PHOTO ESSAY/2023 On the Spot: News events

Taipei, Dec. 31 (CNA) The Central News Agency is looking back at significant news events in Taiwan and memorable moments for Taiwanese athletes on the international stage in 2023 through the lenses of its reporters and photographers who were on the scene.            

The events that drew attention in Taiwan in 2023 spanned a controversial imported egg policy, the first typhoon to hit Taiwan in four years, and Taiwan's being described as a living hell for pedestrians by foreign media.

Meanwhile, elite athletes performed well in international sports events such as the World Baseball Classic and Asian Games that were held after many global competitions had been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Focus Taiwan published two separate photo essays to mark the news and sports highlights.

News events of 2023

▲Security guards try to stop protesters from storming the venue of an event commemorating the 228 Incident hosted by Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) in Taipei on Feb. 28. Chiang was delivering an apology for the "historical pain" created by the then Kuomintang (KMT) government.

It was the first event hosted by Chiang, a member of the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正) family, to mark the Feb. 28 Incident, also known as the Feb. 28 Massacre, since he assumed office in late 2022.

The incident was triggered by a police crackdown on smuggled cigarettes in Taipei on Feb. 27, 1947. It led to an anti-government uprising that was violently suppressed by the KMT-led government in Taiwan in the following months. At the time the KMT was led by Chiang Kai-shek, who was still in China fighting the communists.

▲Taoyuan Department of Agriculture officials bow to the coffin of a baboon corpse on March 28.

The baboon died from injuries after it was shot on March 27 by a government-contracted hunter in Taoyuan's Yangmei District during an operation undertaken by the Taoyuan department to capture the animal, which had escaped from the zoo at Hsinchu's Leofoo Village.

A specialist surnamed Hsu (徐) with the Taoyuan department, who gave the ok to the hunter to shoot the escaped baboon, was indicted by prosecutors on Nov. 10 while the hunter was not charged.

Prosecutors said Hsu gave the ok to kill the baboon without official approval, and that this violated regulations on hunting and killing protected wildlife, which Hsu should have known.

▲A poster showing a poem indicating that eggs are out of stock is seen on the front door of a grocery store in New Taipei's Luzhou District on March 30.

Affected by low temperatures and avian flu, Taiwan faced a shortage of eggs in the first few months of 2023 that led to higher egg prices and panic buying in Taiwan.

Although the central government initiated a program to import eggs to fill the gap, it drew criticism for how the program was managed and its lack of accountability over where the eggs went.

▲President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文, left) speaks at a public event with then-United States House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on April 5 (Pacific time).

The Tsai-McCarthy meeting on U.S. soil was seen as a diplomatic breakthrough in Taiwan-U.S. relations.

▲Traffic police check to see if vehicles stop for pedestrians at an intersection in Taipei on May 1.

Starting May 30, motorists were liable for fines of up to NT$6,000 (US$196) if they were caught not stopping to give way to pedestrians on crosswalks. The new regulation was enacted as part of efforts to remove Taiwan's stigma as a "pedestrian hell."

▲Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is surrounded by National Taiwan University graduates asking to have their photos taken with him after Huang, dubbed the godfather of AI, delivered a speech at the university's graduation ceremony in Taipei on May 27.

Huang's visit sparked an AI craze in Taiwan.

▲Former Hualien County chief Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁), an incumbent Kuomintang lawmaker, leaves a press event at the Legislative Yuan on July 18.

Fu defended his innocence at the presser after veteran journalist Tung Cheng-yu (董成瑜) accused Fu of sexual harassment back in 2014.

Fu's case was one of many that came to light during the #MeToo movement that swept through Taiwan after former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) staffer Chen Chien-jou (陳汘瑈) posted an account of workplace sexual harassment she had been subjected to on social media at the end of May.

▲ A military honor guard holds a memorial tablet honoring the 948 deceased soldiers who continued to fight Communist troops in Thailand and Myanmar after the Republic of China government was relocated from mainland China to Taiwan in 1949, during a ceremony to enshrine the tablet at the Martyrs' Shrine in Taipei on June 30.

▲A wave more than 10 meters high appears in waters off Taitung County on July 26 as Typhoon Doksuri approached Taiwan.

After Doksuri, there were several storms that also came near Taiwan, bringing rain which replenished drying reserves in southern Taiwan. Among the storms was Typhoon Haikui, which made landfall in Taitung on Sept. 3, the first typhoon to land on Taiwan in more than four years.  

▲A road has collapsed near a construction site in the Dazhi area of Taipei's Zhongshan District, as seen in this photo on Sept. 8, endangering the stability of nearby apartment buildings.

Twenty-five households had to be evacuated from the buildings affected by the collapse, which occurred on Sept. 7. In October, the Taipei City government launched an urban renewal plan to rebuild the damaged buildings.

▲Weary firefighters sit or sleep on ground after fighting a fire overnight at Launch Technologies Co.'s factory in Pingtung County on Sept. 23.

The fire caused the death of 10 people, including four firefighters,  and injured more than 100.

According to local regulations, the factory was allowed to store a maximum of 100 kilograms of organic peroxide used to manufacture golf ball cores, but it was later discovered that the facility had stored 3,000 kg of the substance, known to be a severe fire and explosion hazard.

▲President Tsai Ing-wen speaks at a ceremony in Kaohsiung on Sept. 28 to unveil Taiwan's first Indigenous Defense Submarine (IDS), named "Narwhal."

Building an IDS used to be considered "mission impossible," but it is now a reality, Tsai said during the ceremony.

Noting that submarines are crucial in the Navy's efforts to develop asymmetric combat capabilities and other key strategies, she hailed the occasion as a landmark in Taiwan's bid to achieve "defense autonomy."

▲Civur Malili (seated center), a "pulingaw" (shaman) of Taiwan's Indigenous Paiwan people, performs a traditional ritual of communicating with ancestral spirits at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland on Nov. 5.

She led a Paiwan delegation to Edinburgh to bring back to Taiwan the skulls of four Paiwan warriors who died in the Mudan Incident in 1874.

The skulls were kept at the Scottish university after having passed through many hands. Eventually they found peace in the Museum of Archaeology in Tainan on Nov. 6.

▲Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (back left) attends the 2023 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco on Nov. 17. He was there as the envoy of President Tsai Ing-wen.  

During the summit in mid-November, Chang spoke with over half of the leaders of participating countries, but there was no public interaction between him and China President Xi Jinping (front right).

▲A public bus with an ad for Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德) passes in front of a large election poster showing Kuomintang (KMT) legislative hopeful Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之, left), KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜, center) and what looks like a hand drawn figure on the right, on Nov. 25.

The figure on the right was originally Taiwan People's Party presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), but it was replaced by a hand-drawn profile of Jaw Shau-kong (趙少康) after Hou and Ko failed to form a joint ticket for the election on Nov. 23, one day before the candidacy registration deadline.

Hou chose the 73-year-old Jaw, a talk show host and former lawmaker, as his running mate in the Jan. 13 presidential election after seemingly promising talks with Ko fell through.

▲Five past winners of Golden Horse best actress awards Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂), Chen Shiang-chyi (陳湘琪), Chen Shu-fang (陳淑芳), Angelica Lee (李心潔), and Hsieh Ying-hsuan (謝盈萱) (from left) let out a gasp of surprise after Chen Shu-fang opened an envelope and they saw the name of the best leading actress at the 60th Golden Horse Awards ceremony on Nov. 25.

The winner was 12-year-old Audrey Lin (林品彤), who became the youngest ever winner in that category.

▲People watch the Asian Baseball Championship final between Taiwan (competing under the name Chinese Taipei) and Japan at the newly opened Taipei Dome on Dec. 10.

Construction of the stadium was completed in November after 32 years and it has since held test games and the Asian Baseball Championship. Most players and fans hold positive views of the venue.

The Taipei Dome has a capacity of 40,000, but due to concerns over how quickly people could exit the stadium in case of an emergency, only 22,000 seats were made available for the Asian Baseball Championship final, and 21,013 spectators showed up.

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