■ Auto Industry
Honda may sue China rivals
Honda Motor Co, the first Japanese carmaker to open a plant in China, said it may sue nine Chinese automakers for copying the design of its CR-V sport-utility vehicle. Honda, which has sued two Chinese carmakers since November last year, found there are nine other companies that either make or plan to produce models that look like the Honda CR-V, spokeswoman Sachi Ito said today. The cases are the latest in a series of disputes between overseas automakers and local companies accused of copying of designs and logos. Toyota Motor Corp, Asia's largest carmaker, lost a lawsuit against Geely Group Co in November last year over the Chinese company's use of a logo resembling the Japanese carmaker's badge.
■ Hotels
Las Vegas Sands to expand
US gaming company Las Vegas Sands Inc said it wants to build six more hotels, including some with casinos, in an area of the southern Chinese gambling enclave of Macau. Las Vegas Sands opened the Sands Macau casino in May and is building the Macau Venetian Casino Resort on the territory's reclaimed Cotai area, which the company has touted as the "Las Vegas Strip of Asia." Now the gaming operator has submitted a proposal to Macau's government to build six more hotel resorts in Cotai, some of which will have casinos, Las Vegas Sands said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing submitted on Wednesday. The company is seeking partners to finance and build the hotels and will only operate the casinos through subsidiaries, the filing said.
■ Advertising
Nike apologizes for ad
Nike has apologized for a footwear ad featuring an attack on a kung fu master which was banned by China, saying it only intended to emulate the Hong Kong martial arts movie heroes of the 1970s. China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television on Monday ordered stations nationwide to stop broadcasts of Nike's "LeBron James in Chamber of Fear" ads that it said had sparked anger and claims of offending "national feelings." In the advertisement, James, 19, a forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, makes easy work of animated enemies including a white-haired kung fu master, two women in traditional Chinese garb and the pair of dragons as he ascends the video game-like levels of the "Chamber."
■ DVD Formats
Disney chooses Blue-ray
Hollywood movie powerhouse Walt Disney has taken sides with Japan's Sony Corp in a bitter battle between studios to define a technical standard for next generation DVDs, it said on Wednesday. The house that made Mickey Mouse and its home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) announced they would adopt Sony's Blu-ray disc format, putting Disney at odds with an array of studios supporting rival Toshiba technology. Under the tie-up with Sony for the next generation of video disc players, Disney and BVHE will release their movies non-exclusively in the Blu-ray format when it launches in North America and Japan late next year. Last month Warner Bros, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and New Line Cinema took positions in the fight, opting to endorse the HD DVD format touted by Sony rival Toshiba. The two standards are not compatible and will require consumers to choose between one system or another when buying the next generation of DVD players.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
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