Taiwan Said Set to Buy $15 Billion of U.S. Arms
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Taiwan's lawmakers are expected to  give their long-delayed approval next month to a special budget  for U.S. weapons purchases worth as much as $15 billion,  Taiwan's point man on China policy said on Wednesday.
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U.S. program allots $15 billion to buy low cost combination drugs made by foreign companies, opening the way to treat more patients in poor countries.
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BEIJING -- China announced yesterday that it will increase military spending at a sharply higher rate this year, budgeting a rise of nearly 18 percent, and a senior US official immediately called for clarity on the planned expenditures.
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(InfoWorld) - Taipei may have to rethink its China investment policies in the wake of an offer by a foreign group to buy the world's largest chip assembly company, Taiwan's Advanced Semiconductor EngineeringÂ (ASE). Part of the attraction of the deal is that by changing ownership, the company would cease to be Taiwanese, and therefore be allowed to invest in China as it pleases, pundits say. The trouble for many Taiwanese chip makers in recent years has been the tight leash Taipei keeps on technology investment bound for political rival China. Taiwan and China remain enemies after splitting in 1949 amid civil war. The island fears China could use chip technology to bolster its military capabilities against Taiwan. Despite the strained relationship and tough investment rules, China remains by far the favored destination for Taiwanese investment due to their shared language and culture, and China's lower costs and huge potential market. The deal for ASE, a $5.5 billion offer from a consortium led by the private equity firm Carlyle Group, would be a huge positive for ASE, transforming it into a foreign entity and allowing it to build chip assembly plants in China, according to Fubon Securities. Currently, ASE has no chip assembly investments in China, despite the fact that earlier this year Taipei gave a green light to chip makers to invest in low-end chip assembly. Despite the apparent opening, not a single application has been approved by Taipei, and companies remain unsure of how to proceed with such investment. Analysts argue that the approval process remains very much subject to politics in Taiwan, due mainly to the rivalry with China. A foreign takeover such as the one Carlyle and ASE are discussing would remove such political pressures and put China investments on the fast track. Indeed, theÂ embattled former chairmanÂ of chip foundry giant United Microelectronics, Robert Tsao, was quoted by local media as saying the possibility of such buy-outs excited him, and that UMC would welcome similar offers. Tsao is a prime example of the difficulties Taiwanese tech companies and executives face when investing in China. He and another key UMC executiveÂ resigned early this yearÂ after beingÂ indicted by Taiwanese prosecutorsÂ over their alleged role in the establishment of Chinese chip maker, He Jian Technology (Suzhou). The court case is still being heard. The government began investigating UMC over He Jian a few years ago, and fined UMC for failing to apply for permission to work with He Jian. Taipei has also leveled fines on UMC and He Jian executives. Tsao and his colleagues maintain that they have done nothing wrong. For its part, the government plans to review the possible ASE deal over its potential impact on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, since the company would likely be de-listed if it is purchased by Carlyle. Economics Minister Chen Ruey-long on Monday said Taipei needs to keep on top of the issue in case it becomes a trend, because such purchases could have long term effects on the economic development of the island. The review has nothing to do with China policy, he said.
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The World Trade Organization was expected to approve the imposition of $150 million in trade sanctions against the United States by the European Union, Japan, Canada and
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Citigroup will buy Taiwan's Bank of Overseas Chinese (BOOC) "very soon", an executive of the Taiwan lender said on Thursday, in a deal media said would be worth US$425 million.
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Hasbro Inc , the second-largest  U.S. toy company, expects a 14 percent to 15 percent increase  this year in the costs of made-in-China products due to higher  labor, commodity and currency costs, according to a story on  the Financial Times Web site.
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The United States will announce the sale  of four Aegis missile-defense warships to Taiwan next year with  delivery likely to begin in 2011, a newspaper said on Monday.
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The United States remained the world's biggest military spender last year, devoting about $528 billion to arms, while China overtook Japan as Asia's top arms spender, a Swedish research institute said Monday.
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Boeing Co's  defense unit expects rising Asian military budgets to drive double-digit sales growth in the region and help offset flat U.S. defense spending, its chief Asia-Pacific salesman told Reuters on Thursday.
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InfoWorld - The chairman of the world&#39;s largest contract electronics manufacturer, which assembles gadgets from Apple&#160;iPods to Nintendo&#39;s Wii game console, pledged NT$15 billion (US$454.4 million) to Taiwan&#39;s most prestigious university to build a new cancer ward and fund research against the disease.
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The IRA will be allowed to keep 15 per cent of its weapons for &quot;self-defence&quot; under secret plans to tempt republicans back into a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, Unionists said yesterday.
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Taiwan plans to spend 84 million Taiwan dollars (2.46 million US dollar) on a campaign to encourage couples to have more children after the island's birth rate hit a record low in 2003, officials said.
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(InfoWorld) - The world's largest contract chip maker plans to invest up to NT$5.55 billion (US$168.3 million) in a smaller partner to strengthen their alliance and continue to farm out orders for certain chips to the company. The deal will see Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. increase its stake in Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. by up to 11 percent in coming weeks. TSMC currently holds a 26.8 percent share of the company, but has no intention of merging with Vanguard, it said in a statement. TSMC will continue to depend on Vanguard to handle certain chip-related work done in older 8-inch chip plants. TSMC has focused its new factory investment on 12-inch factories, which use larger, 12-inch silicon wafers during production. The company still invests in upgrades for its 8-inch plants, but has tried to avoid buying new production lines for the technology, which is slowly going out of use. Vanguard has put its 8-inch plants to use making specialty chips, including contact image sensors (CIS) and driver chips used in LCD (liquid crystal display) products such as monitors and LCD TVs. In March, Vanguard agreed to buy two 8-inch chip factories from Winbond Electronics Corp. with total production of 40,000 wafers per month. Hundreds of chips can be made on a single 8-inch wafer. By expanding its production, Vanguard can continue to take some orders from TSMC clients as well as increase its overall business. The two companies enjoy a close working relationship. TSMC may also be buying the stake because a Taiwan government investment fund, the Executive Yuan's Development Fund, wants to sell, according to Warren Lau, a chip analyst at Macquarie Research Equities in Hong Kong. The Development Fund still holds a 26.5 percent stake in Vanguard, and Lau believes that TSMC plans to buy a large portion of the government stake to raise its holding in Vanguard to as much as 50 percent. And it's a good investment: VIS may be the most profitable contract chip maker in the business, Lau said.
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The United States expects to provide an initial $15 million in aid for victims of a devastating tsunami in Asia and has already released $400,000, a top US aid official said on Monday.
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The chairman of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, which assembles gadgets from AppleÂ iPods to Nintendo's Wii game console, pledged NT$15 billion (US$454.4 million) to Taiwan's most prestigious university to build a new cancer ward and fund research against the disease.
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Thousands take to the streets of Taiwan's capital, Taipei, in protest at plans to buy $18bn in arms from the US.