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Lai Changxing, the alleged smuggling kingpin, was prosecuted for smuggling and bribery by the People's Procuratorate of Xiamen on February 13.
Lai, born in 1958, was the former head of the Yuanhua Group and a smuggling ring. An investigation found that from 1996 to 1999, through paying bribes and cultivating connections with local officials, Lai's gang managed to smuggle a range of goods valued at 53 billion yuan ($8.42 billion), from oil and cars to cigarettes, evading taxes of 30 billion yuan ($4.77 billion) through the Xiamen customs. He bribed dozens of government officials and ordered his subordinates to do so, too.
Lai fled to Canada via Hong Kong in August 1999 and tried to obtain refugee status there. He attempted to avoid deportation by claiming he could face death penalty if he was sent back. After being repatriated to China on July 23, 2011, he was arrested for smuggling and bribery.
Lackluster Trade
China's exports declined 0.5 percent year on year to reach $149.94 billion in January, while imports dropped 15.3 percent to $122.66 billion, according to data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC). The trade surplus stood at $27.28 billion (see page 36).
The drop was significantly caused by the earlier-than-usual Chinese Lunar New Year holiday (January 22-28), which cut four workdays off the month compared with January 2011.
China attracted $9.997 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in January, down 0.3 percent year on year, said the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
In January, China approved the establishment of 1,402 foreign-funded companies, a decrease of 37.5 percent from the previous year.
"China has maintained its appeal to foreign investors, despite many negative factors, such as labor costs inflation and financing shortages," said Shen Danyang, spokesman of the MOFCOM.
"Weakness of Western economies is also affecting U.S. and European investments in China," said Shen.
Analyzed by sectors, FDI inflows into the manufacturing and service industries dropped slightly while those into the cropping and livestock sectors rose significantly.
Yuan-denominated new loans totaled 738.1 billion yuan ($117.3 billion) in January, representing a decrease of 288.2 billion yuan ($45.7 billion) year on year, according to data from the People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank.
The lending drop came as a surprise as many expected that policymakers would relatively loosen the monetary stance to shore up the weakening economy.
M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, grew by 12.4 percent from the previous year to reach 85.58 trillion yuan ($13.58 trillion) at the end of January, down 1.2 percentage points from a month ago.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is sparing no effort to improve its data system.
As of February 18, 700,000 companies across the nation, which make up about 80 percent of the nation's GDP, should upload their production, income and spending statements and other information directly to the National Data Center or various provincial data centers.
Under the current system of data reporting, companies submit information about economic indicators to local statistical institutions.
Ma Jiantang, Commissioner of the NBS, said the new system is meant to make statistical reporting easier for companies and data collection more efficient.
This database is also meant to help prevent local authorities from inflating statistical information, Ma said.
Despite an ongoing economic slowdown, China's private entrepreneurs remain confident for business growth, according to a survey conducted by the accounting firm Earnst & Young over 100 leading private business leaders in China.
A majority of the enterprises polled have managed to maintain growth momentum in 2011 amid global economic turbulence. Of the respondents, 67 percent reported an increase in operating profit and 33 percent reported no change or a decrease in operating profit.
Meanwhile, 79 percent of the respondents are cautiously optimistic about an improvement in business over the next year. Only 21 percent expected no improvement or even deterioration over the same period.
Although the fundamentals of the private economy remain healthy, challenges are on the rise. Around 23 percent of the surveyed entrepreneurs consider strong competition as a major challenge while 22 percent and 17 percent respectively believe labor costs and material costs are the key issues in running a business.
China's banking regulator recently released new rules to regulate service charges by commercial banks to protect interests of consumers.
The banks must give a three-month advance notice to clients of an increase in service prices, according to the draft regulations jointly issued by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the PBC and the National Development and Reform Commission.
Customers must also be informed one month in advance if the banks want to charge them for a new item.
The CBRC said that the government will set or guide charges on some basic services such as fund transfer and payment collection.
The public can submit views on the proposed rules until March 20. | 
