Taiwan Democracy Watch yesterday voiced concern over the inking of a collaborative agreement between Pin Shang Credit Investigation Co (品尚徵信), based in China’s Fujian Province, and Taiwan’s China Credit Information Service Ltd (CCIS, 中華徵信所), saying that information held by the Taiwanese firm could be used by the Chinese credit investigation industry.
The two companies signed the agreement last month, according to a news release that month by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
The agreement allows credit investigation firms across the Taiwan Strait to use “big data” for applied research, development and merging of the cross-strait economy, the report said.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
With support from CCIS, the People’s Bank of China’s Fujian branch has already conducted 310 investigations of Taiwanese corporations or individuals, it said.
Cross-strait collaboration on financial investigations is not legal, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, citing a lack of comprehensive Chinese legislation about the industry and the desire to protect Taiwanese from having their financial information being used for other purposes.
The council said that according to its understanding, CCIS was only providing public information of domestic companies, such as corporate finances as listed by the Ministry of Finance’s Financial Data Center, or registration data.
Data on Taiwan’s Join Credit Information Center has been kept off-limits, the council said.
Collaboration between cross-strait financial investigation firms goes back at least two decades, serving as the basis for credit and insurance policies in China for Taiwanese businesspeople, CCIS vice chief executive officer Yu Chien-chug (余建中) said.
The EU Chamber of Commerce in China in a report in August said that Beijing has amassed a significant amount of data in preparation for the launch of its Social Credit for Corporations project next year.
Corporations would be assigned an economic and political rating, and corporate actions could be considered “harming national interest” under the system, the report said.
Should the system be established, Taiwanese businesses could be forced to support the so-called “1992 consensus,” Taiwan Democracy Watch chairman Sung Cheng-en (宋承恩) said.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted to making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS