Just days after announcing new initiatives in Hangzhou, Taiwan media reports that Microsoft will cut more than 300 jobs in the Chinese mainland and more than 10 jobs in Taiwan in the second round of its staff reduction.

An email, which China's Xinhua News Agency reports is rumored to be an internal email from Microsoft, is being spread online, stating that a new round of staff reductions at Microsoft will affect the company's employees in the Greater China region.

Home appliances giant Whirlpool has announced plans to adjust its manufacturing business in China and will close its washing machine plant, cutting 600 jobs.

Mobile phone giant Nokia has announced plans to cut 1700 jobs globally and the company's operation in China may also be affected.

The global financial crisis has reared its head at Motorola, and the company has cut about 1000 staff in China in the last couple of months.

Wu Yun, former CEO of the Chinese video website Ouou.com, has confirmed to Sohu.com that he has left Ouou.com and become CEO of Cyworld, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Korea-based SK Telecom.

The global financial crisis has hit Intel, as the company announced it will shift some assembly and test facilities from Shanghai to Chengdu, a move that will affect about 2,000 Intel employees in Shanghai.

While some companies around the world are responding to the financial crisis with job cuts, the newly issued 3G licenses in China have caused Ericsson to plan a hiring spree of several hundred new employees in China in 2009.

The global financial crisis has hit Chinese PC maker Lenovo (LNVGY) as it today announced cutting approximately 11% of its total global workforce, and the company expects to report a loss for the fiscal quarter that ended December 31, 2008.

Chinese PC maker Lenovo (LNVGY) plans to cut 200 jobs in its Beijing headquarters, of which about 5% are senior managers and directors.

To broaden sources of income and reduce expenditure, Taiwan-based technology manufacturing group Hon Hai Precision Industry Company is planning to implement large-scale employee relocations to third-tier Chinese mainland cities that can offer preferential tax policies in addition to reducing its operating budget for 2009 by 20%.

According to Terry Guo, chairman of the Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, the technology manufacturing group will implement a global staff cut plan and about 3-5% of its employees will lose their jobs.

Commenting on the recent rumor which says Siemens China will cut 10,000 jobs, CEO of Siemens (SI) China Hao Ruiqiang says that the news is untrue and the company will not change its plan to invest CNY10 billion in China in the future.

With the financial crisis spreading to more Chinese technology businesses, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has announced plans to implement unpaid holidays from December 2008 to avoid staff cuts.

Flextronics, one of the world's leading electronics manufacturing services providers, will cut 30% of the jobs in its Beijing office in addition to closing its research and development department in Beijing.