■ IT
HP targets HDTV users
Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's No. 2 personal-computer maker, will offer high-definition televisions and a "media hub" that connects to consumer electronics as part of an effort to boost sales to home users. "We're going to have very cool high-definition television sets," Shane Robison, Hewlett-Packard's chief strategy and technology officer, said in a speech at an Internet conference in Aspen, Colorado. For the hub device, "content will flow through from any service you can imagine," including cable, satellite, Internet and telephone, Robison said. "We'll have storage complexes, interfaces to the PC, music appliances and new PCs that are media-capable," Robison said.
■ Airlines
SA works with Qantas
Singapore Airlines said Monday it has discussed limited cooperation with rival Qantas Airways to ease the two carriers' deployment of the Airbus A380, the giant passenger jet due to take to the skies in 2006. If it materializes, the move would represent a rare cooperative step for the two carriers, who are more used to competing head-to-head for passenger traffic and bickering over aviation route access. Qantas Airways' major shareholder, British Airways, is also one of Singapore Airlines' competitors. "We have had discussions with Qantas about cooperation in noncommercial areas like engineering and training with regards to the A380," a Singapore Airlines spokesman said in an e-mail response to a Dow Jones Newswires query. It is believed that such a deal could help both parties to lower the costs they incur to get their staff ready to fly the planes, and maintain them once they are in the air.
■ Fast Food
Burger King plans IPO
US fast food chain Burger King plans to go public in the next two years, the group's European chief Pascal Le Pellec said in a newspaper interview published Monday. "Burger King will probably list on the stock exchange in the next two years," Le Pellec told the Financial Times Deutschland. Le Pellec, head of Burger King's German operations, also took over the running of the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese activities in February. "The better the company is doing, the more interesting a flotation would be for the group's owners," Le Pellec said. Burger King's recently appointed chief Greg Brennemann has also mulled the idea of the group going public, but not yet given any timetable for such a move. Burger King is the world's second-biggest hamburger chain. It operates 11,200 in 60 countries worldwide and last year booked revenues of US$11.1 billion.
■ Airlines
Virgin adds fuel surcharge
Australian airline Virgin Blue announced Monday it was sharply increasing a fuel surcharge imposed in May to compensate for rising world oil prices. The surcharge on domestic flights would increase to A$10 (US$7.22) per sector from six dollars per sector, it said. On international flights the surcharge was doubled to US$20 from US$10. The move takes effect on Thursday. It follows a similar move by rival Qantas last week. In a statement, Virgin Blue said it would also suspend services on its Sydney-Canberra routes from Sept. 4 because of unsustainable loads on the route. The aircraft will be redirected to service the Tasmania market.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
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