■ Auto Industry
Honda may sue China rivals
Honda Motor Co, the first Japanese carmaker to open a plant in China, said it may sue nine Chinese automakers for copying the design of its CR-V sport-utility vehicle. Honda, which has sued two Chinese carmakers since November last year, found there are nine other companies that either make or plan to produce models that look like the Honda CR-V, spokeswoman Sachi Ito said today. The cases are the latest in a series of disputes between overseas automakers and local companies accused of copying of designs and logos. Toyota Motor Corp, Asia's largest carmaker, lost a lawsuit against Geely Group Co in November last year over the Chinese company's use of a logo resembling the Japanese carmaker's badge.
■ Hotels
Las Vegas Sands to expand
US gaming company Las Vegas Sands Inc said it wants to build six more hotels, including some with casinos, in an area of the southern Chinese gambling enclave of Macau. Las Vegas Sands opened the Sands Macau casino in May and is building the Macau Venetian Casino Resort on the territory's reclaimed Cotai area, which the company has touted as the "Las Vegas Strip of Asia." Now the gaming operator has submitted a proposal to Macau's government to build six more hotel resorts in Cotai, some of which will have casinos, Las Vegas Sands said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing submitted on Wednesday. The company is seeking partners to finance and build the hotels and will only operate the casinos through subsidiaries, the filing said.
■ Advertising
Nike apologizes for ad
Nike has apologized for a footwear ad featuring an attack on a kung fu master which was banned by China, saying it only intended to emulate the Hong Kong martial arts movie heroes of the 1970s. China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television on Monday ordered stations nationwide to stop broadcasts of Nike's "LeBron James in Chamber of Fear" ads that it said had sparked anger and claims of offending "national feelings." In the advertisement, James, 19, a forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, makes easy work of animated enemies including a white-haired kung fu master, two women in traditional Chinese garb and the pair of dragons as he ascends the video game-like levels of the "Chamber."
■ DVD Formats
Disney chooses Blue-ray
Hollywood movie powerhouse Walt Disney has taken sides with Japan's Sony Corp in a bitter battle between studios to define a technical standard for next generation DVDs, it said on Wednesday. The house that made Mickey Mouse and its home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) announced they would adopt Sony's Blu-ray disc format, putting Disney at odds with an array of studios supporting rival Toshiba technology. Under the tie-up with Sony for the next generation of video disc players, Disney and BVHE will release their movies non-exclusively in the Blu-ray format when it launches in North America and Japan late next year. Last month Warner Bros, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and New Line Cinema took positions in the fight, opting to endorse the HD DVD format touted by Sony rival Toshiba. The two standards are not compatible and will require consumers to choose between one system or another when buying the next generation of DVD players.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
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