Taiwan Tonight - Taiwan News | Jul. 17, 2026

Minister of Culture Li Yuan draws a fortune card trying out a product that will be featured at this year's Creative Expo Taiwan. After seeing a record 650,000 visitors last year, this year's curated exhibitions will feature five major sections and run for a full month. The Creative Expo Taiwan will be split between two venues this year. The cultural creation exhibit will be at the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab. This historical building behind me, called the Creative Brand and the IP Licensors Exhibit, will be at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center like last year. This year's Brand and IP Exhibit will be open from August 8th to the 12th. Last year, there were overwhelming crowds with lines stretching out the lobby up to the fourth floor and wait times exceeding four hours. To prevent long waits this year, organizers are allowing visitors to reserve entry times in advance. Reservations will open at 10 a.m. on July 21st. People can reserve one entry period every day and use the QR code on the day to enter through one of 10 entry points on the first floor. Each entry period has about 3,000 slots and people can also get in by queuing on site. Hopefully, this two-pronged approach will alleviate crowds at the door. I've spent my whole life working in the creative industry, so I have a deep admiration for creativity. This year's exhibition feels like an explosion of cultural content that Taiwan has accumulated over the years. There are 26.3 percent more brands participating this year than last year, with over 1,200 booths featuring popular characters. Even Cathy Chan is expected to make a comeback after 30 years, sparking another wave of interest in Taiwanese IP. A baseball team from the Taichung Municipal Beishi Junior High School cheers as they win the championship game in San Francisco 10 to 1. This young team started coming to San Francisco for training and friendly competition two years ago. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even showed them support during their first visit in 2024. This year, they were in the U.S. from July 2nd to 15th, overcoming their opponents to win the tournament. I'm so happy. We kept losing the first few games, but in the end, everyone got back in form. We finally found a rhythm in the championship game. The students all worked very hard. This is also my first championship since coming to Beishi. I'm so happy. Thank you. The team celebrated their victory with an American-style barbecue. They even joined hands to sing and dance to the Taiwan sports anthem, Taiwan Strong. A huge thank you to the overseas Taiwanese community for their support and care for Beishi Junior High. Our English volunteers helped our students improve their English, while the U.S. coaches provided them with technical training based on sports science. The Beishi Junior High baseball team traveled to the U.S. for training and competition, bringing home the championship. It was a unique chance to hone their skills and broaden their international view. This robot can respond fluently to a question from a reporter, but it can do far more than Powered by AI recognition technology and top-notch NVIDIA computing, it can identify faces as well as its surrounding environment. It's meant for deployment at long-term care facilities and for patrols, easing the burden on regular employees. Its eyes are the key to a robot's success. This machine looks like an oversized security camera, but it actually serves as the eyes of a humanoid robot. Solomon integrates NVIDIA hardware with AI algorithms to give the robot powerful vision. After just 10 seconds of training the AI, this robotic arm can differentiate various kinds of teabags from each other. Even if a business card is thrown into the mix, it can identify and categorize it according to verbal commands. With the rise of agentic AI, robots will become more convenient and intelligent than ever. We're also in preliminary talks with some Japanese robotics manufacturers about various types of robots. Eyeing demand in Japan for tourism and smart mobility, Foxconn is displaying its Model A Smart Urban Taxi, customized for right-handed driving markets. The vehicle does away with the traditional B-pillar for ease of boarding and provides AI translation for passengers. Another offering, the Model B, is a collaboration with Mitsubishi that is expected to be exported to the Australian and New Zealand markets later this year. We offer everything from design, R&D and component supply to full vehicle manufacturing services. This time we're showcasing two electric vehicle models. In the future, we'll extend these offerings to other international markets. This year's Expo is 15% larger than the previous one. The offerings are also richer and equipped with more technologies. So I predict business opportunities generated by this Expo to surpass 100 million US dollars. This year's Taiwan Expo in Japan is showcasing the latest technologies from more than 150 Taiwanese businesses to the Japanese market, seeking to capture ever-greater opportunities for cooperation between the two countries. Hualien's biggest Indigenous celebration is back and bigger than ever. The Pacific Austronesian Joint Harvest Festival officially opened on July 16 with a colorful ceremony, kicking off four days of festivities for the first time in the event's history. Dance groups from Hawaii, Tahiti, Madagascar and Hualien's own Indigenous communities filled the streets of downtown Hualien in a vibrant international parade, drawing huge crowds and setting the stage for one of the region's most anticipated cultural events. Performers dressed up to the nines filled the street with song and dance as they paraded their way across downtown Hualien, attracting large crowds of onlookers. The Indigenous paraders from Hualien were joined by dance troops from as far away as Hawaii, Tahiti and Madagascar. Their dazzling performances officially kicked off the Pacific Austronesian Joint Harvest Festival. We brought the festival into the city. We opened with a street parade on the first day, and for the next three days, a program featuring 23 shows will let audiences experience the beauty of Austronesian cultures. The Pacific Austronesian Joint Harvest Festival was inaugurated on July 16 at Hualien's Dexing For the first time ever, the festivities will stretch for four days. The highlight on day one was a parade with Austronesian participants from the world over that covered a stunning 1.6 kilometers along the bustling Zhongshan and Zhongzheng roads. Shoppers at the Golden Triangle shopping area were stunned. The performances include dance shows by troops from Tahiti, Hawaii and Hualien's six major Indigenous groups. We also have the theme songs and dances from previous editions to dance your heart out. We welcome everyone to come and join us. The Hualien County government hopes the festival will let Hualien showcase its rich heritage and put it on the world map as a unique and charming hub for Austronesian cultural exchanges. Taiwan's National Health Insurance Administration is expanding access to treatment for people living with atopic dermatitis. After broadening reimbursement criteria over the past few years, it has now added a newly approved biologic to the reimbursement program. More than 1,000 patients suffering from moderate to severe symptoms are expected to benefit. Let's hear more. Atopic dermatitis is a condition that persists for a long time. As part of our resource allocation plans, we at the National Health Insurance Administration have been expanding our reimbursement policy. Back on February 1, 2024, we expanded the coverage of biologic therapies to include children as young as six, down from the previous age restriction of 12 and up. Starting June 1 this year, a newly approved biologic medication was added to the reimbursement list, and coverage has been expanded to two years instead of being limited to one year. The new biologic medication made almost all of my visible flare-ups go away. My skin is finally smooth and clear again. Atopic dermatitis is a chronic condition that often returns with severe flare-ups, leaving many patients struggling with years of physical discomfort and emotional stress. Health officials say the newly expanded coverage marks a major milestone in treatment, with reimbursement now available for up to two years instead of one. The policy is expected to benefit around 1,008 patients. That includes people with chronic moderate to severe atopic dermatitis whose symptoms have persisted for at least six months. Papua New Guinea says it is shutting down Taiwan's representative office in its capital in a move it has decided to take without consulting Taiwan. The announcement says Taiwan's mission in Port Moresby will be closed to honor and respect the country's One China policy. Vice President Shelby Kim had this to say on the matter. Our diplomatic situation is very, very tricky. China is constantly suppressing our efforts to survive and to expand our international space. Though the closure is a setback, we will continue striving forward, serving Taiwanese communities abroad and continuing to expand Taiwan's cooperation with the international community. Papua New Guinea's foreign minister posted a copy of the official document on social media. The document says that the physical presence of Chinese Taipei will no longer be recognized or required within the jurisdiction of the country. One notable remark can be found at the end of the document, which notes that this year marks the 50th year since Papua New Guinea established bilateral relations with China. China's foreign ministry has said it highly approves of the move, while Taiwan has condemned the unilateral declaration, adding that the representative office will continue to operate as normal. Taiwanese people love hand-cranked drinks. Open the freezer and you'll find both sour and sweet popsicles. With a bit of creativity, even Jiayi-style mayo cold noodles can be turned into popsicles. Just one lick and the summer heat melts away. Craving ice cream in the summer? The convenience store near your home or office can solve your problem. The hotter the weather, the better icy treats sell, making this soft serve a key engine for convenience store revenue growth. The sweltering heat is creating massive business opportunities. People are going to convenience stores to buy drinks and frozen treats to beat the heat, making June a peak season for Taiwan's two major convenience store chains. 7-Eleven saw its June revenue reach 30.619 billion NT, a 6.31% year-on-year increase, with its first-half cumulative revenue approaching 180.7 billion NT. Its main rival, Family Mart, saw its June revenue reach 9.59 billion NT, a 3.25% year-on-year increase, with its first-half cumulative revenue growing by 8.09% year-on-year. In recent years, convenience stores have been quite proactive in marketing to their members. I think the next step is figuring out how to tap into higher-value, high-spending customer segments. In particular, 7-Eleven has already made early moves here, through the promotion of its Prima subscription service. They found that the spending power of these premium customers is actually 10 to 15 times higher than that of regular members. Another key focus is how to successfully navigate and expand across different retail formats. Experts believe that the two major convenience store chains in the future will rely on a subscription mile to tap into high-spending members. They aim to continue driving up average customer spending and reach new heights in the second half of the year. Taiwan shares suffered their biggest single-day fall ever on Friday with a nose-dive of 2,953 points. The biggest loser was TSMC amid free-falls in Japan's and U.S.'s stock markets and a share drop in chip concept stocks. The company's market value collapsed by more than 60 trillion NT, as shares plummeted by 180 NT to end at 2,290 NT. A total of 135 companies closed down, leading the market to plunge by 6.47 percent at 42,617 points. Semiconductors, memory cards, and electronics in general went on free-fall, bogging down the market to hit its largest intraday and single-day drop on record. Retail investors rushed in to buy the dip, with odd lot trading of TSMC shares surging to more than 20.58 million shares. That also marks a new single-day record more than 12 times higher than Thursday's volume of 1.65 million shares. The person living here caught a crab laying its eggs by her front door. It then fled the scene, leaving her perplexed as to what to do. Unable to just leave them by her front door, she searched online for how to care for crab eggs. She put them in water to help them hatch and took them to Vaas Rock. After seeing tiny baby crabs starting to emerge, she released them into the sea. Information online said they need to feel ocean waves before they will hatch. They need to feel the water is flowing, so I swirled them around a bit. This homeowner in Xiaoliuqiu heard a noise outside her house and opened the door to find a crab laying its eggs right there. An expert said the crab may have abandoned its eggs because it was startled. She gave the baby crabs a chance to survive. June to October is when crabs tend to migrate and lay their eggs. With more tourists by the sea in summer, crabs are often run over by vehicles. Conservationists remind drivers they should slow down to protect any wildlife in their path. In this case, a crab left its eggs far from the shore, but the person who discovered them was kind enough to help them hatch and return them to the sea.