■ CHINA
Finance minister replaced
Jin Renqing (金人慶), the finance minister for the past four years , has been shifted to a government think-tank post and will be replaced by the nation's top tax collector, government sources said yesterday. Jin, 63, will be replaced by Xie Xuren (謝旭人), director of the State Administration of Taxation, the sources said. Xie's promotion will require approval by the National People's Congress, they said, although this is essentially a formality. They gave no specific reasons why Jin had been transferred, and he had given no public indication that he was planning to step aside.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai union mulls strike
Workers at yundai Motor, South Korea's biggest carmaker, will stage a weekend overtime ban before a possible strike next week, union officials said yesterday. The 44,000-strong union will vote tomorrow on whether to strike in support of an 8.9 percent pay increase, an extension of the retirement age from 58 to 60 and a halt to the allocation of work to overseas plants. "We will reject extra work Saturday and Sunday," union leader Lee Jung-hee said, adding that the union could stage a strike anytime from next Tuesday unless its demands are met. The company has offered a 5.4 percent pay rise.
■ SOFTWARE
Wipro to open US center
India's Wipro Technologies Ltd plans to open a software development center in Atlanta, George, that will employ mostly graduates from universities and colleges in the US state, the company said. Wipro Technologies -- which is the global services arm of the outsourcing company Wipro Ltd -- will start the center with 200 employees and scale it up to 500 positions in three years, the company said in a statement released late on Monday. "The center is part of Wipro's strategy to build global delivery capabilities and will significantly increase the company's presence and base of local hires in the United States," the statement said.
■ BANKING
Watchdog blocks KEB sale
South Korea's financial watchdog said yesterday it would not approve the sale of Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) to HSBC until legal cases over its previous sale are settled. HSBC said last week it was in talks to buy a majority stake in the nation's fifth-largest commercial bank from Lone Star. "HSBC cannot be an exception to the [customary] position of financial authorities" said Kim Dae-pyung, deputy governor of the Financial Supervisory Service. Prosecutors brought charges against six people, including a former KEB president last year, accusing them of manipulating figures on KEB's financial health to pave the way for the US private equity fund to acquire the bank in 2003.
■ INTERNET
Japan exploring technology
Japan will start research on new network technology to replace the Internet to tackle growing quality and security problems, a government official said yesterday. US and European researchers have already started research to rebuild the underlying architecture of the Internet -- a move that could mean replacing networking equipment and rewriting software on computers. Yoshihiro Onishi, assistant director at the Ministry of Communication, said Japan felt it was crucial to follow suit to stay competitive. Post-Internet network technology is expected to become imperative by 2020, he said.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from