At 24.62 degrees Celsius, Taiwan saw its highest average temperature on record in 2020 since the country began keeping climate records in 1947.
It also surpassed the previous record set in 2019.
Temperatures in every month except for April and October placed among the top 10 in history.
The Council of Agriculture has announced that as of January First, businesses caught supplying meat products falsely labeled as “Taiwan pork” could face fines of up to NT$4 million.
Authorities are reviewing the more than 10,000 local businesses that have applied for the “Taiwan pork” logo to prove that their main raw materials are truly domestically sourced.
The Presidential Office’s information security budget will be increased by 50 percent next year, to NT$38.97 million.
The office receives 400,000 cyberattacks per month on its computer systems.
The funds will go toward software and equipment to defend the office’s computer systems against malware and information leaks.
Another poll featuring a hypothetical matchup between KMT lawmaker and great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek Wayne Chiang and health minister Chen Shih-chung of the DPP in a run for Taipei mayor showed Chiang ahead with 29.2%.
Chen garnered 24.5%, which is a closer margin than the last poll featured the other day on Taiwan Report News Brief.
A Mirror Media poll on who should be the next KMT chair, who will be elected next August, found just 18% support for incumbent Johnny Chiang.
Eric Chu, who is almost certain to run, got 56% support, or triple Chiang’s.
The Ministry of Culture is considering proposing an amendment to regulate publications released by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) before they can enter the Taiwanese market.
Publications produced by private individuals or associations in China would not be subject to censorship or subject to provisions in the proposed amendment.
That leaves a pretty big loophole.
The government’s business climate monitor last month signaled “green” for the fourth straight month, rising two points to 30, the highest in nine-and-a-half years.
The gauge is only two points away from the boom values of 32 to 37.
They expect December’s number to rise.
The consumer confidence index (CCI) for December fell 2 points from a month earlier to 70.9.
The number of people planning to purchase durable goods over the next six months fell the most, though the outlook still remained optimistic.
The number of Vietnamese studying in Taiwan has increased by 330 percent over the past three years.
Vietnamese are now the second-largest student nationality in Taiwan after Chinese.
The US$2.3 trillion government spending package, which includes the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020, has finally been signed by US President Donald Trump.
I will discuss this at length in the next Taiwan Report News Brief.
Taiwan and Japan are working together to develop a miniaturized satellite that is scheduled to be launched into space in 2022.
Two key technologies to be used in Taiwan’s future space program are part of the project.
Image courtesy of Eric Chu’s Facebook
