■ Retailing
Direct selling green-lighted
China is preparing to lift its ban on direct selling and plans to issue a draft regulation by September, state press reported yes-terday. "Illegal pyramid selling will face a serious crackdown while legitimate direct selling companies from home and abroad will receive encouragement and support from the Chinese government," said Deng Zhan, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's Foreign Investment Administration. China imposed a ban on direct sales in 1998 after numerous fraud scandals. Ten foreign-funded direct selling companies such as Amway and Avon were allowed to continue opera-ting but had to shift promo-tion of their products to retail outlets, the China Daily said. The stop-gap measures are set to come at the end of this year, in line with promises China made on its accession to the WTO.
Richard Holwill, vice-president of Alticor Inc, Amway's parent company, was quoted by the news-paper as saying the deregu-lation followed China's commitments to the WTO.
■ Cameras
Digital sales to soar
Worldwide unit shipments of digital cameras will exceed 100 million units in 2008, from an expected 68.6 million units this year, mar-ket researcher IDC said. Global shipments of digital single-lens reflex cameras, or models favored by pro-fessionals, will be 2.1 million units this year and reach 6.6 million units in 2008 as digital SLRs replace film-based SLRs, Christo-pher Chute, senior analyst at IDC, said. Shipments of digital SLRs will be driven by sub-US$1,000 price points, legacy users of Nikon Corp and Canon Inc models, and new users interested in developing photography as a hobby, Chute said.
■ Telecoms
NTT DoCoMo gets new boss
NTT DoCoMo Inc named executive vice president Masao Nakamura as its next chief executive officer, replacing Keiji Tachikawa. Nakamura, 59, will be charged with reversing market-share losses at the world's second-largest mobile-phone operator, said Norio Wada, president of DoCoMo parent Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. at a press conference in Tokyo. Nakamura takes the reins at DoCoMo as the market leader is losing ground to rival KDDI Corp's phone network and is predicting sales to decline in the business year ending March 31. Under Tachi-kawa, DoCoMo pioneered
i-mode, the world's first wireless Internet service, and FOMA, the first so-called third-generation network for faster access to games, music and video on a handset.
■ Automakers
Mitsubishi barred
Japan's National Police Agency has barred Mitsu-bishi Motors Corp and its truck affiliate from bidding for police orders for 11 months following allega-tions that company officials covered up defects which caused the wheels to come off, a news report said yesterday. The measure, which took effect on Thursday, prevents Mitsu-bishi Motors and Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp from selling vehicles to the agency, Kyodo News agency said. The decision comes after seven former Mitsu-bishi executives were arrested earlier this month on suspicion they falsified a report on an accident in 2002 in which a wheel flew off a truck and killed a woman. Japan's Transport Ministry has also taken a similar step.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
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