.68 billion in the first half of last year. That represented a loss of NT$4.28 per share, better than its loss of NT$5.69 in the same period last year. In June, the company unveiled the HTC U20 5G, the first made in Taiwan 5G mobile phone.

‘Taiwanese Feet’ book tour lands in TaichungAuthor John Groot will be at Lei Gallery tomorrow to sign copies of his new bookBy John Evans / Contributing r eporterNow that John Groot has finished walking 1,200km around Taiwan’s coastline, he can rest his feet and autograph a few books. Groot will be at the Lei Gallery in Taichung tomorrow to sign copies of his new book, Taiwanese Feet: My walk around Taiwan. It’s the last stop on a summer book tour that included events in the Taipei area and Kaohsiung. He hopes to resume the book tour on the east coast later in the year. Afterwards, participants are invited to tour local bars as part of the Taiwanese Feet Beerwalk Pub Crawl.

Chen Chi-mai rejects Jane Lee’s ‘poverty’ commentsBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterThe Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is renowned as the world’s wealthiest political party, which negates its candidate’s complaints about campaign finances in the Kaoshiung mayoral by-election, former vice premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said yesterday. Kaohsiung City Councilor Jane Lee (李眉蓁), the KMT’s candidate, on Wednesday said that the election was unfair, as she is part of a poorly funded campaign, while Chen, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate, is well-financed. Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times“It is well-known that the KMT used to be the wealthiest political party in the world. In the past, people often said that if the KMT does not buy votes, it cannot win elections,” Chen said. Meanwhile, Jane Lee’s campaign announced that former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) would headline her election-eve rally today.

On June 18, Chen Wei-jen (陳惟仁), Lee Yi-hsien (李易諴) and Lin Yung-ta (林雍達) were questioned following raids by Taipei prosecutors and investigation agents. Chen Wei-jen, one of three former aides of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators indicted for contravening the National Security Act, is escorted by police in Taipei yesterday. Chen was the first to be recruited by Huang Guanlong (黃冠龍), an intelligence officer from the Chinese Ministry of State Security, prosecutors said. Lin allegedly agreed to work as a spy in exchange for money. From 2012 to 2018, Chen and Lin worked for then-KMT legislator Chen Shu-huey (陳淑慧), now Chiayi deputy mayor, while Lee worked for then-KMT legislator Chang Li-shan (張麗善), now Yunlin County commissioner.

CTBC Ladies Open starts in Taoyuan with 90 golfersStaff writer, with CNAThe 2020 CTBC Ladies Open started yesterday in Taoyuan with 90 golfers, at a time when most international tournaments have been disrupted or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, the competition is not open to foreign golfers, it added. Phoebe Yao, left, and Chen Yu-ju, right walk at the CTBC Ladies Open in Taoyuan yesterday. 291 Cheng Ssu-chia said she was pleased to enter the tournament after preparing for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour, which has been canceled. The CTBC Ladies Open is free and open to the public, but spectators must follow COVID-19 prevention guidelines and provide their contact information upon entry to the venue, the organizers said.

Lee Teng-hui to take symbolic last route: TSUPRESIDENTIAL CIRCLE: A procession would take the former president’s body from Beitou to the funeral and then to a mortuary to be cremated, the TSU saidStaff writer, with CNAA funeral procession today for former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) would make a symbolic lap of the Presidential Office Building following a private ceremony at Taipei’s Chi-Nan Presbyterian Church, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. The Presidential Office said that out of respect for Lee’s family, details of the procession would not be made public. People take photographs of a wall of messages at a memorial for former president Lee Teng-hui at the Taipei Guest House yesterday. The TSU said that it has prepared figurines representing Lee that bear its emblem, which people who attend the service can get by reservation. The government’s public memorial for Lee at the Taipei Guest House, which is to end on Sunday.

Czech delegation expected on Aug. 30 for five daysBy Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNATaiwan expects a Czech delegation to arrive on Aug. 30 and depart on Sept. 4, with visitors including Vera Kuberova, the widow of former Czech Senate president Jaroslav Kubera, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Department of European Affairs Director-General Johnson Chiang speaks at a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei yesterday. Vystrcil’s visit has received support from the Czech Senate and is intended to show the nation’s resolve to uphold democratic values and not bow to oppression from China, Chiang said. Vystrcil, whose position is second only to Czech President Milos Zeman, would give a speech on democratic values, Chiang said. In addition to political and business dignitaries, representatives of major Czech universities and research institutions, as well as the Czech Philharmonic, would be part of the delegation, he said.

Second extra session unlikely: Ker saysKMT NOT KEEN: Ker Chien-ming said that even if a second extraordinary session were held, the KMT would not allow a budget request to bypass a month of negotiationsBy Sean Lin, Huang Pei-chun and Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writerDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday hinted that there would not be a second extraordinary session before the start of the regular legislative session late next month. When Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) last month approved a second special budget for COVID-19 prevention and economic relief, he believed that a second extraordinary session was unavoidable and that it would likely be this month, Ker said. This would delay review of the budget request to late next month, when the new legislative session is to begin, defeating the purpose of another extraordinary session, he said. In this context, if the DPP caucus insists on holding another extraordinary session, it is bound to meet with strong pushback from the KMT, Ker said. Separately, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said that not holding a second extraordinary session would create difficulties for efforts by the government to stimulate the economy, while companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic need funds to keep running.

Dead woman’s family hopes judicial investigations will provide answersBy Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterFamily members of a woman who reportedly died last month by jumping from a building after writing on Facebook about having been sexually assaulted, yesterday said they hope investigations will reveal the truth about her case. The woman, surnamed Lin (林), who worked for the New Taipei City Department of Health. Family members of a woman surnamed Lin speak at a press conference in Taipei yesterday. The family knows that the public has many questions about the case, and the family is also searching for answers, Lin’s cousin said. She hopes that through judicial investigations those answers will be found.

Renewal projects hit 65% in TaipeiBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterPresale and new housing projects in Taipei totaled NT$189.8 billion (US$6.43 billion) in the first seven months of this year, with urban regeneration projects accounting for 65 percent, as they increasingly become the main source of properties due to a shortage of new land, the Chinese-language My Housing Monthly reported yesterday. Renewal projects based on old and dilapidated houses in Taipei reached NT$124.2 billion from January to last month, supplying a record 65 percent to the city’s new housing volume as idle lots of land are hard to find, the magazine said. Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei TimesIn the past, time-consuming regeneration projects were a secondary concern, but they have gained importance over the past few years after policymakers provided regulatory support and banks are eager to supply funding. Renewal projects last year accounted for 43 percent of presale and new housing, up from 33 percent in 2018, the magazine said. The scarcity of land leaves developers interested in Taipei with no choice but to turn old and unsafe buildings into sources of new housing projects, Ho added.

Other protestors hold placards demanding that Ma apologize for having said that Taiwan would lose in a war with China. Photo: Jason Pan, Taipei TimesChen and other protesters called Ma “a bootlicker” of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and a colluder with an enemy state, seeking to sell out Taiwan. Members from the Taiwan Independence Party (建國黨), the Nation Building Forum (建國廣場) and a youth group advocating Taiwan’s liberation from colonial powers also joined the protest. Other protesters presented documents and news reports in which the former president and KMT lawmakers stalled legislative sessions 69 times from 2008 to 2016, eventually blocking three major arms deals with the US. During Ma’s presidency, he tried to end the development of indigenous missiles at Taiwan’s top weapons research institutes, they added.

The 78-year-old Chen is an active “sea woman” (海女) in Taiwan’s easternmost fishing village of Makang (馬崗) in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮). She lives alone in the village, as her children have moved to the cities for work, returning for weekends and festivals. “They now realize that the tourists actually like these stone houses and come take pictures of them on weekends. “The final vote was 8-0, so New Taipei City claims that Chang wouldn’t have made a difference,” Yeh says. They can also aim to become a fishing village special district under the Urban Planning Act (都市計畫法),whereupon the residents will have a bigger say over the future of Makang.

The only big difference, perhaps, is that Christopher Logan no longer lives here but in the US state of Oregon, where his publishing company, Deep World Publishing, is based. TAIWAN THROUGH FOREIGN EYES: Stories from the Miracle Days, edited by Christopher Logan. Logan says in his Introduction that these stories were meant to be published after his book Culture Taipei! Logan includes three of his own stories in this new book, and they’re all very good, and very different. Lastly, whether the tales are set in the 1990s or the present day didn’t appear, whatever the editor said, to matter one iota.

New imported cases and foreign nationals testing positive after returning home from Taiwan has sparked public debate on whether the government should expand COVID-19 testing to all inbound travelers to better detect asymptomatic cases locally, he said. National Taiwan University College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen presents his policy proposals yesterday in Taipei. If travelers are tested upon arrival, quarantined for five days and tested again, more than 99 percent of cases would also have be detected, he said. Testing all travelers upon arrival might cause those who test negative to let down their guard during quarantine, he said. Strictly implementing the current policy of a 14-day quarantine and an additional seven-day self-health management would be a better method of preventing imported cases causing local infections, Fang said, adding that mask wearing remains equally important.

Minister denies lending former NPP chair NT$3m‘SPECULATION’: Hsu Yung-ming reportedly told prosecutors that the money was loaned to him by a government official who had been a senior classmate of hisBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterMinister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday denied that he had lent former New Power Party (NPP) chairman Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) NT$3 million (US$101,557) to cover NPP expenditure. Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung, front right, examines locally made products in Miaoli County yesterday. After Liao left the meeting, the official then took the money out and gave it to him, the report said. “Minister Lin is not familiar with the case, which is now under investigation. On March 4, the National Communications Commission approved TOP’s application to turn one of its local TV channels into a news channel.