Reminiscent of the failed Unocal deal for US oil assets, an Australian infrastructure bid was rebuffed due to distrust over the bidder's Chinese backing.
Chinese regulators have mandated the number of state-owned firms to be trimmed down by up to 46% by 2010, but the new Anti-monopoly Law may become a legal hurdle for the mergers needed to do so.
From August 1, profit-oriented, Beijing-based online communities hosted on Chinese e-commerce websites must obtain a business permit from the City's industry watchdog.
In response to oil price spikes, tax adjustments, and a rising yuan, industry observers are wondering if China will abdicate its throne as the factory of the world in the near future.
A frenzy of demand for clarification and training in China's Antitrust Law, which comes into effect on August 1, has left legal expert Huang Yong sapped.
Critics in China have been accusing multinational agriculture conglomerates as the invisible hand behind the global food price surges. One of the world's big-four agro-company Cargill, however, rebuked such charges when interviewed by the EO.
Just as businesses are clamoring for lower taxes, the Ministry of Finance needs to increase tax revenues to cover losses suffered in a year riddled with natural disasters.
If salaries aren't set by communal argeement with labor representatives, businesses would have to count them as profits - and thus make them subject to a 25% income tax - according to a clause recently added to corporate salary regulations.
Once introduced as policy-driven agencies to enhance loan access for local development, some credit guarantee companies in Wenzhou today have turned to the usury business.
Chinese dairy activist Wang Dingmian is on a mission to prove that warm-storage milk, a staple of Chinese supermarkets, can be nutritionally inferior to its regridgerated counterparts.
Chinese officials are becoming increasingly concerned with risks in the housing market, and met frequently with industry leaders last month to assess the situation.
Thermal power plants nationwide are competing for coal, driving up prices for the resource and threathening electricity production. Political will is needed to resolve the shortage, reports EO reporter Xie Liangbin.
BaoSteel was strongarmed in negotiations with Australian iron ore firms due to the latters' skilled use of international media, which they used to influence the environment of the talks and put the Chinese on the defensive.
China has been drafting an oversea farming blueprint to encourage state-owned agriculture businesses to rent or buy land abroad for planting, especially soy bean.
