■ FINANCE
Regional US banks collapse
Two more regional US banks, this time in California and Texas, have collapsed amidst the worst finance crisis since the Great Depression, bringing to 19 the total number of US banks that have gone under in this year alone. The latest two victims were the Houston-based Franklin Bank and the smaller Los Angeles-based Security Pacific Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) said. Franklin Bank was closed by the FDIC and the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending. Its deposits were assumed by Prosperity Bank. Security Pacific was closed by the California commissioner of financial institutions and the FDIC. Its assets were acquired by Pacific Western Bank, the FDIC said.
■AUTOMAKERS
GM to up stake in venture
General Motors Corp, the biggest overseas automaker in China, is in talks with a local partner to increase its stake in a venture that produces vans and light trucks under the Wuling brand. The US automaker is seeking to buy additional shares in SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co, SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車) chairman Hu Maoyuan (胡茂元) said on Saturday in Tianjin. SAIC is the majority shareholder of the venture with 50.1 percent, GM owns 34 percent and Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co holds the rest. GM is seeking to boost market share in China, where the venture based in Guangxi Province accounts for about half its local sales.
■RETAIL
Li & Fung cutting costs
Li & Fung Ltd (利豐), the Hong Kong-based supplier of toys and clothing to Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Target Corp, will freeze hiring, trim jobs and cut travel expenses as it reviews costs, the company said. “Worsening economic conditions” led the company to review its costs, Li & Fung said in a statement e-mailed late on Saturday. Job cuts will be the last resort and a “limited number” of workers in operations where customers have had the worst impact will be released. The hiring freeze will be imposed in most locations, the statement said.
■AUSTRALIA
Treasurer Swan pessimistic
The domestic economy will be hit as emerging economies get sucked into the global financial crisis, Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday. “This [slowdown] is now spreading to the developing world, that emerging economies are now much more dramatically impacted by the global financial crisis,” Swan told reporters in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he is attending a meeting of finance ministers. “Developing economies, particularly in our region, will most probably slow more dramatically than many had thought, and that will have a further knock-on impact on Australian growth.” Swan quoted a World Bank report presented at the meeting which gave a bleak picture of global prospects. He said it showed emerging economies “have entered a dangerous new zone.”
■INTERNET
Spam getting worse
Spam is becoming more dangerous, said analysts at Sophos, a German security software firm. During the third quarter, one out of every 416 e-mails contained a potentially dangerous attachment compared with one in every 3,333 e-mails in the second quarter, Sophos said. The increase can be linked to a large series of malware-spam attacks over the summer. Fake mails were doctored to appear as if they were coming from delivery company UPS and designed to steal money or online identities.
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