The head of China’s commerce regulator met with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) chairman Jack Ma (馬雲) on Friday to discuss combating fake products, Xinhua news agency reported, with the two adopting a conciliatory tone after a row over illegal business on the Internet company’s platforms.
The meeting took place the same day the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) backtracked on an earlier report that had excoriated the Chinese online commerce company for not doing enough to suppress counterfeiting on its Web sites.
SAIC issued what it called a “white paper” on Wednesday that said many products sold on Alibaba’s Web sites infringed on trademarks or were banned, substandard or fake.
However, in a follow-up statement posted on its Web site on Friday, a spokesman for the regulator said the report was not a white paper and carried no legal force.
“The most recent SAIC posting speaks for itself. We feel vindicated,” Alibaba said in a statement in response.
It is unclear what prompted the regulator’s seeming about-face in a highly unusual episode, one that saw a major Chinese corporation clash publicly with an influential government organization.
While it remains unclear whether the SAIC intended any specific action against Alibaba or counterfeiting in general, analysts said the incident reminded investors of the political risk inherent in Chinese companies, that the country’s regulators might clamp down on business activities with little warning.
In the meeting with the SAIC on Friday, Ma promised to “actively cooperate with the government [and] devote more capital” to weeding out fake goods, according to Xinhua.
SAIC Minister Zhang Mao (張茅) said the company had made good efforts in safeguarding consumer interests and added his agency should find new modes of oversight for e-commerce.
The Chinese company is sensitive to accusations about its efforts to suppress counterfeit products, which span several years. During an earnings call on Thursday, Alibaba vice-chairman Joseph Tsai (蔡崇信) called the SAIC’s initial report “flawed,” and said the firm was preparing to file a formal complaint.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”