■ Housing too costly for most
Housing has become so expensive in China that seven out of 10 urban families cannot afford their own homes, in yet another warning the property sector may be overheating, state media said yesterday. A new study from Beijing Normal University found 70 percent of China's city dwellers do not have enough money to buy a new apartment, based on average housing prices in the east of the country, Xinhua news agency reported. What is pushing up prices to levels out of reach to most of the nation's citizens is what looks dangerously like a speculative boom, according to the agency. During the first quarter of this year, the amount of unsold real estate in China rose 23.8 percent over the same period last year to 123 million square meters, the National Bureau of Statistics reported recently.
■ Finance
Bank mulls acquisitions
Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, is mulling major acquisitions, above all in the area of retail banking, chairman Josef Ackermann said in a newspaper interview published yesterday. "Retail [banking] is primarily where I see opportunities for acquisitions," Ackermann told the Financial Times. "A deal could be anywhere between 1 billion and 5 billion euros [US$1.26 billion and US$6.3 billion], but I also would not exclude something bigger if it makes strategic sense," Ackermann said.
■ Energy
Liquefying plant planned
A Japanese consortium hopes to capture carbon dioxide emissions at an Australian power plant by 2009 in a world first that would be a major step towards battling greenhouse gases responsible for global warming, a report said yesterday. Under the plan, about 20 percent of the carbon dioxide released by the plant in the northeastern state of Queensland would be trapped, liquefied then stored underground rather than released into the atmosphere. The Nihon Keizai business daily said J Power and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries would lead the project alongside the Japanese industry ministry and Australian, US and European firms. Construction of the carbon dioxide liquefying facility, estimated to cost about US$124 million, is expected to begin next year and be ready two years later, the report said. The companies are also hoping to use the technology in developing Asian nations, particularly China, where demand for energy has increased rapidly.
■ Internet
Microsoft, Yahoo in talks
Software giant Microsoft and Internet media company Yahoo have been holding talks for more than a year about how to combat the rising threat of Google, including a proposal for Microsoft to buy a stake in Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Among other options on the table is the sale of Microsoft's MSN online network to Yahoo in return for a minority stake in the Internet portal, the report said. The report came after a disappointing earnings report last week sent Microsoft shares tumbling more than 10 percent. The company's stock has languished for over a year on investor concerns about a challenge from Google. Last October Yahoo and Microsoft announced that their instant messaging services would be able to interconnect starting in the second quarter of this year.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
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