Under these agreements, Motorola will supply CMCC with GSM network equipment and a range of services. The expanded and optimized GSM networks will then be deployed across 16 provinces and municipalities within the coverage area of CMCC, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Henan, Hunan, Guangdong, Yunnan, Fujian, Hubei, Shanxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Jiangxi, Anhui and Guizhou. These contracts also enable China Mobile to deliver enhanced and value-added multimedia functionality and services.

Numbers concerning counterfeiting vary from source to source, as do the suggested ways to defend the electronics supply chain against these fake components. In late 2007, the US Patent and Trademark Office estimated that counterfeiting and piracy drain about US$250 billion out of the US economy each year along with some 750,000 jobs...

Epson recently contracted chipmaker Hejian Technology to make its 0.15-micorn LCD drive ICs, making it the first contract buyer to order from the mainland Chinese chipmaker sub-0.18-micron chips. Banned by Taiwan authorities to export manufacturing processes better than 0.18-micron to the mainland, mainland`s factories run by TSMC and ProMOS Technologies are still unable to offer processes below 0.18-micron node. Industry watchers fear such ban will only help mainland`s homegrown chipmakers...

China Airlines and its Mandarin Airlines unit plan to launch, starting July 4, 29 direct weekend charter flights a month to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen, according to the report, while China Southern said it will fly four round-trip flights a week to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, from Guangzhou and Shanghai.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is scheduled to announce relaxation of the existing restrictions on investments by local enterprises in China in July, including the exclusion of the acquisition of Chinese enterprises from the calculation of their Chinese investment value, said Yiin Chii-min, economics minister yesterday (June 23).