The Ministry of Environmental Protection on January 24 released a list of products and crafts that companies are advised to avoid on the grounds that they pose a higher risk of being pollution producing.

The list, including 722 products and 92 crafts, has also been distributed to 13 departments including the People's Bank of China and the ministries of commerce and finance for guidance in the choice of products and crafts.

According to the ministry, more than 300 products on the blacklist have already been excluded from export tax rebates and banned from the processing trade by tax and trade authorities.

Many of the blacklisted products involve heavy metal pollution and high emissions of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and ammonia nitrogen.

The list was first released in 2007. The latest version includes two categories of environmentally friendly crafts and key environmental protection facilities.

GM Management

China will continue to apply strict standards to genetically modified (GM) foods in response to rising consumer concerns, a senior agriculture official said on January 22.

GM products must go through substantial testing before they reach consumers, according to comments made by Chen Xiwen, Deputy Director of the Central Agricultural Work Leading Group, the top authority on agriculture in China, at a press conference.

"China ensures that GM products carry no side-effects before they are approved for the market, otherwise, they may not be promoted as commercial products," Chen said.

Currently, papaya is the only GM food grown in China and officially allowed to reach household menus. The most common GM crop is cotton, according to Chen.

Consumers have every right to know whether a product is GM or not through clear labeling, Chen said. He added that China's GM technology must not lag behind other nations, emphasizing that, as an agricultural nation, the country must work harder to keep up.

Copyright Growth

Official statistics released on January 22 showed that more than 845,000 publications were registered in China for copyright protection in 2013, up about 23 percent year on year.

According to the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC), more than half of the registrations were made in Beijing.

Yu Cike, Director of the NCAC Copyright Management Department, attributed the growth to an increased awareness of copyright protection and the use of copyright as an important financing device.

Applications for software protection rose by about 18 percent in 2013, to more than 164,000.

Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang autonomous regions topped the list regarding increases in applications for software, with applications growing by about 95 percent in Tibet.