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China Economics Information Technology Trend Watching

Chinese People and Their Mobile Phones: sending 17 billion text messages during Spring Festival

Chinese mobile phone operators will benefit from the country’s tradition of exchanging greetings during Lunar New Year as more than 17 billion text messages are expected to be sent during the holiday season, a possible new record, according to the Ministry of Information Industry. The ministry attributed the drastic rise to rapid expansion of mobile phone users which totaled 547 million by the end of 2007, about 41.6 percent of the total population […]

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China Economics

Disaster prevails as relief effort beefed up

Weather conditions in southern China will remain severe and relief work difficult, Chinese leaders warned yesterday as the country battles with the worst snowfalls in decades. The warning came after a meeting chaired by Chinese President Hu Jintao to study the relief effort. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has just concluded his second visit in a week to central Hunan Province, the region worst hit.

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China Economics

Millions stranded by the snow in holiday havoc

Heavy white storms staged a comeback late yesterday as China’s transport network remained crippled by the heaviest snowfall in five decades. Millions of people trying to head home for the Spring Festival are stranded. The big freeze has killed dozens of people, impacted on the lives of at least 80 million others and caused economic losses estimated at more than 53.8 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion)…

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China Economics

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: Second Largest Billionaire Population

The total number of billionaires in China has risen to second place in the world, just behind the US, Yangcheng Evening News reported recently: The 2007 top 500 Chinese magnates list was recently released in Hong Kong, the combined wealth of the 500 magnates exceeds 4,342.6 billion yuan (US$ 587 billion). The number of Chinese magnates with more than one billion dollars in assets has reached 146, compared to 85 last year […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

2007 Retrospective: Top 10 Economy Events in China

The following is the 2007 Top 10 Economic Stories Selection from Economic Information Daily and Perfect China Co Ltd. The chief editors of 16 Beijing-based news organizations, including Zhu Ling, editor-in-chief of China Daily, as well as renowned local economists, put together this selection of the year’s top stories. 1. Property The National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, passed the Property Law of the People’s Republic of China on March 16. The law granted equal protection to public and private properties for the first time…

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: the world’s third-biggest vehicle producer

China may produce more than 8.6 million vehicles this year as it narrows the gap with Japan and the United States, the world’s top two auto makers, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. China’s economic growth, averaging about 10 percent over the past five years, is raising demand for automobiles and has boosted production from about 100,000 vehicles a year in the 1980s to 7.28 million last year, making the country the world’s third-biggest vehicle producer […]

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China Economics Information Technology

Chinese People and their Mobile Phones: Online Transactions through SMS

A range of new payment services through mobile phones has put a virtual withdrawal machine in consumers’ hands, enabling 8 million mobile users in China to pay bills, buy insurance or book tickets. Jointly launched among China UnionPay, commercial banks and the service operators, users had their mobile phone numbers joined with that of their bank accounts, allowing them to fulfill payment for various services, like their gas fee and air ticket booking.

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China Economics Innovation Trend Watching

China, Technology, Innovation and the Environment: Part II

An energy structure with a low utilization rate, and an economic growth mode with serious, hazardous emissions have posed stark challenges for the sustained growth of Chinese economic society. Faced with such a grave situation in energy saving and emission reduction, more than 6,000 science, technology workers, as well as scientist-turned-entrepreneurs on met recently to discuss issues such as energy saving and environmental protection. Among them were more than 100 members from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), the highest palaces for scientific research achievements and engineering progress […]

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China Economics Information Technology

Internet in China: Alibaba.com largest IPO since Google went public

Alibaba.com, the largest business-to-business portal in China underwent its first day of public share trading in Honk Kong, and the results exceeded all expectations, as the price tripled, raising $1.5 billion. The public offering is expected to raise nearly $2 billion in Hong Kong, making its debut offering as large as Google’s 2004 I.P.O. in the United States. ‘We are pleased to welcome investors from Hong Kong and around the world to join us in building a world-class e-commerce company,’ said Jack Ma, non-executive chairman of the company and chairman and chief executive officer of Alibaba Group…

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China Economics

China Enacts National Competition Law

Culminating a 13-year drafting process, on August 30 the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress enacted China’s first competition law, the Anti-Monopoly Law ( [Fan Longduan Fa] ). It prohibits discriminatory and anti-competitive practices by local administrative and public bodies against products, business operators and investors from other parts of China, and Fines for monopoly agreements and abuses of dominant position may range as high as one to ten percent of the wrongdoing company’s total sales volume in the relevant market during the previous year…