China's leading Internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd. announced a plan on March 26 to buy a 28-percent stake in South Korea's CJ Games Corp. at $500 million, making it the third-largest shareholder of CJ Games, a leading online and mobile games developer and publisher in South Korea.

Through the strategic partnership with Tencent, CJ Games is expected to enable its growth in the global mobile games market.

As part of the restructuring, CJ Games will acquire and merge Netmarble, a game distribution division of its parent firm CJ E&M, to maximize the synergies among distribution platforms and development via the creation of a consolidated corporation tentatively named CJ Netmarble.

Martin Lau, President of Tencent, said in a statement that the partnership combines CJ Games' unrivalled game development skills and mobile game line-up together with Tencent's strong game publishing and operation capabilities in China.

The move is in line with Tencent's extensive history in the gaming industry in China. Online games contributed to nearly half of Tencent's revenue of 16.97 billion yuan ($2.73 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the company's financial report.

Rare Earth Dispute

The World Trade Organization (WTO) judged that some Chinese raw-material exporters had violated the global trade rules on export tariffs and quotas, according to a report released on March 26.

China's Ministry of Commerce reacted to the WTO ruling by saying that the ministry was evaluating the report and adopting measures in accordance with WTO dispute settlement protocols.

Rare earths are in great demand for their use in smartphones and other gadgets, and China is the biggest global supplier, providing over 90 percent of the world's rare earth production. However, there have been concerns that mining rare earths results in severe environmental damage.

The WTO report was a response to accusations made in March 2012 by the United States, European Union and Japan, and the organization formed a dispute settlement panel in July 2012.

Alleviating Jams

Beijing's neighboring Hebei Province is planning to step up development of Baoding, a local city, in preparation for the transfer of some functions from Beijing.

According to an urbanization document published on March 26, the province will enlarge the size of Baoding to be able to accommodate administrative organs, colleges and universities, research institutions, medical and nursing services transferring from Beijing.

With a hi-tech center and modern industrial bases to be built, Baoding will also develop the industries of high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, energy-saving and environmental protection, and modern logistics as well as its airport economy from 2014 to 2020.

Another local city, Langfang, will also boost its service sector so as to serve as an ecological and recreational zone for Beijing, said the document.