Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) yesterday said that it lost approximately NT$700 million (US$22.03 million) after Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) stock price tumbled 6.3 percent on Monday following reports the bank was ordered to pay a huge fine for breaching US money-laundering laws.
Chunghwa Post has a 3.5 percent stake in the bank and is one of its major investors. Mega was estimated to have lost NT$20 billion after Monday’s stock price fall.
Chunghwa Post chairman Philip Ong (翁文祺) said that the fine highlights the importance of complying with foreign regulations, while failure to do so can often bring added costs.
The fine should serve as a wake-up call to the Taiwanese banking system, Ong said.
In other news, Ong said Chunghwa Post is to erect two buildings on a plot of land behind the Taipei Beimen Post Office, close to Taipei Railway Station.
The two buildings, which are to have 50 floors and 30 floors respectively, are to become landmarks at the main thoroughfare to the west of Taipei, he said.
Ong said that the project was inspired by a visit to Tokyo in 2013, when he saw the JP Tower, which is right behind the historic Tokyo Central Post Office.
Like the Tokyo post office, the Beimen post office — built in 1930 and Taipei’s oldest — is historic, Ong said, adding that there is 13,223m2 of unused land behind it.
Ong said that the Beimen post office is in a historic district that includes the city’s old North Gate.
As such, Chunghwa Post is working with the Taipei City Government to deliver a zoning plan to allow construction of the new buildings, Ong added.
Based on a preliminary proposal, Chunghwa Post will keep the Beimen post office building and turn it into a postal museum. The smaller new building will house a hotel, as well as a campus for National Chiao Tung University, which has partial ownership over the land. The taller building is to house start-ups for innovative products and services, as well as a shopping center.
The company said that investment in the project could top NT$27 billion, which would be the postal company’s largest investment in recent years.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
RSS