Taiwan’s President Apologizes for Mass Power Outage, Pledges to Scrutinize Infrastructure

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, on Oct. 10, 2020. Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen offered a public apology on Friday for the widespread outage that left more than five million people without electricity, vowing to scrutinize infrastructure and improve grid reliability.

The blackouts began at about 9 a.m. on Thursday, affecting the areas of Taipei, New Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Changhua, Keelung, Taoyuan, Hualien, and Miaoli, according to local reports.