■ CHINA
Wal-Mart still in the game
Wal-Mart Stores Inc expects procurement in China to hold steady this year at about US$9 billion despite a rising exchange rate and product safety concerns, vice chairman Michael Duke said yesterday. Chinese suppliers have stayed competitive amid higher inflation and a rise in the yuan by improving efficiency and product quality, he said. "I wouldn't see any major variation" in procurement from last year's total of US$9 billion, he said. "China will continue to be a major production portion of direct purchases by Wal-Mart for a long time."
■ METALS
Power cuts trim jobs
Gold Fields Ltd, Africa's second-biggest gold producer, said it may eliminate 6,900 jobs, or 13 percent of its South African workforce, as limited power supplies reduce production. The company plans to close part of its Driefontein and Kloof mines and remodel its South Deep mine, it said in a statement to Johannesburg's Stock Exchange News Service yesterday. Gold Fields is the first major company to announce job cuts as a result of Eskom Holdings Ltd limiting power supplies to mines in South Africa to 90 percent of normal consumption.
■ ENERGY
Rains cut coal output
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world's biggest mining company, said rainfall in Queensland is expected to cut its share of coal production by as much as 4.6 million tonnes this business year. Total production at the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance venture will be reduced by between 6.5 million and 7.5 million tonnes in the year ending June 30, BHP Billiton said yesterday in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. Output at BHP Billiton Mitsui-owned mines will also be cut by between 500,000 and 1 million tonnes, it said. At least six coal suppliers in Queensland have warned customers they may miss contracted deliveries from some mines in the Australian state since monsoonal rains affected the Bowen Basin last month. The disruptions have helped drive spot prices for power-station coal and the type used in steelmaking to a record.
■ BANKING
Bank to sue informant
The Liechtenstein bank at the center of a tax evasion dispute with Germany said on Sunday it will sue the person it suspects of selling confidential information to German intelligence. LGT Group, which is wholly owned by the principality's ruling family, said it would file charges against a former employee convicted of stealing DVDs containing the names of 1,400 customers of its subsidiary LGT Treuhand. The bank identified the employee as a Liechtenstein citizen and said it believed until recently that the stolen information had been returned when the man was convicted in 2004 of serious fraud, harassment and sequestering documents and sentenced to a suspended one-year prison term.
■ THAILAND
Exports boost economy
The economy grew a faster-than-expected 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier on robust exports and a recovery in private investment and consumer spending, the government said yesterday. Exports rose strongly despite the baht's appreciation over the last two years and fears about a global economic slowdown. The economic planning agency raised its growth forecast for this year to 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent, up from an earlier projection of 4 percent to 5 percent.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
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