■ Fast food
China to get McDrive-thrus
McDonald's Corp, the world's largest restaurant company, will start a chain of drive-through fast-food outlets in China with oil refiner and gas station operator China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. "We're going to open 100 restaurants each year and many of these restaurants will be drive-throughs," president Mike Roberts said at a press briefing in the Great Hall of the People. China Petroleum, or Sinopec, has 30,000 gas stations in China. The partners in the McDonald's venture cite China's rapidly increasing auto sales as another attraction. They wouldn't give details on costs, timing, or how revenue will be split.
■ Telecoms
Motorola unfazed by merger
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Motorola Inc, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker, said its strategy on telecommunications equipment will not be affected by the merger of Nokia Oyj and Siemens AG's network businesses. "We'll just go about our strategy because we anticipated market consolidation," Simon Leung, president of Motorola in Asia-Pacific, said today at a press conference in Singapore. "We also did say all along we believe industry consolidation is going to be the trend." Motorola will continue to look for acquisitions, Leung said, without naming possible targets. Nokia and Siemens yesterday said they agreed to combine their network businesses, aiming to close the gap on top wireless-equipment maker Ericsson AB in the US$65 billion industry.
■ Pharmaceuticals
Firms appeal Viagra ruling
Chinese drug firms have appealed a court ruling upholding US pharma-ceutical giant Pfizer's China patent for its male impotency drug Viagra, a state press report said yesterday. The 12 Chinese companies are seeking a reversal of a Beijing court ruling which overturned a decision by the country's patent review board that had allowed domestic firms to make Viagra-style drugs, the China Daily reported. New York-based Pfizer had obtained a patent license for its erectile dysfunction treatment in 2001. However the patent review board, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), revoked the license in July 2004 after the 12 Chinese pharmaceutical companies lodged complaints. The patent office argued that Pfizer was in breach of intellectual property law because it failed to accurately explain the uses of the pill's key ingredient, sildenafil citrate. Pzifer won its nearly-two year appeal when the Beijing intermediate court ruled on June 2 in its favor.
■ Telecoms
PCCW gets purchase offer
Hong Kong phone company PCCW Ltd said yesterday it has received an offer to buy its telecommunications and media assets, with newspapers reporting that the potential buyer, Australia's Macquarie Bank Ltd, has put up HK$40 billion (US$5.2 billion) for the possible deal. PCCW, controlled by Richard Li (李澤楷), the younger son of tycoon Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), said in a statement "it received a nonbinding expression of interest on June 16, 2006, from an independent third party, in relation to a possible acquisition of substantially all the telecommunications and media-related assets of the company ... The company is in the process of evaluating the merits of the proposed transaction and believes it is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders as a whole to continue discussions" on the deal, PCCW said.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a