■ Automobiles
China's auto sales soar
China's auto sales soared 36.9 percent last year to a record high 3.83 million units, an industry group said yesterday, amid a race by automakers for a share of the booming market. The increase contributed to a 25.1 percent rise in total vehicle sales to 7.22 million units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement. The group is authorized by the government to release automotive industry data. The top automaker by sales was Shanghai General Motors Corp, a joint venture of General Motors Corp and Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp, with 365,400 vehicles sold, according to the association's data.
■ Stocks
Baosteel plans NY listing
China's leading steelmaker Baosteel Group (寶鋼集團) has started preparations for an overseas listing that could take place in New York, state media reported yesterday. Baosteel could list on the New York stock exchange as early as November if it can meet US listing standards, the official Shanghai Securities News said citing an unnamed official. Baoshan Iron Steel Co Ltd, the listed arm of Baosteel group on the Shanghai Securities Exchange, currently controls almost all of Baosteel Group's steel assets. Baosteel's net profit in the first nine months of last year was 9.54 billion yuan (US$1.22 billion), according to the group's third financial statement.
■ Entertainment
Macau punts on movies
Casino haven Macau is taking a gamble with the movies by combining a gaming resort with a film and television production studio in an ambitious US$2 billion project. Macao Studio City will boast a casino and hotels built around a film and TV lot, as pioneered by Universal Studios in Florida, its backers said. The complex will feature a concert venue, an upmarket retail center and at least three hotels offering 2,000 rooms, including a Marriott and Ritz Carlton as well as a boutique venture by Shanghai Tang retail tycoon David Tang (鄧永鏗). The first phase of Macao Studio City will be completed in 2009.
■ Energy
Turner forms solar company
Ted Turner, the cable television billionaire and owner of vast tracts of land in the US West, is forming a venture with a solar energy company targeting California markets. "Our future depends on changing the way we use energy," Turner said in a statement. "We've got to move away from fossil fuels and develop long-term energy solutions that work. Using clean energy technologies, such as solar power, is the right thing to do, and it represents a tremendous business opportunity." Turner will partner with Dome-Tech Solar, a solar company in Branchburg, New Jersey, to create DT Solar, a Turner renewable energy company.
■ Energy
Gazprom, Chevron agree JV
Russia's gas and oil giant Gazprom and US oil major Chevron have set up a joint venture based in resource-rich northwestern Siberia, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday quoting Gazprom officials. The joint venture would search and produce hydrocarbons, Gazprom officials said, but refused to elaborate further. Gazprom owns 30 percent of the new company's shares and plans to increase its stock to over 50 percent. Chevron's Moscow office refused to comment on the report, Interfax said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique