BizChina

Private medical institutions are to enjoy the same preferential tax as State-owned hospitals in China, which helps create a fair competition platform for all hospitals and attract more social capital into the nation's healthcare sector.

China will exempt non-profit privately owned hospitals and clinics from the medical service income tax and medicine value-added tax as well as housing, land and vehicle and vessel usage taxes, according to the Ministry of Finance. For-profit hospitals and clinics will be exempted from business tax and within three years from taxes on some other items, such as real estate, property and medicine.

The measures are among initiatives approved by the State Council on Dec 3 in a document about encouraging the development of private medical institutions.

"Relatively high tax obligations have become a barrier for the development of many private hospitals, which provide the same products and services as their State-owned counterparts, while paying much more tax," said

The World Trade Organization condemned European Union antidumping tariffs on imports of Chinese screws, handing Beijing its biggest legal victory yet at the Geneva-based body. EU officials described the decision as a significant setback.

Legal experts said the victory is a sign of the effectiveness of China's strategy of fighting foreign import tariffs by hiring top-notch trade lawyers and lobbying heavily at WTO headquarters in Geneva.

Friday's 394-page ruling could also set a precedent, making it harder for the EU and the U.S. to impose antidumping tariffs on developing economies like China and Vietnam, which argue that factors other than state aid make their products cheaper.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange doesn’t think much of the activists planning a Chinese version of WikiLeaks, blasting them with the kind of vitriol often reserved for him by critics of his document dumps.

My colleague Andy Greenberg interviewed Assange for two hours earlier this month in London for this Forbes cover package. While making some tantalizing pronouncements about leaks yet to come from the corporate world, including a major U.S. bank, Assange doesn’t seem to be looking forward to what emerges from the China copycat. Though he doesn’t name the group, he appears to be talking about Government Leaks, which is planning a June 1, 2011, launch, according to The South China Morning Post.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China's largest oil refiner, said Friday it has suspended diesel exports to relieve shortages in the domestic market.

Sinopec also said it is seeking to import 200,000 tons of diesel.

PetroChina Co, China's largest oil producer, plans to import 200,000 tons of diesel. Some 35,000 tons of it has already arrived.

Insiders said China's diesel output in the first nine months soared, prompting the two oil giants to expand exports.

Sinopec attributed recent hikes in the domestic price of diesel to hoarding, seasonal factors, transport factors and energy-saving measures.