| Investigated SOE Chief
Bai Peizhong, former Board Chairman of Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co. Ltd., is now under investigation for suspected corruption after being dismissed from the post on December 22, 2011. Anti-corruption departments are now investigating the case.
In November, Bai's wife reported to the police that their home was robbed of 3 million yuan ($475,200) worth of goods. The two burglars were later seized and they confessed to the police they had stolen goods and cash worth 50 million yuan ($7.92 million), a sum far beyond Bai's official income.
Bai was vice mayor of Xinzhou in Shanxi Province from 2006 to 2008 before becoming board chairman of the Shanxi Coking Group, which is the country's largest coke making company, with total sales of more than 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) in 2010 and an annual output of more than 100 million tons of coal.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on December 26 initiated a pilot program in Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to link natural gas prices with import prices of alternative fuels.
The NDRC said it will introduce a "gate price" ceiling for each province, and make regular adjustments to the "gate price" according to import prices of alternative fuels.
The government currently sets natural gas prices largely according to domestic production costs, but the method has been less reasonable as the country becomes more dependent on imports for natural gas.
"The goal of the reform is to eventually build a market-based pricing system and encourage efficient use of natural gas," said the NDRC.
The Ministry of Railways announced that China plans to invest 400 billion yuan ($63.19 billion) on railway infrastructure construction in 2012, representing a slight decline from the 469 billion yuan ($74.1 billion) in 2011.
Railway construction, especially development of high-speed rail lines has been slowing down in the country since a deadly train crash in July 2011.
Sheng Guangzu, Minister of Railways, said on a press briefing that the ministry will raise capital for railroad building through bond issuance, bank loans and other market tools. "Moreover, efforts will also be made to lure investments from local governments and private investors." he said.
Sheng added that the ministry will spare no effort to ensure quality and safety of railway projects and learn lessons from past accidents.
The index of entrepreneur confidence declined to 68.4 percent in the fourth quarter, 1.8 percentage points down from the third quarter, according to a survey conduced by the People's Bank of China, the central bank, over 5,000 domestic entrepreneurs.
Analysts believe the decline was because of widespread concerns over the slowdown of the world's second largest economy.
Of the 5,000 entrepreneurs surveyed, 24.8 percent said that the nation's economic status quo is "relatively cool," while 67.1 percent believed that things are still normal, down from 74.3 percent in the first quarter.
In the first 11 months, China's industrial enterprises with annual sales revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($3.16 million) reported combined profits of 4.66 trillion yuan ($736.18 billion), up 24.4 percent from a year ago, 0.9 percentage points lower than that during the January-to-October period, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
In November alone, their profits increased 17.9 percent to reach 542.1 billion yuan ($85.64 billion).
Among the 39 industries surveyed, 36 sectors reported year-on-year profit growth. But the oil refining, coking and nuclear-fuel processing sector experienced a 97.8-percent plunge in profits. The telecommunications equipment, computer and other electronic devices industry suffered a 1.5-percent slide, while profits of electric and thermal power dropped 8.3 percent.
The People's Bank of China on December 27 announced to prohibit local institutions or individuals from setting up gold exchanges apart from the existing Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange.
The government bans the establishment of any gold trading platforms in other exchanges. It has ordered to suspend construction of any new gold exchanges or trading platforms. Those which have opened for business must cease operations.
This move is aimed to crack down on surging illegal practices in the country's gold markets and propel healthy development of the emerging industry, said the central bank.
The Sinopec International Exploration and Production Corp., a subsidiary of China's top crude refiner, has completed takeover of the Canadian oil and gas explorer Daylight Energy Ltd.
The acquisition will give Sinopec access to Daylight Energy's 69 oil and natural gas assets in Canada's northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta.
According to the deal that was signed in October, Sinopec will pay 2.2 billion Canadian dollars ($2.11 billion) in exchange for a 100-percent stake in Daylight Energy.
The deal is the second such takeover of a Canadian energy company by a Chinese refiner in 2011, following oil giant CNOOC's acquisition of Canadian oil sands developer OPTI. | 
