BizChina

Maintenance at China's second-largest refinery.

Following this winter's harsh business chill, China's second-largest refinery is now feeling the warmth of spring, said Xu Xiankun, president of Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Corp's ethylene facility.

After a halt in operations for maintenance and repairs in January and February that resulted big losses in revenue, the Shenzhen-listed company is expecting to hit a record-high monthly production of 100,000 tons of ethylene this March, a rebound fueled by the recovery of the manufacturing industry in the Pearl River Delta, the company told China Daily over the weekend.

In the worldwide economic crisis of the past three years, China held up better than most countries and achieved more than 7 percent annual growth in its gross domestic product.

In the 1980s, a crucial question for portfolio managers was what to do about Japan. Today, the parallel question is what to do about China.

From 1978 through 1989, Japan gave the United States heavy competition for world leadership in business and finance. Japanese stocks rose 12 years in a row, gaining a cumulative 700 percent, or almost 19 percent a year, compounded.

Enterprising college students seek slice of Apple-hungry Chinese market

Jack Lee (not his real name) is a gray-market iPad seller in China - or at least he hopes to be.

For now, until Apple kicks off US sales of the much-hyped tablet PC in early April, all he has to sell is the future, promising delivery of the device by taking orders in advance.

The New York-based postgraduate student's business model is simple: buy a 16G WIFI iPad in the US for $499 (3,407 yuan) and informally ship it directly to his online customers back in China, charging them 5,500 yuan for the privilege of having a gray-market one early. Subtract around $30 for shipping and another $45 to cover NY-sales tax, leaving Lee with a cool 1,890 yuan in his pocket.

To date, Apple hasn't said when or even if it plans to release the iPad in China. Apple China spokesperson Tiffany Yang refused to comment on this story.

While the 24-year-old Lee's idea may sound unique, he is actually far from alone in his venture. A review of popular online shopping website, taobao.com, reveals several hundred people are offering to flog Apple's new tablet for prices ranging from 3,500 yuan to 6,200 yuan.

So far, Lee's business is not exactly booming.

Wang Jianzhou, chairman and chief executive officer of China Mobile speaks at the company's 2009 annual results conference in Hong Kong on Thursday.

BEIJING - China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator, said on Thursday that it plans to reduce capital spending over the next three years as network expansion for third-generation (3G) services nears a close.

The company will reduce capital spending from 123 billion yuan this year to 80.4 billion yuan in 2012, it said in its quarterly report.

China Mobile will also roll out 80 new 3G handsets that support its TD-SCDMA network later this year.

'The convergence across telecommunications, Internet, radio and TV broadcasting networks will form a new market beyond the traditional telecommunications industry," Chairman Wang Jianzhou said in a statement on Thursday.