The Economic Democracy Union yesterday urged the Ministry of Economic Affairs to block the proposed acquisition of the Apple Online news Web site by Singaporean entrepreneur Joseph Phua (潘杰賢), citing concerns over his ties with Beijing.
The think tank at a news conference in Taipei said that a major business partner of Phua is involved in businesses linked to the Chinese government.
Phua’s potential buyout of the digital tabloid — linked to Hong Kong’s shuttered Apple Daily newspaper — became an object of public scrutiny following allegations that he could be purchasing the online news outlet for Beijing.
Hsin Hai Global Co, a company Phua registered for the deal, has NT$30,000 of listed capital, which is not enough to buy the Web site, Economic Democracy Union researchers said.
That means money for the deal most likely originated from Phua’s business partner, Zhang Zhongyu (張鐘予), who co-owns Shanghai-based Turn Capital with Phua, they said.
The investment company — and by extension Zhang — has played a key role in building Phua’s business empire, Economic Democracy Union researcher Hsu Kuan-tze (許冠澤) said.
That includes Phua founding the dating Web site Paktor in 2014, buying the streaming platform 17Live in 2014 and the Taiwanese blockchain firm Dapp Pocket last year, Hsu said.
Zhang is well-known in China’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector and a partner of Lantern Capital, a company with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government and China’s People’s Liberation Army, he said.
“Zhang played an important role as the financier of Phua’s business empire and [the two] are working together as partners in Turn Capital,” he said. “Saying China has no hand in the Apple [Online] deal is absurd.”
According to the investment company’s now-deleted corporate profile, Lantern Capital is involved in financing big data, AI, external propaganda outlets and arms ranging from precision-guided munitions to armored vehicles and drones, researcher Ou Hsu-shao (歐栩韶) said.
In response, Phua issued a statement saying that his business receives no capital from the Chinese state or its affiliates, and that Zhang is not a Chinese citizen and has nothing to do with the deal to buy the Web site.
“This acquisition has given me a taste of Taiwanese democracy,” he said.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
RSS