Figures from the GAC showed China exported a total of 1.42 million tons of crude oil in June, nearly 70 percent more than the aggregate amount it exported during the first five months of 2008.

Analysts said surging international crude oil prices, which have been hovering around $140 per barrel, compelled domestic crude oil producers to take advantage of exports rather than fulfilling domestic needs.

Crude oil imports remained stable in the first half of this year. Data from the GAC indicated that China imported 90.33 million tons of oil in the first half of the year, up 11 percent from the same period last year.

Mainland refined oil prices have remained below international crude oil prices for years, but they recently spiked 20 percent, although they still could not catch up with the speed of the crude oil price surge.

The Central Government is taking measures to fulfill domestic demand. On August 1, it will start imposing a 5-percent regular export duty and a 17-percent value-added tax on crude oil exports by foreign companies that conduct joint marine oil exploration activities with Chinese firms.

Meanwhile, the government will cancel tax rebates on crude oil exports. At present, foreign companies operating in China do not pay export duties, but analysts expect them to rush to sell crude oil before August 1 when the new regulations take effect.

Caution: Insurers

A dozen Chinese insurance firms had solvency problems because of the performance of the stock market and received warnings from the government's insurance watchdog.

China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) officials said at an insurance supervision working conference on July 15 that 12 insurance companies had risked insolvency by the end of June, two more than at the beginning of this year. Some were found to have a serious lack of solvency. The CIRC declined to name the 12 insurers.

Because of their excessive reliance on the capital market, insurers suffered considerable losses when the mainland A-share market nosedived. CIRC Chairman Wu Dingfu criticized the companies for not having healthy business models.

"When the stock market was good, they were good in solvency; but when the stock market got bad this year, their solvency rates went down quickly," Wu said. He also blamed insurers' inability to design marketable products and their reliance on issuing new shares or subordinated bonds to maintain their solvency.

Wu said the CIRC would set up a special inspection bureau to check the performances of insurance companies to prevent major crashes in the insurance sector during a bearish stock market period.

Multinationals Join in Sichuan's Rejuvenation

Despite the destruction caused by the massive magnitude-8.0 earthquake in Sichuan on May 12, foreign companies continue to show a keen interest in investing in the battered province.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the Sichuan Provincial Commerce Department said foreign direct investment in the province grew 107.9 percent in the first six months of the year. Foreign companies invested $1.8 billion in Sichuan. The province approved 184 new foreign-funded businesses in the first half of this year, down 12.8 percent year on year, while contractual capital surged 207.5 percent to $4.2 billion.

Sichuan authorities reiterated that the province's "productive capabilities, material foundation and economic fundamentals" did not suffer fundamental damage. It said after the quake, many foreign businesses still paid attention to Sichuan's development, eyeing the investment environment here with optimism and increasing their investments.