The Public Construction Commission (PCC) came under fire from lawmakers across party lines and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) at the Internal Administration Committee meeting yesterday over its relaxation of restrictions on Chinese investment in public construction projects.
According to a new policy announced by the commission last week, Chinese firms are classified into three categories: firms registered and located in China; firms funded by Chinese capital, but registered in Taiwan; and firms funded by Chinese capital, but registered in a third country.
The new policy allows the latter two types to invest or take part in bidding for public construction projects, although firms registered in China remain banned from doing so.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said a breach of national security might occur if third-country firms funded by Chinese capital took part in bidding for oceanic geological research or a project to build a computer system for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, for example.
Another DPP legislator, Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), said he was worried that it might compromise national security if Chinese capital invests in national defense projects.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) and Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) also expressed similar concerns.
Responding to the criticism, PCC Deputy Minister Teng Min-chih (鄧民治) said “the government still has a mechanism to review and the right to approve or disapprove.” However, MAC Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛), who was also at the legislative meeting, disagreed with the PCC.
“The MAC was never consulted when the PCC was making the policy,” she said. “I believe that the definition of ‘Chinese capital’ should be made more carefully.”
She added that the MAC would call on other government bodies — including the PCC — to further discuss the issue.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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