■ Telecoms
Minorities reject PCCW bid
Minority shareholders of Singapore-listed Pacific Century Regional Developments Ltd yesterday rejected tycoon Richard Li's (李澤楷) proposal to sell the company's 22.7 percent stake in dominant Hong Kong phone company PCCW Ltd (電訊盈科). At an extraordinary general meeting in Singapore, 76.3 percent of minority holders voted against the deal. Li, son of prominent Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), announced in July an agreement to acquire the 22.7 percent stake in PCCW held by Pacific Century Regional Developments for a total of HK$9.16 billion (US$1.18 billion).
■ Music players
Zune overtakes Sansa
Microsoft Corp's Zune took second place in the US digital music-player market in its first week on sale, passing SanDisk Corp's Sansa, market researcher NPD Group Inc said. Zune captured 9 percent of the market in the week ended Nov. 18, New York-based NPD said in a statement on Wednesday. Apple Computer Inc's iPod remained the leader, with a 63 percent share in volume terms. Microsoft started selling its first music player on Nov. 14.
■ Wages
India leads in regional rise
India had the highest average salary increase in the Asia-Pacific region in the past year, according to results of a survey by human-resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates Inc. Wages in India gained 13.8 percent, almost matching the 13.9 percent gain last year, Hewitt said yesterday in a statement. The Philippines was second, recording an 8.2 percent increase. China's wage-growth slowed to 8 percent from 8.3 percent last year, the survey showed. Hewitt said it surveyed more than 1,400 foreign, locally owned and joint-venture companies this year in 11 markets including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. It measured actual and projected salary increases.
■ Funds
China appoints managers
China has picked 10 foreign fund managers to help it invest part of its enormous social security fund abroad, the government and state media said yesterday. China's social security fund, which manages about 200 billion yuan (US$25 billion), will initially allow them to manage just US$1 billion, but the figure could rise, the China Daily reported. The winners include six US companies -- Alliance Bernstein, BlackRock, JanusINTECH, PIMCO, State Street Global Advisors, and T. Rowe Price, the fund said on its Web site. Also included on the list are AXA Rosenberg of France, INVESCO of Britain, Allianz of Germany and a consortium formed by China International Capital Corp and Swiss-based UBS.
■ Steel
Baosteel looking for allies
China's largest steelmaker, Baosteel Group Corp (寶鋼集團), may ask Nippon Steel Corp and South Korea's POSCO to take a stake in the company if it lists on overseas markets, a Nihon Keizai Shimbun report said yesterday, quoting Baosteel chairwoman Xie Qihua (謝企華). "I think there can be a cross-shareholding with Nippon Steel and Posco," Xie said in an interview with the Japanese business daily. "The timing is good." The size of the shareholdings being contemplated by Baosteel have not been determined but are likely to be a few percent, the newspaper 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
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
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
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the