2 Chinese Cities Move to Cool Overheated Housing Market

In an effort to cool the resurgent property market, two of China’s biggest cities announced over the weekend that they would put in place a series of new restrictions and penalties on housing sales.

In the nation’s capital, the Beijing municipal government said that unmarried individuals would now be allowed to purchase only one residence. The city also increased the minimum down payment for buyers of a second home and imposed a 20 percent capital gains tax on owners’ selling a residence.

In Shanghai, an identical capital gains tax was announced and took immediate effect, and city officials pledged to install and enforce other measures aimed at stabilizing housing prices. The stiffer capital gains taxes take the place of a 1 percent to 2 percent transaction tax that was previously assessed on the final price of the property being sold.

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David Barboza, New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/aQc9a23OrBE/

Taiwan to allow China firms to buy bigger stakes in local banks

Taiwan will ease rules to allow Chinese banks to buy bigger stakes in local banks and permit more Chinese firms to invest in its financial industry, the island’s financial regulator said on Monday, marking a major advance in cross-strait ties.

Taiwan will allow mainland banks to buy as much as 15 percent in unlisted local bank and financial holding companies, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said in a joint briefing.

The stake allowed to be invested in a financial holding’s banking unit will be raised to 20 percent. The rules will take effect in 60 days.

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Faith Hung, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/mQIjAVNPm4c/

Questions in China on how H7N9 flu strain killed 2

Health officials say they still don’t understand how a lesser-known bird flu virus was able to kill two men and seriously sicken a woman in China, but that it’s unlikely that it can spread easily among humans.

Two men in Shanghai became the first known human fatalities from the H7N9 bird flu virus after contracting it in February. A woman in the eastern city of Chuzhou remains in serious condition, China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission said.

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Gillian Wong, Associated Press via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/f7QS6cXF2pI/

Beijing Opposes U.S. Rule on Technology Imports

China expressed “resolute opposition” and “strong dissatisfaction” with a new U.S. cyberespionage rule limiting imports of Chinese-made information technology products, the state media reported over the weekend.

The remarks underscore growing tension between the world’s top two economies after the United States accused China of backing a string of hacking attacks on U.S. companies and government agencies. China says that the accusation lacks proof and that it is also a victim of hacking attacks, more than half of which originate in the United States.

The new provision, tucked into a funding bill signed into law in Washington on Thursday, requires NASA, as well as the U.S. Justice and Commerce Departments, to seek approval from national law enforcement officials before buying information technology systems from China. The United States imports about $129 billion worth of “advanced technology products” from China, according to a May 2012 report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

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Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/edH87ShaK0c/

French Drug Maker Sees Growth in China

Sanofi SA expects to see double-digit sales growth in China in the next five years, as the French drug maker moves to meet the country’s growing demand for medicine.

Paris-based Sanofi plans to expand its animal health and vaccine business in China this year, which will boost sales beyond its €1 billion-plus ($1.28 billion-plus) sales in the country last year, said Sanofi’s chief executive, Christopher Viehbacher, in an interview on Monday. Sanofi’s sales in China jumped 15% last year, it said, though it didn’t break down further country-level detail.

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Laurie Burkitt, Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/PbeYBq95CBA/

Firm’s ex-chief admits tainting baby formula

THE former head of Hero Group’s authorized China distributor yesterday admitted the company repackaged Hero Nutradefense infant formula, mixed various milk sources with the imported formula, and smuggled baby formula from Europe without the necessary import certificates.

Mou Jun, former head of Xile Lier, which is Hero Group’s partner in China, said the company started changing production dates and smuggling baby formula from Europe in February last year, China Central Television reported. The company smuggled baby formula without import certificates because Hero Nutradefense products were very popular in China and demand outstripped supply, Mou said.

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admin via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/XMgq-kZU8DE/

All-out rescue for buried miners in Tibet

Fifteen more bodies were retrieved on Sunday at the site of a mining area landslide in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.

As of 9:15 p.m., a total of 17 bodies have been recovered since the landslide occurred two and a half days ago in Maizhokunggar County, about 68 km from regional capital Lhasa. Another 66 miners remain missing.

In two locations near the area where the new bodies were found, rescuers retrieved articles such as tents, clothes and kitchen knives, according to rescuers.

That has led them to believe more miners might be buried under debris at these two locations.

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jason via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/gspdkEROuu4/