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Ding Shumiao, a businesswoman in north China's Shanxi Province, was deprived of membership of the 10th Shanxi Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on January 7.
Ding was removed from the post because she was involved in the corruption case of former minister of railways Liu Zhijun. She is now under investigation for possible violation of laws.
Ding, 56, was born to a poor family in the province. With a sharp business sense and close relationships with many government officials, Ding managed to turn herself into a billionaire.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on January 13 approved the initial public offering (IPO) by People's Daily's online news portal, People.cn, which will become the first publicly listed state-level news platform.
People.cn plans to raise about 527 million yuan ($84 million) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, according to a preliminary prospectus posted on CSRC's website.
People's Daily, one of the country's biggest newspapers by circulation, is the largest shareholder in People.cn. It has 66.01 percent of the portal's equity.
People.cn plans to invest more in its Internet services, improve its infrastructure and strengthen its news reporting team.
The company is facing "serious challenges" from Sina.com.cn, Sohu.com, QQ.com and other commercial news websites, the prospectus said.
People.com.cn, People.cn's chief website, was placed at No. 64 in a ranking of China's most popular websites on January 13, according to data from Chinarank.org.cn, which ranks other websites. Its main competitor, the commercial website Sina.com.cn, ranked No. 4 on the list and Sohu.com came in at No. 6.
China aims to expand its foreign trade by around 10 percent year on year in 2012, significantly slower than in 2011, as the country faces a "grim situation" in boosting its exports, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a forum held on January 14 in Beijing.
China will suffer from weak external demand, increasing trade competition and disputes, the appreciation of the renminbi and rising costs for domestic enterprises, Zhang said at the annual meeting of China's economy 2011-12 organized by the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
China's foreign trade surged 22.5 percent in 2011 from a year earlier to reach $3.64 trillion, according to the General Administration of Customs.
The growth of China's foreign trade has slowed down over the past few months. Compared with January of 2011, year-on-year export growth in December was down by 24.3 percentage points to 13.4 percent and import growth down by 39.2 percentage points to 11.8 percent.
More than half of China's top 20 property developers failed to meet their sales targets in 2011, because of the waning transaction volume and the toughest-ever tightening policies in the residential sector.
In a list of China's top 20 property developers by sales, released by China Real Estate Information Corp., only eight realized their sales targets, while 10 failed to reach their targets, according to a Southern Metropolitan Daily report. Those who missed their sales goals include China Vanke Co. Ltd., the country's largest developer by market value, Shanghai-based Greenland Group, and the Hong Kong-listed Longfor Properties Co. Ltd. Two companies did not make their 2011 sales targets public.
Analysts predict that the low transaction levels are unlikely to change this year and that property developers will feel a sharper chill.
Construction of a national call center that is set to be the world's largest began on January 12 in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province.
The China Mobile (Luoyang) Call Center is part of the efforts of China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone operator, to integrate its provincial and regional services and set up national calling centers in China, said Li Yue, President of China Mobile.
The new center, with a cost of 4 billion yuan ($632.6 million), will create 60,000 jobs, said Li.
China will construct an offshore wind farm with an installed capacity of 300 megawatts in Leting County, north China's Hebei Province, making it the country's largest such project.
The feasibility report for the wind farm has recently passed expert reviews that were commissioned by the National Energy Bureau.
Under the program, the wind farm, built with a total investment of 5.76 billion yuan ($914 million), will comprise 100 units of 3-megawatt offshore turbines.
The approval authority will complete relevant procedures to sanction the project at the end of this year, and the project will be connected to the grid before the end of 2015.
When it goes into operation, the wind farm will generate 752 million kw hours of electric power annually. | 
