The Investment Commission yesterday said it has determined that Taobao Taiwan (淘寶台灣) is a Chinese-controlled company operating illegally in Taiwan.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) commission has fined the e-commerce site NT$410,000 (US$13,890) and required it to divest or change its investment structure within six months to conform with laws pertaining to Chinese companies in Taiwan.
Taobao Taiwan is owned and operated by Claddagh Venture Investment Ltd (英商克雷達投資), a UK-based company 28.77 percent held by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴).
Photo: CNA
However, the commission said Taobao Taiwan is actually controlled by Alibaba Group, which is in contravention of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
“It is little more than a piece of signage. Behind the scenes, the one in control is Alibaba Group,” commission spokesman Su Chi-yen (蘇琪彥) said.
Claddagh’s company statute says that the board member representing Alibaba’s stake must be present at any board meeting, the commission said.
“According to the way the company statute is written, the other two members of Claddagh Venture Investment cannot convene a board meeting on their own. This means Alibaba Group has a veto on any decision relating to Taobao Taiwan,” Su said.
Claddagh is completely reliant on Alibaba for the operation of Taobao Taiwan, the commission said.
Claddagh shares a URL, IT system maintenance and technical support with Alibaba, while Taobao Taiwan’s servers and other network equipment are rented from Taobao Hong Kong (淘寶香港), it said.
“There is no evidence that Claddagh Venture Investment is capable of running Taobao Taiwan independently,” Su said.
Taobao Taiwan users are also required to sign a service and privacy agreement with Taobao in China, leading to data safety concerns, he said.
“On its Web site, you cannot sign up to Taobao Taiwan without signing a terms of service agreement with Taobao [China],” he added.
The Taobao Taiwan Web site says users must agree to its world Taobao service platform service and privacy policy to sign up.
However, Taobao Taiwan spokeswoman Kay Ko (柯中甯) denied the company was controlled by Alibaba, saying the commission’s announcement “caught the company off guard.”
“We have worked with the Investment Commission every step of the way, and we will keep working with the commission and not let this disrupt our operations,” Ko said. “I must reiterate again, Taobao Taiwan is an independent company not under the control of Alibaba Group. I am not at liberty to disclose who the other investors in Claddagh Venture Investment are, but the Investment Commission is aware.”
The terms of service agreement “will be gone by tomorrow,” she said.
Taobao tried to operate in Taiwan through a Hong Kong company set up in 2013, but the commission in 2015 determined that the investment came from China and ordered the company to divest.
It must come up with a plan to conform with the law if it does not want to repeat history, the commission said.
“They do not have six months to come up with a plan, they must come up with a plan immediately that can be fully implemented in six months,” Su said.
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
Taiwan’s first African swine fever (ASF) case has been confirmed and would soon be reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) yesterday. The Ministry of Agriculture’s Veterinary Research Institute yesterday completed the analysis of samples collected on Tuesday from dead pigs at a hog farm in Taichung and found they were ASF-positive. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency Animal Quarantine Division chief Lin Nien-nung (林念農) said the result would be reported to the WOAH and Taiwan’s major trade partners would also be notified, adding that pork exports would be suspended. As of Friday, all samples
RSS