■AUTOMAKERS
Strike hits Toyota plant
Japanese car giant Toyota said it had halted production at an assembly plant in southern China yesterday because of a strike affecting an affiliated auto parts manufacturer, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The walkout at Denso (Guangzhou Nansha), a unit of Toyota-affiliated parts maker Denso Corp, is the latest in a spate of labor disputes to hit foreign companies in China, highlighting discontent among millions of workers. It has forced Toyota to idle two assembly lines at its plant in the city of Guangzhou because of a shortage of fuel-injectors and other components, said the report, which cited Beijing-based Toyota spokesman Hitoshi Yokoyama.
■AIRLINES
BA steps closer to merger
British Airways (BA) PLC said it reached an agreement with trustees of two pension plans, bringing the carrier a step closer to completing a merger with Spain’s Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA. British Airways will contribute £330 million (US$486 million) annually, plus inflation increases averaging 3 percent each year, the London-based carrier said in a Regulatory News Service statement yesterday. The recovery plan helps avoid the closing of New Airways Pension Scheme and Airways Pension Scheme. An agreement is critical to British Airways’s merger with Iberia because the Spanish carrier has the right to pull out of the combination should it find any deal unsatisfactory.
■ECONOMY
Canada growth quickens
Canada’s economy will grow faster this year than previously expected, the finance department announced on Monday, citing new private sector estimates. The near-term outlook has continued to improve since the beginning of March when the government released its last budget, the department said. As a result, the economy is expected to grow by 3.5 percent this year, instead of the 3.1 percent forecast in March, it said. Subsequently, higher growth this year will lead to a hike in Canada’s GDP by about C$24 billion (US$23.4 billion) in 2014. “This suggests that the medium-term fiscal forecast presented in Budget 2010 remains on track,” the department said in a statement.
■RESOURCES
Aussie mines see Asia boost
Powerful growth in Asia will drive Australian exports above A$200 billion (US$177 billion) from this year to next year, as new contracts bring in higher prices for coal and iron ore, officials said yesterday. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said economic growth in Asia was assumed to be largely unaffected by the debt crisis in Europe. Growth in Asia, excluding Japan and South Korea, would average 8.4 percent this year and 8 percent next year, it said. Australian mine production would jump this year and next year, lifting energy and minerals export earnings to A$169.8 billion, an increase of 28.5 percent from last year to this year, the official forecaster said.
■INTERNET
Google under investigation
The attorney-general of Connecticut is looking into whether Google broke the law by capturing people’s personal data from wireless networks while Street View bicycles and cars mapped streets. Attorney-General Richard Blumenthal announced on Monday that his office would lead a multi-state probe of “Google’s deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy,” which has drawn ire and scrutiny in an array of countries.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
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