■AUSTRALIA
Rio Tinto wants evidence
Rio Tinto Ltd said yesterday it was still unaware of any evidence to justify China’s detention of four employees on spying allegations. Rio, the world’s third-largest mining company, issued a statement yesterday welcoming news that detained Australian citizen Stern Hu (胡士泰) had received a second visit by Australian consular officials since the four were detained more than five weeks earlier. Sam Walsh, Rio Tinto’s chief executive for iron ore, said in the statement that the company remained surprised and concerned about the detentions.
■BANKING
Judge needs more time
A federal judge says he needs more time and additional details before making a decision on a US$33 million settlement between Bank of America and the Securities and Exchange Commission over executive bonuses. In a hearing in New York on Monday, US District Judge Jed Rakoff said he was “concerned that we not yet ferreted out all that the court needs to know.” The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank had agreed to pay the fines to settle charges that it misled investors about Merrill Lynch’s plans to pay executives.
■JAPAN
BOJ holds interest rate
The Japanese central bank yesterday held its rock-bottom interest rates steady to give the world’s No. 2 economy more time to recover from its worst recession in decades. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) said Japan’s economic conditions “have stopped worsening,” but cautioned that much uncertainty remains because of the murky outlook for the global economy. “Public investment is increasing and exports and production are picking up,” the BPJ said in a statement. “On the other hand, business fixed investment is declining sharply mainly reflecting weak corporate profits.”
■SOUTH KOREA
Interest rate unchanged
South Korea’s central bank left its key interest rate unchanged at a record low yesterday for a sixth straight month and said it was too early to consider raising borrowing costs as the country emerges from its worst slowdown in over a decade. The Bank of Korea kept the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate at 2 percent at a regular monthly policy meeting. The central bank had slashed the rate six times since early October to help battle the effects of the global financial crisis. The bank’s policy committee said it will stick to its “accommodative policy stance for the time being” — indicating the key interest rate would stay low for now.
■LENDING
New loans dropped in July
China’s new loans last month dropped to less than a quarter of the level seen a month earlier, the central bank said yesterday, as banks reined in the record lending of the first half. New loans dropped sharply to 355.9 billion yuan (US$52 billion) last month from 1.53 trillion yuan in June, the central bank said in a statement. The decline met market expectations that banks would slow their lending pace after new loans surged to 7.37 trillion yuan in the first half of the year.
■RETAIL
Aeon buys Mitsubishi stake
Aeon Co, a Japanese supermarket operator, will take a controlling stake in a Mitsubishi Corp unit that operates a TV and Internet shopping business. Aeon will acquire a 55 percent stake in Digital Direct Inc at the end of this month, the company said in a faxed statement today. It did not disclose the value of the deal.
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