A plan by a group of Chinese military and business institutions to invest US$471 million to set up a venture capital fund aims to secure high-end military technology by circumventing US sanctions, a defense expert said on Friday.
The plan shows Beijing’s ambitions to cultivate a domestic military supply chain at a time when it has stepped up its threats against Taiwan, said Yang I Kwei (楊一逵), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of National Defense.
Yang’s comments came after Guangzhou Haige Communications Group (廣州海格通信集團), which provides communications and navigation equipment to the Chinese military, on April 7 announced that it would partner with China Poly Group (中國保利集團公司) and other entities to set up a venture capital fund, valued at 3 billion yuan (US$471 million), for the development of military equipment.
Photo: Reuters
Haige Communications, whose predecessor was a military ordnance factory, counts China’s army, navy and air force among its customers, and has participated in the development of the BeiDou Satellite Navigation System.
It is an important supplier of war simulation and pilot training systems to the Chinese military, Yang said.
China Poly is among 102 state-owned enterprises under the supervision of the Chinese Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
It has served as an importer and exporter of military equipment for China, Yang said.
Participants in the planned venture fund have close ties with Chinese authorities, he said, adding that China Poly is one of its largest controlling institutions.
Poly Technologies (保利科技有限公司), a subsidiary of China Poly, is the largest state-owned supplier of military equipment, missile technologies and drones to the Chinese military, Yang said.
The planned fund is expected to serve as a platform for the Chinese military to enhance its technology competition with the US, which could help Beijing skirt Washington’s sanctions and even secure technology from the US, he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic, US sanctions against Beijing and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted many venture capitalists to flee Asia, Yang said.
Chinese authorities likely want the planned fund to re-energize the domestic capital venture market, and boost information and communications development in a bid to commercialize technology, he said.
The Chinese military’s efforts in information and communications technology development could enhance Beijing’s supervision and control of personal information and pose a larger threat to democracies, he added.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS