NEARING COMPLETION: The 41.58-km-long bridge across Jiaozhou Bay in Qingdao of Shandong Province is expected to be completed at the end of 2010 (LI ZIHENG)

Rising Yuan

The central parity rate of the Chinese currency, the yuan, rose to a new record high on September 15 at 6.725 per U.S. dollar, according to data released by the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.

The yuan has appreciated for four consecutive trading days. The yuan's central parity gained 128 basis points, or 0.19 percent, to 6.725 per U.S. dollar on September 15, beating the previous record of 6.7378 per U.S. dollar on September 14.

Based on September 15's central parity rate, the yuan weakened against the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound.

The yuan rose against the Hong Kong dollar and Malaysian Ringgit based on its parity rates against the two currencies.

Anti-Dumping Duties

China strongly opposes the U.S. Commerce Department's decision to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese steel products, said Yao Jian, spokesman with the Ministry of Commerce, on September 15.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on September 13 that it would impose final anti-dumping duties ranging from 48.99 percent to 98.74 percent to offset below-market pricing by Chinese exporters and it would levy final countervailing duties of 13.66 percent to 53.65 percent to offset Chinese government subsidies.

The U.S. side disregarded the fact that China is a developing country and had hurt the interests of Chinese industries by applying the trade remedies repeatedly.

Since 2007, the U.S. side launched anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on 15 kinds of Chinese steel products with a total value of nearly $7 billion. The investigations usually resulted in tariffs being imposed and involved products making up about one third of China's steel exports to the United States.

These investigations have a negative impact on bilateral trade, Yao said.

Coke's New Plant

Coca Cola Co., the world's leading beverage maker, will soon start operations at its largest bottling plant in China, which is slated to be completed in October. The 900-million-yuan ($131.77 million) investment is located in Luohe of central China's Henan Province.

The U.S. soft-drink giant already operates 39 plants in China. It opened three new plants in Jiangxi Province, Hubei Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 2009. It now has two factories under construction, including the largest in Henan and the other in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The company invested $90 million in an innovation and research center in Shanghai, and is now taking some of the center's innovations and technologies to other parts of Asia and to the world's market.

Cross-Straits Trade

Trade between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan totaled $81.91 billion in the first seven months of the year, up 55.9 percent year on year, and cross-Straits economic, cultural and people-to-people exchanges have hit a level unparalleled for 60 years, said Sun Yafu, Deputy Director of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office.

From January to July, the Chinese mainland approved more than 1,600 Taiwan-investment projects worth $1.42 billion, a nearly 42 percent year-on-year increase.

More than 50 mainland enterprises have invested $133 million in Taiwan since July last year, Sun said.