■ HK may sell Disney stake
Hong Kong's government may sell its controlling stake in the territory's recently opened Disneyland theme park, its financial services chief told legislators yesterday. Fred Ma said the government's 57 percent stake in the US$3 billion resort could be sold off in keeping with the adminis-tration's belief that the private sector is best suited to run major businesses. "In the long run, the govern-ment may consider in the light of the `Big Market, Small Government' principle to divest its shareholdings in the company at an appropriate time when it is in the overall economic interests of Hong Kong to do so," Ma told legislators. The territory's leaders were criticized in 1999 when they decided to foot most of the bill for the US entertainment giant's first resort in China.
■ Communications
China tackles SMS fiends
China has declared war on scams using mobile phone short messages that promise everything from fake cash prizes to sexual services to contract killings. Laws governing China's mobile-phone market have fallen behind its explosive growth, which has generated huge profits for short message service providers. The new campaign is an extension of a crackdown started last year on pornographic and subver-sive content and spam messages sent by mobile phones or through the Internet. China's Ministry of Public Security would work with the Ministry of Infor-mation Industry and the China Banking Regulatory Commission to stamp out messages that duped people into turning over personal account information or involved prostitution, gambling, contract murder, guns for sale, fake lotteries and more.
■ Biometrics
System guesses sex, age
Customers stopping to gaze at the store window may soon be less anonymous than they think -- the store will instantly know their age and gender. Japanese bikemaker Yamaha Motor has unveiled a camera system that recognizes if a person is a man or woman and puts them into one of five age groups. "This could be used at entrances and gates to some facilities or set up at eye-catching spots to profile those who entered the places or stared at them," Makoto Yoshida, Yamaha Motor's advanced system research division supervisor, said yesterday. Yamaha designed the system by building up a computer database of 10,000 people's faces. It said the system gets it right on gender 88 percent of the time -- about the same accuracy rate as the human eye -- and 77 percent of the time for age.
■ Taxation
US tax code may change
A high-level panel appointed by US President George W. Bush on Tuesday recommended the first wholesale revisions to the byzantine US tax code in two decades to encourage savings and economic growth. The panel's report said that without comprehen-sive reform, the tax system would only grow more bewildering and it stressed the need to tax spending more than income in a country where the savings rate is abysmally low. The panel offered the adminis-tration two separate proposals. One is called the Simplified Income Tax Plan,to replace the current six tax brackets with four, ranging from 15 percent to a top rate of 33 percent. The other is dubbed the Growth and Investment Tax Plan, which would increase incentives for savings by slashing taxes on capital income.
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
RSS