■ Software
Microsoft gives data to EC
Microsoft submitted a new batch of technical information about its Windows operating system to the European Commission on Thursday, meeting the latest deadline to provide information on whether it is complying with a 2004 antitrust ruling. "This is an important milestone," Microsoft said in a statement. Final edits and technical review of the information already submitted in July have now been completed, it added, insisting that it had not broken the summer deadline. The commission, which fined Microsoft US$357 million in July for failing to comply with the antitrust order, disagrees.
■ Automakers
Chery cancels export plan
China's Chery Automobile (奇瑞汽車) has canceled plans to export cars to the US through a joint venture, Visionary Vehicles, with US entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, a report said yesterday. Chery said it was not ready to sell cars in the world's biggest car market although Bricklin, who introduced the Subaru brand to the US in the 1960s, planned to import 250,000 Chery cars through 250 US dealers as early as next year. "Chery was not moving fast enough to do all of these cars. It may still assemble some cars for Visionary on a contract basis," Visionary Vehicles spokeswoman Wendi Tush was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.
■ Electronics
Sony to fix digital cameras
Sony said yesterday it found a defect in some of its popular Cyber-shot compact digital cameras and offered to repair affected cameras free of charge. The liquid-crystal-display screens of eight camera models might not display images correctly, images could be distorted or cameras might not take photos at all, Sony Corp said in a statement. Affected are eight Cyber-shot models sold between September 2003 and January last year in Japan and in a similar period globally, Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa said.
■ Beverages
San Miguel, Coke in talks
San Miguel Corp, the Philippines' largest food and beverage conglomerate, said yesterday it was still negotiating the sale of its soft drinks bottling joint venture with Coca-Cola Co. San Miguel made the disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange after a report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer cited unnamed industry sources as saying the company has agreed to sell its entire 65 percent stake in the venture to Atlanta-based Coca-Cola for an estimated US$700 million. San Miguel and Coca-Cola jointly acquired Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc (CCBPI), in July 2001 from Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd of Australia.
■ Economic policy
Bernanke to visit China
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will accompany Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other Cabinet officials to Beijing next month to try to persuade China to alter its economic policies, senior US government officials said on Thursday. The two-day visit in the middle of December has an ambitious agenda to push, from urging China to let its yuan currency to appreciate further to persuading it to reduce barriers to foreign investment and crack down on piracy and theft of intellectual property. Officially it is to be the opening round of talks under a so-called "strategic economic dialogue" announced in the middle of September.
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