■ China
Avon to buy out partner
US direct sales giant Avon is set to buy out its Chinese joint venture partner for US$50 million, making the cosmetic manufacturer a solely owned foreign-funded enterprise in China, state press said yesterday. Avon will buy the 20 percent share of Avon (China) Co Ltd in its Guangzhou-based partner Masson Co Ltd, upon government approval, the China Daily reported. Avon, the world's leading direct-sales cosmetics group, currently holds a 75 percent stake in the joint venture, with the additional 5 percent owned by private investors, the report said. Avon has been banned from direct sales in China since the government outlawed door-to-door sales practices in 1998 due to fraud and abuses such as pyramid schemes at other companies involved in the practice.
■ Tax
Airline gets big bill
National carrier Air New Zealand said yesterday it was given an unexpected tax bill from Hong Kong authorities for NZ$47 million (US$31 million), but will appeal the assessment. Hong Kong's Inland Revenue Department revised its tax assessment for the airline's Hong Kong subsidiary, New Zealand International Airlines, and said the parent company owes back taxes for the period between 1989 to 2002. A further NZ$60 million (US$39 million) could be added to the bill if the 2003 and 2004 tax years are reassessed, the carrier said in a statement. Air New Zealand said it had relied on professional advice from leading accounting firms about Hong Kong's tax law, and would challenge the reassessment.
■ Foreign exchange
China's reserves static
China's foreign exchange reserves showed no increase last month for the first time since the government started publishing statistics on monthly growth, the central bank said yesterday. The nation's foreign exchange reserves were US$415.7 billion at the end of February, unchanged compared to the end of January, according to the People's Bank of China. The figure was released after China recorded a rare trade deficit of US$7.9 billion last month, its largest in nearly a decade. It is the first time that China has not recorded monthly growth in foreign exchange reserves since the central bank started to release monthly figures on its Web site in January 2000. This, however, excludes a steep drop in reserves at the end of last year, when US$45 billion was taken out of the reserves for a capital injection into two state-run banks.
■ Cards
Japan gets electronic wallet
East Japan Railway Co (JR East) said yesterday it had launched a new version of its high-tech "Suica" rail pass that can be used as an electronic wallet at rail stores in Tokyo and the northern city of Sendai. The railway, which covers 17 provinces in eastern and northern Japan, is the first in the country to offer a rail pass as a prepaid shopping card at 196 stores at 64 JR East stations. Up to ¥20,000 (US$186) can be stored on the card at any one time, with transactions at stores generating a fee for the railway. The railway plans to extend use of the card to 500 stores and 200 stations by the middle of the year and 1,000 stores by March next year, said JR East spokesman Kazushi Masuya. "Unfortunately we do not have any forecast of how much revenue this will generate because we don't know how many customers will use it," he added.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique