VINTAGE ARCHITECTURE: Tourists walk through a winding corridor at the newly opened International Grape Exhibition Garden in Beijing's suburban Yanqing County on July 25. The garden is an important site for the 11th International Conference on Grapevine Breeding and Genetics, which was held in Yanqing from July 29 to August 2. (ZHANG YU)

Banking Liberalization

The establishment of three private banks, including Webank by Internet giant Tencent, has been approved by regulatory authorities as it steps up financial reforms and opens up the banking sector.

Shang Fulin, Chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), announced the move on July 25 and said that the purpose of the reform is "to provide efficient and diversified financial services to the real economy."

Webank, located in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, will have two other main co-founders, Shenzhen Baiyeyuan Investment Co. and Shenzhen Liye Group, according to the commission.

The bank will mainly serve individual customers and small and micro businesses.

The other two banks are located in the eastern city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province and the northern municipality of Tianjin, said the CBRC.

Chint Group and Huafon Group are co-founders of the bank in Wenzhou, which targets local small and micro companies, individual businesses and residents, as well as clients in rural areas.

The bank in Tianjin, with Huabei Group and Maigou (Tianjin) Group as co-founders, will mainly engage in corporate banking services.

Experts said that the authorization will increase competition in the banking sector and improve financial services to the country's weak links such as agriculture and small businesses.

The CBRC said in March that China will set up five private banks on a trial basis. Each of the banks will be co-sponsored by at least two private capital providers.

Continued Surplus

China's current account surplus reached $72.2 billion in the second quarter, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said on July 30.

The goods trade surplus hit $109 billion, but the service trade posted a deficit of $29.6 billion.

A surplus of capital and financial accounts totaled $36.9 billion in the April-June period. Net inflows of direct investment amounted to $40.3 billion.

Due to the surpluses, China's international reserve assets increased by $35.3 billion.

Among the assets, foreign exchange reserve assets (excluding the influence of exchange rates and prices) rose by $35.7 billion. Special drawing rights and the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund saw a drop of $300 million.

For the first half year, the current account surplus was $79.3 billion while the capital and financial account stood at $81.5 billion, resulting in an increase of $160.8 billion in international reserve assets.

The country has witnessed quarterly surpluses in both accounts—the current account and the capital and financial account—since the final quarter of 2012. This may add to appreciation pressure on the Chinese currency yuan and incur problems from international speculative capital inflow.

SIGNS OF LOVE: A flower vendor in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, prepares a bouquet before the Double Seventh Festival, also known as the Chinese Valentine's Day, which falls on August 2 for this year (PENG ZHAOZHI)

Industrial Plan

China has issued its first development plan for the geographic information industry, according to an announcement from the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation on July 27.

China sees the geoinformation industry as a new source of economic growth and plans to have established a comprehensive industry system with independent intellectual property rights by 2020.

Focus will be placed on developing remote sensing services as well as manufacturing surveying and mapping equipment and navigation systems, according to the newly released plan.

China's independently developed Beidou navigation satellite system achieved positioning accuracy within 1 meter in May and is expected to be applied in sailing, marine exploration and rescue, and maritime monitoring.

The Beidou navigation satellite industry alone will have an output value of 400 billion yuan ($65 billion) by 2020, according to a geo-spatial information expert.

Gold Discovery

Geologists have discovered a large gold deposit worth a potential $6.46 billion in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, local officials said on July 29.

With at least 127 tons of proven reserves, it is the largest gold deposit ever discovered in resource-rich Xinjiang.

It is located in Uqar County, which borders Kyrgyzstan in west Xinjiang, according to the Xinjiang Regional Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration and Development.

"It's expected the total reserves will exceed 200 tons," said Cui Hongbin, head of the exploration team.

The discovery will not only increase China's gold output, which totaled 211 tons in the first half of this year, but will also benefit local revenue and employment, Cui said.

Soaring Ambition

Trial production of the TA600 aircraft, intended to be the world's largest amphibious aircraft, has started in China following completion of the design process, a company executive said on July 27.

The aircraft, with a maximum takeoff weight of 53.5 tons and a maximum range of more than 5,000 km, is larger than a Boeing 737 and could be used for firefighting and air-sea rescue, said Fu Junxu, General Manager of the China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Co. Ltd.'s Zhuhai branch.

China began developing the aircraft five years ago. Its maiden flight is expected to happen in late 2015, Fu said. "After a period of trial flights, the aircraft will be put onto the market," he added.

Upon completion, TA600 will replace Japan's ShinMaywa US-2 aircraft as the largest amphibious aircraft in the world.

Anti-Trust Probe

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Microsoft Corp.'s business on the Chinese mainland, it confirmed on July 29.

According to a statement made by the SAIC, the investigation involves Microsoft China Co. Ltd., and three of its branches in Shanghai, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province and Chengdu in Sichuan Province. The administration said that the firm had not fully disclosed anti-competition information about its Windows operating system and Microsoft Office applications as required.

Inspectors are investigating a Microsoft vice president and several senior managers, and have made copies of the firm's financial statements and contracts, the SAIC said.

The administration has seized documents, e-mails and other data from Microsoft's computers and servers. It has not been able to complete its investigation because key personnel of Microsoft are not in China or cannot be contacted, according to the statement.

In June last year, the SAIC investigated complaints from enterprises that Microsoft had used tie-in sales and verification codes in its Windows operating system and Microsoft Office applications, causing software incompatibility issues.

Microsoft failed to fully disclose information as required by the SAIC about such complaints in its reports submitted to the regulator, and may have breached China's Anti-Monopoly Law, the statement said.

Under the law, companies or individuals should not abuse their market dominance to exclude or restrict competition and should be supervised by the public.