Taiwanese and Chinese companies such as DBTEL Inc (大霸) and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) are seeking to cooperate on development of formats for mobile phones, flat panels and other digital devices to compete with European and US standards.
Adopting independent standards would reduce fees paid for US and European patents and may force foreign companies to pay for the right to use Chinese formats when selling products in the country, said Chin Wu (吳欽智), chief technology officer of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Taiwan's largest computer motherboard maker.
China, the world's largest market for mobile phones in terms of the number of users, wants to tap Taiwanese companies to speed up the development of a home-grown standard for high-speed wireless service, called TD-SCDMA, for mobile phones, according to presentations given at a seminar in Beijing on Tuesday.
The two-day meeting was attended by representatives of China's Ministry of Information Industry and executives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
"China's market is so big that when TD-SCDMA is developed, international companies will have to use it," Archie Shyu, chief executive of a Chinese unit of Taiwan-based DBTEL, said in an interview at the seminar.
Patent fees account for about 20 percent of manufacturers' selling price of handsets in China, he said.
More than 40 executives from Taiwanese companies including DBTEL, Taiwan's biggest handset maker in China, Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電子) and Asustek Computer are in Beijing to discuss standards for mobile phones, audio-visual systems, portable storage devices as well as liquid-crystal displays (LCDs).
But the US, which jointly develops weapons systems with Taiwan, would probably try to prevent Taiwan and China from forming close ties on technology standards, a Taipei-based defense analyst said.
"The US Congress is very nervous about China and the US only recently put pressure on the EU not to lift the weapons embargo on China," said Andrew Yang (楊念祖), secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, a defense think tank.
"This type of cooperation between China and Taiwan would only raise US concerns more," he said.
The US wouldn't let Taiwanese technology companies get "too close" with China on standards, Yang said.
"Just watch, the US should react very soon," he said.
China has the ability to set industry standards with its sizeable market, and Taiwanese companies can help promote formats, Chiang Ping-kun (江丙坤), chairman of the Taipei-based Sinocon Foundation and vice chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said in a speech at the opening of the seminar.
Commenting on the Beijing seminar, Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Tuesday that, "Chiang came to see me before his mainland visit to brief me about the seminar, which he said will enhance the industrial cooperation across the Strait and help improve Taiwan's industrial production."
"We have no way to oppose such a move," Wu said.
"I ask Chiang just to exchange ideas with them [his Chinese counterparts] and bring the concrete conclusions back to Taiwan for the government to follow up," he said.
The council, the nation's top policymaker toward China, has insisted that only the government or the private industry groups authorized by the government can negotiate with China.
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