■ Airlines
China to license private firm
China's aviation regulator is expected to issue a licence soon to Okay Airways Co, making it the first private airline authorized to operate there, state media reported yesterday. Okay Airways is based out of Binhai International Airport in Tianjin, a city of 10 million people about 100km southeast of Beijing, although its headquarters is in the capital. After receiving a licence from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Okay Airways was expected to begin services in early March, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported. China began easing controls on private investment in airlines early last year. Earlier reports said Okay would start out operating six Boeing 737 aircraft. Okay Airways was expected to mainly operate air cargo and express services, passenger charter flights and ground distribution services, it said. The airline intends to offer low-cost services with greater flexibility than China's larger state-run carriers, the report said.
■ Semiconductors
Intel selling 64-bit chips
Intel Corp, the world's biggest computer-chip maker, began selling versions of its flagship Pentium processor capable of running software that processes data in chunks twice as large as those used in today's personal computers. The company, whose microprocessors are the main engines in more than 80 percent of the world's PCs, is selling the chips for as much as US$999, Santa Clara, California-based Intel said in a statement. Companies such Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software company, are developing programs that process data in 64-bit chunks. That lets the programs manipulate data faster than existing 32-bit software and requires 64-bit-capable chips.
■ Semiconductors
Toshiba to lift investment
Japan's Toshiba Corp said yesterday it plans to raise capital spending on chipmaking for the current fiscal year by 13 per cent from a previous plan to a record ?203 billion (US$1.9 billion). The leading Japanese appliance maker said its planned increase in chip investment is to make more chips with large-capacity memory that are used for digital cameras and cellphones with camera functions. Although chip demand continues to fall due to fluctuations in digital electronics sales, Toshiba sees this sector turning around starting this autumn, experts said. They said by expanding production ahead of time, Toshiba is aiming for sharp earnings growth when demand recovers.
■ Internet
Yahoo Japan to sell music
Yahoo Japan Corp, which operates Japan's most-visited Web portal, will start a fee-based music download site as early as this month with distributor Label Gate Co, a company spokesman said. The Web site will offer about 73,000 of the more than 100,000 songs available on Label Gate's download service, and allow Yahoo Japan users to pay for the music using Yahoo Wallet and other settlement services, said Masanori Satake, a spokesman at Tokyo-based Yahoo. Closely held Label Gate was set up by 18 domestic record companies including Columbia Music Entertainment Inc, Universal Music KK and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. The songs on the Yahoo Web site will cost about ?150 to ?370 each, in line with prices on Label Gate's service.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues