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Piracy Dealt a Heavy Blow

China has begun amending its Copyright Law for the second time, while the National Copyright Administration and relevant departments have stepped up their attacks on pirated software and publications. In 2007, various copyright administrations inspected 548,646 businesses, closed 13,170 deemed to be operating illegally, and raided 1,224 underground pirating workshops. They seized 11.21 million pirated books, 18.43 million pirated periodicals, 52.49 million pirated audio-visual products, 2.07 million pirated electronic publications, more than 3 million items of pirated software and 5.05 million pirated commodities of other sorts.

Chinas GDP, Foreign Reserves Rise in 2008

According to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics, Chinas first quarter GDP reached RMB 6.1491 trillion, a 10.6 percent rise over the same period last year. However, the growth lags behind last years figure by 1.1 percentage points. Imports and exports totaled US $570.4 billion, a growth of 24.6 percent, up by 1.3 percentage points compared with last years figure. Investment in fixed assets grew 24.6 percent to RMB 2.1845 trillion, 0.9 percent higher than last year. Consumer prices rose 8 percent, or 5.3 percentage points higher than last year. Materialized direct foreign investment stood at US $27.4 billion, up 61.3 percent, while the per capita disposable income of urban residents shot up 11.5 percent to RMB 4,386. Finally, the nations foreign exchange reserve ballooned to US $1.6822 trillion, a US $153.9 billion rise since the beginning of the year.

Groundbreaking for Beijing-Shanghai

Express Railway

A groundbreaking ceremony in April inaugurated the construction of an express railway between Beijing and Shanghai. Once completed, the high-speed passenger train will run 1,318 kilometers between Beijing South Station and Shanghai Hongqiao Station. A total of RMB 220.94 billion has been earmarked for its construction, and it will be the worlds longest railway line of its kind to be completed as a single project. Ten years have gone into research and planning for the line, which will run roughly parallel to the existing Beijing-Shanghai Railway and have 21 stops. The projected speed of the trains is 350 kilometers per hour, and it is expected to transport more than 80 million passengers a year one way, twice the capacity of the current Beijing-Shanghai Railway. The train is expected to enter service in five years, and will cut traveling time between the two cities in half, to five hours. The fare is expected to be RMB 600 to 800 each way.