■ Energy
China nixes oil tax rebates
China has temporarily scrapped a tax rebate on oil exports that would make it more expensive to ship petroleum products overseas amid record high international crude prices, the government said yesterday. The cancellation of the 11 percent rebate will take effect tomorrow for a four month period and in effect reduces Chinese exporters' incentive to ship petrol, the State Administration of Taxation said on its Web site. Products affected are automobile gasoline and airplane fuel as well as naphtha, a cheap diesel oil, as China ships only some 580,000 tonnes of oil products a month. By contrast the nation consumed more than 300 million tonnes of oils, or roughly some 50 times more than it exports.
■ Consumer trends
Singapore has top shoppers
Women in the city-state are Asia's undisputed shopping queens with the top-earning 28 percent having at least S$1 billion (US$594 million) to spend each month, a regional survey said yesterday. Media agency OMD queried more than 3,000 women in China, Hong Kong, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila and Singapore. Results published in the Straits Times found a monthly average of S$2,400 (US$1,500) burning a hole in the purses of each of the 450,000 Singapore women in the top-earning group. Nearly a third of the women earn more than their husbands, and 56 percent visit shopping malls or department stores at least three times a week, the most frequent for any of the markets surveyed. Across Asia, women have become careful to squirrel away their money, the survey found. Some 84 percent said it was necessary to have private savings that their husbands knew nothing about.
■ Internet
Yahoo promotes videos
Yahoo was to spotlight its video search service, and the clips of amateur film-makers, on its Web site beginning yesterday as part of its first "Yammys" awards, according to the US Internet company. Computer-users can visit the Yahoo Web site any time from yesterday to Sept. 12 to vote for their favorite of 15 videos that made it into the Yammys semi-finals, Yahoo spokeswoman Kathryn Kelly said. Today, vans equipped with projection gear will cruise the US cities of New York and Los Angeles to display the clips on sides of buildings and give passersby the option of voting on handheld tablets, Kelly said. Each clip is no longer than 60 seconds, and the semi-finalists were culled from nearly 1,000 original submissions, Kelly said.
■ Internet
Google losing out to Baidu
A survey by a Chinese Internet research group has found that Google is losing market share to its biggest Chinese rival, Web search engine Baidu.com (百度). The survey, conducted by the Beijing-based China Internet Network Information Center, reported that Baidu.com Inc boosted its market share in Beijing by 10.8 percentage points to 52 percent. Google Inc's share was at 33 percent, as the US Internet search engine kept its customer base steady while the overall market grew, according to the survey, seen yesterday on CNNIC's Web site. China's Internet population hit 103 million in June, second only to the US, according to CNNIC. The survey found that combined, Google and Baidu held 80 percent of the market in Beijing and Shanghai, and 75 percent in Guangzhou. The three cities account for the lion's share of Chinese Internet use, it said.
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
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
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
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2