In the wake of escalating inflation, China pledged to draw up a series of measures, including more subsidies for farmers, to secure stable production and supply of produce in 2008.

The message came from the annual Central Rural Work Conference that concluded on December 23. The two-day conference outlined the top priorities of the country's rural work in 2008 and a certain period of time thereafter. Besides stability of farm produce supplies and prices, other priorities include enlarged government expenditure on improving rural infrastructure, promoting stable development of agriculture and new measures to boost income growth for farmers.

Yahoo Lost IPR Case

The Beijing Higher People's Court has made a final judgment that upholds a lower court's ruling that ordered Yahoo! China to pay damages to 11 major record companies for facilitating free music downloads.

Yahoo! China appealed to the Beijing Higher People's Court after losing a lawsuit at the Beijing No.2 Intermediary People's Court in April 2007, which had ordered the company to pay 210,000 yuan ($28,400) in damages to the 11 companies, which include EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. It also told Yahoo! China to delete the links that allowed Internet users to download 229 songs from other sites.

The record companies began court proceedings in early January 2007 and demanded 5.5 million yuan ($743,000) in damages.

Electric-Fried Peking Duck

China's oldest Peking duck restaurant chain, Quanjude (Group) Co. Ltd., plans to use electric ovens to replace traditional hand-roasting procedures for cooking ducks.

The move is aimed at maintaining food quality while the company expands its business across China. Traditionally, the duck is hung in the oven and roasted by flames from fruitwood. It takes about 45 minutes for the duck to be done and chefs regularly adjust the duck's position to ensure it is evenly roasted.

The electric ovens, based on a computerized operation jointly developed by Quanjude and a German company, will keep the handmade technique but simplify roasting procedures, Xing Ying, General Manager of Quanjude, told Beijing Morning Post.

Windfalls From Spiraling Oil Prices

China sold $3.25 billion worth of oil production equipment and related products abroad, including drilling machines, spare parts and steel oil pipe, in the first three quarters of 2007, an increase of 67.4 percent on the same period of the previous year.

Customs sources said that the United States was the biggest target market of China's exports, while China's foreign sales to Russia, Algeria and India surged by big margins.

From January to September 2007, China sold $1.04 billion worth of oil production equipment and related products, or 31.9 percent of the total, to the United States, up 29.9 percent.

China's exports to Russia and Algeria, which are major oil producers, amounted to $190 million and $130 million, respectively, up 10.2 fold and 420 percent. Sales to India soared 59.8 percent to $270 million.

Another Harvest Year

China's grain output, which includes rice, wheat, corn and soybean, exceeded 500 million tons in 2007, making it the fourth consecutive year of output increase since 2004.

This boosted the country's hope that a bumper grain output would help slow current price rises.

Prices of food, which has a 33-percent weighting in the nation's consumer price index, soared 18.2 percent in November 2007. However, Sun said output still fell short of demand in 2007, without giving the exact figure for grain demand.