News » Politics » French chocolatier joins Taipei's high-end sweets market

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• French chocolatier joins Taipei's high-end sweets market
• Taiwan regulator unveils 4G bidding details
• Taiwan solar cell company's bond sale may be targeted at acquisition
• Politician accepts moviemakers criticisms with motherly love
• Australian Surgeon Robbed, Framed, and Jailed in China
• Toyota changes brand name in China to bring back customers
• Porsche goes into top gear in China
• Researchers in Taiwan find key protein coordinating light, hormones in plants
• Chinese A-share market hits 45-month low, may worsen
• Labor shortage, increased costs batter Taiwanese firms in China
• Wen Jiabao prepared for wealth accusations for years: report
• Luxgen to invest US$1.2 bn in Russia car production
• Yao Ming’s Cure for What Ails Chinese Basketball
• China News Broadcast, November 27, 2012: People's Daily falls for "Sexy" Kim Jon Un Spoof
• Foreign airline cannot hold majority in Taiwan venture: regulator
• Authorities Arrest Mine Activists
• Shanghai Bund's no. 22, now open for tailor-made wealth
• U.S. Declines to Say China Manipulates Its Currency
• China's largest toy company partners with Hasbro
• Over 50% Taiwanese support DPP-China exchange: poll

French chocolatier joins Taipei's high-end sweets market Posted: 28 Nov 2012 05:03 AM PST A French chocolatier demonstrated its ambition to enter Taiwan's high-end chocolate market by officially opening its first store in Taipei on Tuesday. "Now is the right time because Taiwan is a matur...

Taiwan regulator unveils 4G bidding details Posted: 28 Nov 2012 04:59 AM PST Taiwan's National Communications Commission, the country's broadcasting and media regulator, published details on bidding for 4G services Tuesday, expected to be launched in 2014. The commission publ...

Taiwan solar cell company's bond sale may be targeted at acquisition Posted: 28 Nov 2012 04:59 AM PST A plan announced by Motech Industries, one of Taiwan's leading solar cell vendors, to sell overseas convertible bonds may reflect the company's need to fund an acquisition, an analyst said Tuesday. "...

Politician accepts moviemakers criticisms with motherly love Posted: 28 Nov 2012 04:43 AM PST A legislator acutely criticized for her views as to cancel a Taiwanese movie award rebuffed attacks from local moviemakers by accepting their criticisms "with a motherly love of an old woman." Kuan B...

Australian Surgeon Robbed, Framed, and Jailed in China Posted: 27 Nov 2012 07:50 PM PST Photographs of Lin Dong, also known as Lin Ziping and Lam Tung, surrounding his period of prosecution by a Chinese military court for smuggling. The image was provided by the lawyer of Du Zuying. (The Epoch Times) After a decade as a surgeon in Australia, Du Zuying attended a meeting held in Beijing in August 2000 by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council. It was chaired by Vice Premier Li Lanqing, and featured 63 other successful Chinese professionals living outside China. Du was so moved by the proceedings that he made up his mind right then to "repay the homeland, return to my country, and begin a great undertaking." Now he sits in a Chinese prison cell with a bad heart condition, while the government of the country he came to serve has shown little interest in his plight. China has a very bad record with the safety of blood transfusions, and Du claimed to have a way to treat blood plasma to ensure its safety. His return to China seemed to offer a chance for Du to make money, while doing good for his native land. But while attempting to commercialize his patent, Du had the equity in his Chinese company stolen from him, and after trying to obtain relief was framed and jailed. The Australian government hasn't shown sufficient mettle in securing his release, according to some observers. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has made representations to the Chinese regime about Du's treatment, but observers say a more assertive approach is called for. "To refrain from unequivocal objection to the treatment of Du in this case is gutless and a betrayal of an Australian citizen," wrote Paul Monk, a Melbourne-based public intellectual and analyst of China, in an email. DFAT said through a spokesperson "We can assure you that consular officials have been providing him and his family with a high level of consular support," as well as raising concerns with the Shandong High Court about the delay in Du's case. The backstory to how Du, a 60-year-old former surgeon, got into a bad business deal in China and eventually wound up in jail, is tortured and complex. 'All Crooks' The detailed story of Du's business dealings and how he was fleeced is presented in legal documents and briefs prepared by his lawyer and shown to The Epoch Times. Other parts of the story were told, based on an exhaustive review of Chinese primary sources, by the short seller Worthless Pennies. Worthless Pennies is a pseudonym of Jon Carnes, most well known as Alfred Little, an investor who for several years has been short-selling Chinese companies he accuses of fraud. "Our opinion was that China Biologic was all crooks," Carnes said in a telephone interview, adding that he was agnostic about Du's claims. A report prepared by Carnes depicts a company with an inglorious past. The primary operating, 100 percent controlled subsidiary of China Biological in China, a company called Shandong Taibang, was founded with stolen seed money by a known criminal by the name of Zhang Xiaowei. Zhang had run an investment vehicle that was effectively a Ponzi scheme, from which he siphoned capital to Shandong Taibang; he also loaned Du 20 million yuan (US$3.2 million) that he had laundered through Hong Kong, so Du would have a 25 percent stake in a subsidiary of China Biologic, according to Carnes's report. It is unclear whether Du knew about the origin of the money he was lent. The other 41 percent of Du's full claimed 66 percent ownership stake in Shandong Taibang came from a four-shareholder deal made between 1) Du Zuying, 2) Shandong Missile Engineering, a company controlled by Du, 3) a company controlled by Zhang Xiaowei, which also used stolen money, and 4) a Shandong state-owned research institute. The primary value Du was bringing to the deal was through his company, which held his plasma patent. After brokering the deals, Zhang's other contribution was to introduce onto the scene another felon named Lin Dong (also known as Lam Tung and Lin Ziping), who had just completed a three-year stint in jail after being convicted of smuggling and sentenced to six years by a People's Liberation Army Air Force military court. Lin quickly became CEO of China Biologic. Later, after irrefutable evidence was made public that Lin Dong was in fact Lin Ziping, he was forced to step down. Whether Du knew he was dealing with heavies is unclear. His lawyer, Huang Kaiguo, said in a long telephone interview, "He's a scientist, he does science. In terms of managing a company, he may be slightly deficient." Lin Dong had also recently changed his name. In September 2004, when Du temporarily left China for Australia, Lin Dong struck, coercing Du's brother to sign a transfer of stock ownership, moving Du's 66 percent equity stake to a Hong Kong company that Lin controlled, according to a timeline of the case prepared by Du's lawyer. In late 2008 Du won a minor success, getting the transfer annulled by a Wuhan court. That's when Lin Dong "got moving," according to Huang. "He got the public security involved, using the power of the judicial system to surround and attack him." In February 2011 Du was arrested by Tai'an City authorities. The crime was "embezzling funds." (He was also accused of disturbing the peace in Tai'an because of his attempts to get his shares back.) The alleged embezzlement related to a 2002 secured loan of 2.4 million yuan that evidence suggests he was not personally involved in—and did not relate to the laundered money loaned by Zhang Xiaowei. The evidence for the charges didn't stand up, though. In December 2011 Du wrote a letter to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which is supposed to punish corrupt cadres, explaining the arrest and the failure to provide any evidence. "By now, the court has exhausted all possible measures to postpone the hearing; however they cannot come to a verdict of innocence due to lack of evidence, since this case was assigned by Party Secretary Wang Yunpeng," Du wrote, according to the letter supplied by Du's lawyer. "As a Tai'an City deputy Party secretary, Wang Yunpeng openly arranged for the political and legal departments to catch me. Where does he get his courage and confidence? Only after he had already arranged for this case to be put on record was the evidence discovered," the complaint said. Huang says there is no evidence for it, but suspects that payoffs have been involved. Du launched an appeal in January of this year, and a decision about it was supposed to have been made by the Shandong People's High Court in April. He's in "legal limbo," as his son Tommy Du put it to Australian media, even according to China's judicial standards. Du now seeks his 66 percent stake in a subsidiary of China Biologic, a publicly listed company in the United States now worth about $300 million. He would be able to parlay that equity into something of value, but certainly not two-thirds of $300 million. Operation Free Du The machinations outlined above comprise only a fraction of the complexity of the case, as told in the documents supplied by Du's lawyer, and the source files and report prepared by Jon Carnes. There are obvious similarities, however, to other cases where ethnic Chinese, and citizens of other countries, get into commercial disputes and are then punished by their enemies, who may have strong official backing and use the judicial system as a weapon. Du's lawyer, Huang, says, "There are black hands behind this: criminals, corrupt officials. I don't know who they are, but there are definitely people interfering with the court and not allowing them to make a decision." He said that Shandong judicial authorities have, "instead of putting their energies into investigating the case, have put all their energy into going against us lawyers trying to obtain justice." According to Paul Monk, Australia should strike a sharp tone with the Central Party authorities, to have them force the matter with local officials. "The CCP is a gigantic mafia and is accustomed to bullying everyone. You gain respect only by making it clear that you understand their game and won't be bluffed," he wrote in an email. Monk continued: "They need to be constantly reminded that the corruption and abuse in their system is deeply objectionable and counterproductive if they want stable and mutually beneficial commercial relationships, to say nothing of friendship with Australia." Related Articles Taiwanese Investors in China in Trouble chinareports@epochtimes.com The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter. Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing crisis within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Who are the Major Players?

Toyota changes brand name in China to bring back customers Posted: 28 Nov 2012 04:31 AM PST Toyota has announced a change to its brand name in China from "Toyota China" to "China Toyota" in a bid to save its plunging sales in the country, reports Duowei News, an outlet operated by overseas C...

Porsche goes into top gear in China Posted: 28 Nov 2012 04:31 AM PST German car maker Porsche plans to introduce new models to China catering to the tastes of it's relatively younger customer base as the company's surges ahead with its goal of making China its largest ...

Researchers in Taiwan find key protein coordinating light, hormones in plants Posted: 28 Nov 2012 04:27 AM PST Researchers from Taiwan's Academia Sinica said Tuesday they have found a protein that plays an important role in "switching on" the mechanism of seedling development in plants. Although it is known t...

Chinese A-share market hits 45-month low, may worsen Posted: 28 Nov 2012 04:07 AM PST China's largest stock exchange hit a 45-month low on Tuesday with fears that it could continue falling without an urgent response from the government. Within an hour of opening on Nov. 27, A-shares o...

Labor shortage, increased costs batter Taiwanese firms in China Posted: 28 Nov 2012 03:55 AM PST Taiwanese businesses in Dongguan in southern China's Guangdong province have been suffering from a shortage of labor and increasing production costs, reports our sister newspaper China Times, suggesti...

Wen Jiabao prepared for wealth accusations for years: report Posted: 28 Nov 2012 03:51 AM PST China's premier, Wen Jiabao, spent years preparing nearly 100 pages of documents in anticipation of media scrutiny into his family's wealth, reports Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese. Th...

Luxgen to invest US$1.2 bn in Russia car production Posted: 28 Nov 2012 03:51 AM PST Luxgen, a car brand developed by Taiwanese automobile manufacturer Yulon Group, plans to invest NT$1.2 billion (US$$41 million) in producing cars in Russia, which has become a major car market and bat...

Yao Ming’s Cure for What Ails Chinese Basketball Posted: 27 Nov 2012 07:57 PM PST The presence of increasing presence marquee names on Chinese Basketball Association courts has given the league an immediate boost, but it's not necessarily a good thing for Chinese basketball as a whole, says China's biggest homegrown basketball star.

China News Broadcast, November 27, 2012: People's Daily falls for "Sexy" Kim Jon Un Spoof Posted: 27 Nov 2012 05:01 PM PST In today's NTD China News, US Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, visits China, and meets with Chinese defense Minister Liang Guanglie. The family of Chongqing businessman, Gong Gangmo, who was convicted for gang-related crimes in 2010, says he was tortured to confess, and was then forced to frame his lawyer Li Zhuang. Zhejiang authorities detained and questioned a group of dissidents last Friday after they called on the Chinese regime to allow a multi-Party political system.

Foreign airline cannot hold majority in Taiwan venture: regulator Posted: 28 Nov 2012 03:31 AM PST Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration on Tuesday reminded domestic air carriers wanting to form joint ventures with foreign partners that overseas investors cannot hold a majority stake in any loc...

Authorities Arrest Mine Activists Posted: 27 Nov 2012 06:35 PM PST Burmese authorities have arrested at least six activists and are searching for four others who organized protests at the site of a China-backed copper mining venture, which villagers say had been set up on their illegally confiscated land. The government has also ordered protesters to leave the Letpadaung Copper Mine's premises in northwestern Burma by midnight or face legal action. Moe Thway, who helped coordinate the protests on Monday and is now on the run from police, said authorities moved in to arrest the leaders after the size of the protests had swelled to six camps around the site in Sagaing division's Sarlingyi township. The six activists who were arrested—all of whom are former political prisoners—were later taken to Insein Prison in Rangoon, he told RFA's Burmese service from an undisclosed location. "I was told that they were taken to Insein … Many people who protested [Monday] were arrested as well," Moe Thway said, although he was unclear whether they had later been released. "We are trying to connect with others, but we don't know exactly what will happen next." The mining project in the Letpadaung mountains is owned jointly by the Burmese military's Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd. and Wan Bao Co., a subsidiary of state-owned Chinese arms manufacturer North China Industries Corp. (Norinco). Moe Thway said that 10 people who protested at the mine site near Monywa on Monday were facing charges for their actions and that six of them had been taken to police stations for questioning. "[The authorities] asked me to come to a police station as well. I am one of those 10 who were charged, but I was unable to go there because of security reasons," he said, without elaborating. "When I went home after the protest, police cars followed me. I ran away to avoid arrest." Wai Lu, one of the protest organizers who was arrested Monday following the protest at around 10:00 a.m. local time, spoke to RFA by phone from a police station where he was questioned before being taken to Insein Prison. "I was told that I was charged under Act 18 at the Kyutdata Police Station and Pabetan Police Station," he said, without providing details on the charges. "Under Act 18, I can contest [and post bail for] the charges by myself. I am still contesting other charges for protesting before this one as well." He said that the others who had been arrested Monday, including a woman named Naw Ohn Hla, were held for similar reasons and would likely be given the right to contest the charges against them. Order to disperse According to a report by the Associated Press, by Tuesday night local time, Burmese state television had broadcast an announcement ordering villagers and other protesters to abandon the six camps they had set up at the mine or face "legal action." The announcement said that operations at the mine had ceased since Nov. 18, after protesters first protested in the area. The AP reported that some villagers had begun to leave the mining site after authorities read out the order to leave the area, citing a protester.  He said that at the height of the protest some 1,000 people, including at least 300 Buddhist monks, had been present at the camps. The monks and around 50 villagers remained at the main camp near the offices of the Chinese partner in the mine. The announcement said that parliament had decided to form a committee to investigate the situation at the mine, but could not start its work until it resumes operation. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said she will visit the area on Thursday to hear the grievances of the protesters, who charge that the mine developers have illegally confiscated more than 3,200 hectares (8,000 acres) of farmland from 26 villages without providing adequate compensation. China's ambassador to Burma has said Beijing will stop backing Wan Bao's development of the mine if the project does not benefit Burma. Last year, Burmese President Thein Sein cancelled a plan to build the Chinese-backed Mytisone dam in northern Burma's conflict-ridden Kachin state that was to provide hydroelectricity to China, after mass opposition among locals. Reported by RFA's Burmese service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Shanghai Bund's no. 22, now open for tailor-made wealth Posted: 28 Nov 2012 02:59 AM PST Central Shanghai's Bund — the most visited tourist destination in the city — welcomed the reopening of building no. 22 on Nov. 23 after three years of renovations. Taiwanese businesswoman Li Yu-lin ...

U.S. Declines to Say China Manipulates Its Currency Posted: 27 Nov 2012 09:00 PM PST Officials noted that the renminbi had risen nearly 10 percent against the dollar since June 2010, but said it remained "significantly undervalued."

China's largest toy company partners with Hasbro Posted: 28 Nov 2012 02:23 AM PST Guangdong Alpha Animation and Culture, the largest toy and animation company in China, signed a letter of intent a month ago to collaborate with global toy brand Hasbro in a joint venture. The deal is...

Over 50% Taiwanese support DPP-China exchange: poll Posted: 28 Nov 2012 02:15 AM PST Over 50% of the respondents polled in a survey published Sunday support an exchange between Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party and the Communist Party of China, while less than 25% are...

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