■ Automobiles
China sales may rise 12%
China's vehicle sales may rise by 12 percent to 5.75 million units in 2005 from a year ago, the Ministry of Commerce said in a report posted on its Web site. Total production of Volkswagen AG, General Motors Corp and other automakers in China may rise by about 15 percent this year to 5.83 million units, according to the report by the nation's trade regulator. Vehicle demand in China, the world's third largest automobile market, started to recover from March as customers concluded prices had bottomed out. First-half vehicle sales rose 9.4 percent to 2.79 million units and output increased 5.2 percent to 2.82 million units during the period, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
■ Scandal
Chinese executives arrested
The chief executive of China's largest refrigerator maker Kelon and two fellow executives have been arrested as securities regulators investigate the firm, Hong Kong and Chinese media reported yesterday. The company, Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings Co (科龍集團), is also being run by local government authorities and its board has been dissolved, according to reports. Kelon Chairman Gu Chujun (顧雛軍), Deputy Chief Executive Yan Yousong (嚴友松) and Assistant to the Chief Executive Jiang Yuan (姜源) are being held, Chinese news Web site Sina.com reported. Gu is suspected of misusing Kelon's funds in the acquisition of other companies, Wen Wei Po said. The paper also reported local authorities have taken custody of Kelon, based in the southern Chinese city of Shunde.
■ Computers
Intel opens R&D centers
Intel Corp, whose microprocessors run more than 80 percent of personal computers, is opening research centers in Brazil, China, Egypt and India to identify products that will increase sales in the fastest-growing markets. Intel designers, ethnographers and engineers will work at the centers, said Willy Agatstein, general manager of the Channel Definition and Development Group. Their job will be to find new ways that Intel products can be used in local markets and to provide input for the design of future products. The move is part of Chief Executive Paul Otellini's plan to create and exploit new markets for personal computers as sales in the US and Western Europe slow and the company fights to maintain double-digit revenue growth. Computers that can withstand the heat, dust and power outages of rural India represent one such opportunity, Agatstein said.
■ Telecoms
Nokia maintains lead
Nokia maintained its robust lead in the world mobile phone market in the second quarter as sales of entry-level units boosted overall shipment numbers, a technology research house said yesterday. IDC said global shipments of mobile phones totalled 188.7 million units in the three months to June, up 16.3 percent from a year ago and 7.3 percent from the previous quarter. Nokia, based in Finland, accounted for 60.8 million units or 32.2 percent of all shipments in the second quarter, nearly double the market share of its American rival Motorola, with 33.9 million units or 18 percent. Next came South Korean manufacturers Samsung, with 24.4 million units or 12.9 percent, and LG electronics, with 12.1 million or 6.4 percent. Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between Japan's Sony and Sweden's Ericsson, was fifth with 11.8 million units or 6.3 percent.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
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
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