36-548: Formosa Plastics Corporation ( Chinese : 台灣塑膠公司 ; lit. 'Taiwan Plastics Company') is a Taiwanese plastics company based in Taiwan (formerly called "Formosa") that primarily produces polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins and other intermediate plastic products. It is the corporation around which influential businessman Wang Yung-ching formed the Formosa Plastics Group , and it remains central to
72-620: A Formosa Plastics polyvinyl chloride manufacturing facility plant in Illiopolis, Illinois , that killed 5 workers and severely injured 3 in April 2004, OSHA fined the company US$ 300,000 for violations. In 2005, an explosion at the Point Comfort plant hurt 11 workers. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan ,
108-646: A US$ 1.3 million civil suit for a tort claim and a criminal suit for defamation against Tsuang Ben-jei [ zh ] , a scientist who works at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung , for presenting evidence of increased cancer risk in the vicinity of the Formosa Plastic Group hydrocarbon-processing facility in Mailiao at a scientific meeting and in a paper. More than 1,000 academics, including chemistry Nobel laureate Yuan T. Lee , signed
144-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
180-464: A letter of support for Tsuang. In September 2013, judges at Taipei District Court ruled against Formosa Plastics. In April 2016, Formosa Plastics was blamed by numerous protesters and media outlets for mass fish deaths in four provinces of Vietnam since 6 April. On 30 June 2016, the Vietnamese government officially concluded that the local Formosa Plastics affiliate steel plant was responsible for
216-697: A report commissioned by the World Health Organization concluded it was unlikely the deaths were due to mercury poisoning. The company later tried to ship the waste to a hazardous waste site in Nevada . A 2002 survey undertaken by Scorecard, an environmental watch group, rated Formosa Plastics' facilities in the 90th percentile of the worst environmental polluters. In 2009, the Taiwanese Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) found that
252-810: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
288-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
324-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
360-570: The Formosa Transrail to operate a rail fleet. In April 2018, Formosa Plastics and sister corporation Formosa Petrochemical Corporation announced a new US$ 9.4 billion chemical manufacturing complex, set to be located across a 2,400-acre site in St. James Parish, Louisiana . Branded as "The Sunshine Project," the complex, made up of 14 facilities, including 10 plants, would produce ethylene glycol , polyethylene , and polypropylene . Construction
396-572: The Group's petrochemical operations. The president of Formosa Plastics Corp. (FPC) is Jason Lin (林健男). In 2019, Chemical & Engineering News ranked Formosa Plastics as the world's sixth largest chemical company by sales in 2018, with US$ 36.9 billion. That same year, Forbes ranked the company as No. 758 on its Global 2000 list of the world's largest public companies. Formosa has received substantial criticism over widespread pollution and reprisal tactics against environmental activists. The company
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#1732791990174432-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
468-587: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
504-656: The discharge of plastic pellets into Lavaca Bay and other waterways from the company's Point Comfort plant. In March 2019, the trial began and in June 2019, U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt ruled against Formosa Plastics, noting the company's consistent violation of state-issued permits and federal laws. In October 2019, Formosa Plastics agreed to pay US$ 50 million over five years in a settlement to fund projects reversing water pollution damage in Calhoun County and also comply with "zero discharge" of plastic pollutants in
540-562: The first of two new polyethylene plants had begun operating. The second plant and cracker were scheduled to fully operate in December 2019, but their opening was delayed until at least April 2020, pending further updates. The new polypropylene plant is scheduled to begin operating in the third quarter of 2021. In August 2019, Formosa Plastics announced it was planning to invest in a US$ 332 million expansion at its Baton Rouge facility to expand production of PVC resin. Construction began later in
576-517: The future, making it the largest settlement of a Clean Water Act suit filed by private individuals. This controversy was portrayed in episode 12 ("Point Comfort") of the Netflix series Dirty Money in 2020. Plastic pollution continued in Lavaca Bay even after the court settlement. Formosa Plastics has been involved in a series of deadly explosions at their facilities. After an explosion in
612-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
648-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
684-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
720-585: The marine ecological disaster. Formosa Plastics agreed to pay compensation of US$ 500 million and publicly apologized for the disaster. Controversy grew over rumors that the apology was issued under coercion from the Vietnamese government. In July 2017, retired shrimper Diane Wilson sued Formosa Plastics in Federal court for up to US$ 184 million for damages relating to the company's noncompliance with state and federal environmental permits and laws that require companies to report all waste violations, particularly with
756-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
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#1732791990174792-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
828-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
864-781: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
900-716: The project as of June 2021. Lavigne won the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for her opposition toward Formosa's plans. On September 14, 2022, District Judge Trudy White cancelled air quality permits for the new facility issued to Formosa by the LDEQ, effectively delaying the start of the project. Formosa announced they would appeal the ruling. In May 2018, citing stronger demand in the co-polymer market, Formosa Plastics announced new expansions in polyethylene and polypropylene production plant technologies for its facility in Point Comfort, all licensed from ExxonMobil , Univation Technologies, and Japan Polypropylene Corporation. In August 2019,
936-866: The second highest in the world after Shin-Etsu Chemical , which has 3.55 million metric tons per year as of May 2010 (expanding to 3.85 million metric tons per year by the end of 2010). FPC maintains numerous subsidiaries throughout Taiwan, jointly held with other members of the Formosa Plastics Group. In addition, Formosa Plastics Corporation, USA was founded in 1978 as a wholly owned subsidiary of FPC. That subsidiary has, in turn, created four wholly owned chemical manufacturing subsidiaries in Delaware City, Delaware , Illiopolis, Illinois , Baton Rouge, Louisiana , and Point Comfort, Texas . Formosa Plastics Corporation's operations include chemical and petrochemical manufacturing. In 1994, Formosa formed
972-521: The set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
1008-428: The soil and the groundwater in the area close to Formosa Plastics' Renwu plant had been polluted by benzene , chloroform , dichloromethane , 1,1,2-Trichloroethane , 1,1-dichloroethylene , tetrachloroethylene , trichloroethylene , and vinylchloride . The pollutants were all present at levels over 20 times the government standard; and most frighteningly, the levels of 1,2-dichloroethane were 30,000 times higher than
1044-627: The standard. In September 2009, the United States Environmental Protection Agency announced that Formosa Plastics would spend more than US$ 10 million to address air, water, and hazardous waste violations from two of the company's plants in Point Comfort and Baton Rouge, after inspectors found leak detection and repair and waste violations at the facilities. Formosa Plastics also agreed to pay an additional civil penalty of US$ 2.8 million for numerous federal law violations. In April 2012, Formosa Plastics filed
1080-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
1116-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
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1152-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
1188-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
1224-516: The year and is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2021. The expansion would allow the company to produce an additional 300 million pounds of resin. For the expansion, the company would receive a performance-based grant up to US$ 500,000 from the state of Louisiana . In 1999, Formosa Plastics used bribes to dump 3000 tons of mercury -laden waste in Sihanoukville , Cambodia – three local villagers died shortly afterwards, although
1260-461: Was founded in 1954, by Wang Yung-ching and Wang Yung-tsai with a US$ 798,000 loan from United States aid agencies . The first PVC plant was constructed in Kaohsiung and production began in 1957. As of 2005, FPC is the largest producer of PVC resins in Taiwan. When FPC's American operations are also considered, the company's total PVC resin capacity is 2.83 million metric tons per year,
1296-559: Was initially set to begin in 2019, with the initial opening date set for 2024 and the final stage of the development being completed by approximately 2029. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) approved the air permits for the project in January 2020. In February 2020, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit to challenge LDEQ's approval of the air permits. Sharon Lavigne and a number of other community activists also filed suit via their nonprofit, Rise St. James , and helped stall
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