New anti-fake goods drive launched in China
The State Council issued a circular ordering the launching of a new crackdown on the manufacturing and selling of counterfeit and substandard goods throughout the country. A national coordination office for the campaign will be set up consisting of officials from government departments, judicial departments, the armed police, and the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. (Xinhua, 6 November)

China issues rules governing Internet-based news providers
The Chinese government issued rules governing Internet-based news providers. Internet sites run by media organizations at government levels may publish news after obtaining approval from the Information Office. Other media organizations may not set up independent news sites, but they may, upon approval, set up news pages run by the above-mentioned approved media organizations. If commercial portal sites run by non-news organizations wish to carry news, they may do so only after obtaining permission. After gaining approval, they may only publish news provided by officially approved news organizations. Commercial portals may not carry any news items based on their own interviews or from other sources. The regulations further stipulate that no China-based Web site will be allowed to link to overseas news Web sites or carry news from overseas news media or Web sites, without separate approval. Commercial Web sites that wish to carry news must first sign cooperative agreements with authorized news outlets. (ChinaOnline, 7 November)
Reactions to this latest efforts of the Chinese Government to gain control over the internet varied. While the South China Morning Post was harshly critical ("Content providers dealt blow by new rules"), local internet service providers would not be heard criticizing the Government. Experts question the possibility to implement the new regulations, as it is technically impossible to control content being posted in the real time conversational world of chat-rooms.

China to impose quotas on foreign-funded mobile phone manufacturing, exports
China announced that a quota system will be in place on the percentage of local content required for mobile phones made by foreign-invested manufacturers for export and local consumption. The domestic content of cellphones manufactured by existing joint ventures must be at least 50% in value by the end of 2001, and exports must take up 60% of their production. China is currently taking steps to support the domestic mobile phone manufacturers. (ChinaOnline, 7 November)

Motorola to build design center in Shanghai
The Motorola Computer Group will be constructing a design center in Shanghai, the third in the world and first in Asia for Motorola. (ChinaOnline, 7 November)

First Sino-foreign tourism JV to debut in Gansu
Funded by Gansu New Western Tourism Co. and Macao Miramar Travel Agency, the joint venture focuses mainly on providing services for foreign visitors and domestic tourists in China. The new company is expected to receive a travel agency license soon. (ChinaOnline, 7 November)

China approves four new life insurance companies
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission has approved the launch of four new life insurance companies. The companies are Minsheng, Oriental, Shengming and Heng'an. The CIRC also granted permits to the firms to enter into joint ventures with foreign insurers. (Xinhua, 7 November)

Smuggling of watches down, imports up in Shanghai
The restricted imports of high-end watches as well as the system of import licensing and quotas led to rampant smuggling of watches. From the beginning of 1999 to this June, a total of 10'000 Omega watches were smuggled into China, accounting for 35% of the total domestic sales of this brand in the period. However, a recent increase in imports through legal channels indicates that the smuggling of watches had been effectively curbed by the government. (ChinaOnline, 7 November)

New 330-metre high office tower for Beijing
Hong Kong-based property tycoon Robert Kuok is to build a 330-metre high office tower in Beijing's central business district. The building, when completed, will replace the 206-metre New World Jingguang Centre as the tallest building in Beijing. (China News Service, 7 November)

Civil aircraft manufacturing strategy announced
Chinese industrial authorities have released a new strategy for the development of the civilian aviation industry. China will start developing its own 50-70-seater ''fanjet feeder planes'' which will be put into service in six years of time. The Chinese civil aviation industry has been plagued by manufacturing mismatches over the past decades. Co-operation projects with Germany and France in the 1980s and 1990s were failures. The soon to end co-operation with McDonnell Douglas also failed to modernize China's industry. (SCMP, 7 November)

SOEs expected to withdraw from most industrial sectors
According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's state-owned enterprises should withdraw from 146 of the 196 industrial departments, including garments, textiles, food, beverages, daily consumer goods, and electronic items. The state should relinquish its monopoly but maintain a certain level of control over 35 sectors, including the exploitation of coal, iron and other major mineral resources, space aviation, new materials, computer, biomedicine, electronics, petrochemicals and automobile. State monopoly should be maintained in 15 sectors, including military industries and electricity.(Xinhua, 8 November)

Rural, urban disparity increases
Between January and September, the per capita disposable income of urban residents registered RMB 4,719 (up 8.4% from the same period last year) while per capita cash income for rural residents was RMB1,500 (up 1.8%, non-farming income takes up the majority of that increase). Since 1997, the growth rate of farmers' incomes has been on a constant decline. (China Daily, 8 November)

Construction of west-east electricity transmission project starts
Construction of the Hongjiadu and Yinzidu Hydropower Stations and the expansion of the Wujiangdu Hydropower Station started in Southwest China's Guizhou Province. The projects constitute part of China's massive west-east electricity transmission project, marking the beginning of the development of the western region. (Xinhua, 8 November)

China sentences 14 to death in smuggling case
14 high officials and business leaders were sentenced to death in the first verdicts on a major smuggling case in the east port city of Xiamen. 84 were put on trial as the first batch of people involved in the case. The courts sentenced 12 of them to life imprisonment and gave various prison terms to 58 others. Investigations found that the accused had smuggled refined oil, vegetable oil, cars and cigarettes worth RMB 53 billion and evaded customs duties of up to RMB 30 billion since 1996. (Xinhua, 8 November)

Domain names in Chinese characters trigger stampede
According to the China Internet Network Information Center, Chinese-character domain-name registration officially opened at 9 p.m. on Nov. 7. By 10 p.m., a stampede of 60'000 applicants had stormed the system. Roughly 1 million applicants have preregistered for Chinese character domain names with the nine CNNIC-authorized domain name registration service providers. (ChinaOnline, 10 November)

Asset-management companies face USD 157 billion in bad-debt recovery
In operation for more than a year, China's four asset-management companies are facing the significant challenge of recovering more than RMB 1.3 trillion from non-performing assets. Experts have conflicting opinions concerning the ability to collect these assets, which the AMCs acquired from state-owned commercial banks. (ChinaOnline, 10 November)

Shenzhen, Shanghai Stock Exchanges to merge next year, Shanghai mayor says
Xu Kuangdi, the mayor of Shanghai predicted that the merger of the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchanges will be completed in the first half of next year. This is the most authoritative statement made so far by a Chinese official about the timetable of the main board merger. When the Shenzhen and Shanghai exchanges merge, they will become the third biggest stock market in Asia, behind Japan and Hong Kong. (ChinaOnline, 9 November)

SDB provides first loan to foreign firm
The State Development Bank of China granted a RMB 358 million loan to the Sino-British joint venture, Zhuhai Amoco, on Thursday. This was the first ever loan by a state-owned bank to a foreign-invested company in China. (SCMP, 10 November)

CCTV earns RMB 2.16 billion in prime time auction
China Central Television, the only national television station, earned RMB 2.16 billion for its annual prime time advertising slots auction, an increase of 9% over the previous auction. More foreign clients were attracted this year. Philips and Colgate were represented, following Procter and Gamble's debut last year. Many firms accused CCTV for charging too much for prime time advertisements. (SCMP, 10 November)

China "one foot in WTO"
The chairman of the working party on China's WTO accession, told reporters at the end of the 13th session that China is virtually "one foot" in the organization as breakthroughs have been made in central subjects like transitional review mechanism, judicial review, uniform administration, transparency, and tariff-rate quota administration during the current session. He said that there is also progress in other areas such as quantitative import restrictions, technical barriers to trade, agricultural policy, and trade-related intellectual property issues. However, many substantive, verification and technical gaps still need to be filled before the multilateral talks for China's final accession are completed. The next session of the working party is scheduled in Geneva on December 5-8. (Xinhua, 10 November)

Taiwan investors ignore tension
Taiwanese investment in China has soared this year despite the freeze in political relations, because of the plentiful supply of cheap and skilled labour, attractive incentives and the deteriorating environment at home. In the first eight months, Taiwan's companies invested USD 1.6 billion in 482 projects in the mainland, against USD 1.25 billion in 488 last year. The cross-strait tension, with the remote possibility that it could lead to a war, worries Taiwan investors but is not enough to outweigh the economic benefits of them going to China. Taiwan's investment had peaked at USD 4.33 billion in 8,725 projects in 1997 but dropped in the next two years, mainly because of the Asian financial crisis. (SCMP, 11 November)

Private banks to start business in China
Four privately-owned commercial banks are expected to open around the time of China's expected accession into the WTO. The four banks that are scheduled to be launched include the Taizhou-based Tailong Bank, Zhejiang Province, the Shenyang-based Ruifeng Bank, Liaoning Province, the Xi'an-based China Great Wall Bank, Shaan'xi Province and a Jiangyin-based commercial bank, Jiangsu Province, that is still unnamed.
Almost all the commercial banks in China are currently State-owned, partially State-owned or State-backed. The only exception is China Minsheng Bank, established in 1996 to be China's first non-government bank. All of its major shareholders are private enterprises. (China Daily, 12 November)