■ Entertainment
HK Disney has a good day
Hong Kong's new US$3.5 billion Disneyland theme park was full to overflowing on Christmas Day for only the second time since its opening, a news report said yesterday. All tickets for the park were sold for only the second time since it opened in September, the South China Morning Post reported, and guests without pre-bought tickets were turned away. The theme park would not say how many people entered the park on Dec. 25 but its capacity is 30,000 a day. The park is expected to attract more than 5 million visitors in its first year. The park only sold out its daily quota of tickets for the first time on Dec. 13, the day the WTO ministerial meeting began in Hong Kong.
■ Retail
Retailers expecting big week
With a ho-hum pre-Christmas season behind them, the nation's retailers were set to usher in the post-Christmas period yesterday with expanded shopping hours, a blitz of deep discounts and fresh new merchandise. Michael Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, expects the week after Christmas will be "big." But he still believes that merchants will wind up with a modest 3 percent to 3.5 percent sales increase for the November-December period. Niemira expects that 20 percent of gift card holders will redeem their cards this week. According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp, the week after Christmas accounted for 10 percent of holiday sales last year, but analysts expect that period could account for as much as 14 percent, given the soaring popularity of gift cards.
■ Piracy
Pirates hit Mexican artisans
Commercial "piracy" from China, Malaysia and India threatens the livelihoods of some 8 million Mexican artisans, the National Peasants Confederation said on Sunday. "The piracy invasion, mainly from China, affects more than 8 million Mexican artisans and up to 100 percent of their workshops whom, due to the government's lack of interest, could disappear in the coming years," the confederation said in a statement. The confederation, Mexico's leading peasant organization, said that Asian manufacturers "copy in detail all types of works created in rural Mexico, in order to mass produce them for sale into international markets at prices far below their real value." The result is that Asian producers are selling copies of Mexican crafts of "terrible quality" but 50 percent cheaper. Even worse, the organization said, the Asian copies are being sold into Mexico.
■ Economics
NY strike eats up revenue
Businesses lost US$1 billion in revenue during the three-day transit strike, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a Sunday radio address. Comptroller William Thompson and other officials had estimated the city economy would lose US$400 million a day during a transit strike. Transit workers walked off the job on Tuesday, shutting down buses and subways for millions of riders for three days. Several economists said the city's cost estimate of US$400 million a day was too high. Goldman Sachs economists said it failed to account for offsets: Some workers unable to get to work worked from home via computer; many people who would have shopped in the city may have turned to suburban locations; and the strike generated new kinds of economic activity, as employers rented shuttle buses and hotel rooms for workers.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
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