■ Airlines
China relaxes rules
China will allow international airlines to fly to smaller cities without formal air traffic rights, on condition they stop over in Hainan Island, the South China Morning Post said, citing an unidentified official. The carriers will need an operating permit from the aviation regulator for permission to land at any Chinese municipal airport, the newspaper reported. International carriers are at present able to operate up to seven flights a week to any Chinese destination, the newspaper said. The Hainan government has offered tax subsidies to overseas carriers that use the provincial airports in an attempt to attract the airlines, the newspaper said.
■ Aircraft
Rolls-Royce optimistic
Rolls-Royce Group Plc, the world's second-largest maker of aircraft engines, said growth of its parts and repairs business in Asia will grow more than 10 percent every year as the region's airlines expand and renew their fleets. The number of engines installed on civilian aircraft have tripled to more than 10,000 units in the past 10 years, increasing their need for parts and repairs, Rolls-Royce's chief operating officer John Cheffins said. "We've been seeing growth in the double digits, more than 10 percent, pretty consistently," Cheffins said at the Asian Aerospace 2004 exhibition in Singapore.
■ Automobiles
Carmakers moving online
Mitsubishi Motors Corp, DaimlerChrysler AG and other companies are boosting spending on the Web, attracted by an improving economy, lower rates and better technologies for tracking potential customers, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing company officials. Mitsubishi plans to boost online-ad spending as much as 50 percent this year to US$6 million, the Journal reported. DaimlerChrysler increased online media spending 30 percent last year and Toyota Motor Corp raised ad spending on the Web by 55 percent in the first nine months of 2003, the newspaper said.
■ US Statistics
Consumer confidence falls
American consumers' new-found confidence crumbled this month in the face of doggedly sluggish job creation, a Conference Board survey showed Tuesday. A consumer confidence index plunged 9.1 points from the previous month to 87.3 this month, the private research firm said. "Consumers began the year on a high note, but their optimism has quickly given way to caution," said Conference Board consumer research chief Lynn Franco. "Consumers remain disheartened with current economic conditions, and at the core of their disenchantment is the labor market," she said.
■ Internet Crime
Softbank extortion exposed
Softbank Corp shares tumbled in Tokyo yesterday after police arrested four people on suspicion of trying to extort money from the Internet company after obtaining personal data on as many as 4 million subscribers to its broadband service. Softbank issued a public apology and said it was investigating how the reported leakage had happened. Earlier this year, the Tokyo-based company said information on 242 users of its broadband service had gotten out. The information included addresses, names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers, but did not include passwords or credit card information, Softbank said in a statement Wednesday.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the