The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said it would review Taiwan Broadband Communications’ (TBC) initial public offering (IPO) in Singapore in May to determine if the company violated the Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法).
TBC is the nation’s fifth-largest multiple cable system operator.
Media reports have said that the cable operator may be exploiting a loophole through the IPO to help attract funds from Chinese investors, which could undermine Taiwan’s national security.
NCC chief secretary Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said the IPO should have been reviewed and approved by the commission before it was held, adding that it would ask TBC’s management to come answer questions from NCC commissioners.
The NCC said it became aware of the case after reading a story published in the Chinese-language Business Weekly at the end of April. It then lodged an inquiry with the Investment Commission asking for more information about the case.
“We discovered that TBC did not seek approval from the Investment Commission before launching its IPO, so we asked the Investment Commission to look into the matter,” NCC specialist Chan Yi-lien (詹懿廉) said.
Chan said the IPO was launched in Singapore under the name Asian Pay Television Trust using funding from Singapore-listed Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund and Macquarie Korea Opportunities Fund, which are run by the Macquarie Group. The trust owns 100 percent of TBC’s shares.
On May 22, the Investment Commission asked TBC about changes in the company’s investment structure and investors’ rights after the IPO was held. The Investment Commission did not receive a full answer from the operator until Aug. 1, according to the NCC. On Aug. 5, the Investment Commission turned over the company’s response to the communications agency.
Andy Hsieh (謝煥乾), director of the NCC’s communication management department, said the case would be reviewed for compliance with the Statute for Investment by Foreign Nationals (外國人投資條例) and the Cable Radio and Television Act.
“The statute requires investors to secure the approval of administrative authorities if they invest in businesses that allow restrictive investment from foreign investors,” Hsieh said.
He added that Article 23 of the act states that the central regulatory agency may reject applications from foreign investors planning to establish or operate cable radio or television services without the resolution of the review committee if it deems that the foreign investment would have an adverse effect on national security, public order, or society.
Hsieh said that his department is gathering information on the changes made to TBC shareholders’ rights and investment plans since 2006, adding that a final ruling would be issued by NCC commissioners.
TBC issued a statement that the trust had made it clear when it launched the offering that Chinese investors are banned from purchasing shares. The fund can ask Chinese investors to sell their stakes in the fund and can suspend the rights of these investors if they refuse to comply.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods