BEIJING, March 4 (Reuters) – China is likely to split its
sprawling, scandal-plagued Railways Ministry into operations and
commercial arms, two sources said, part of an overhaul of the
bureaucracy as a new set of leaders takes charge in Beijing.

In other plans, the government is also likely to set up a
single regulator for food safety, although details are still
being finalised.

BEIJING, March 1 (Reuters) – China’s state-backed trade
union is planning to expand into yet another bastion of
capitalism, targetting the Big Four accounting firms and their
40,000 employees in mainland China, according to state media
reports and the companies on Friday.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions made a push into
foreign firms operating about four years ago and now has a union
presence in most firms with a manufacturing or retail base.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Feb 8 (Reuters) – China’s broad plan to
address income inequality promises to extract higher dividends
from profitable state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to finance a more
generous social safety net.

But the increased payouts may do little to channel wealth
towards boosting social security. The Communist Party’s new
leadership has promised reforms to address the country’s yawning
wealth gap.

YANGWANG VILLAGE, China, Feb 6 (Reuters) – The bare
lightbulbs, unheated rooms and elderly residents of the
whitewashed village of Yangwang in eastern China make it seem an
unlikely place for an experiment in cutting-edge satellite
technology.

This tiny village in Anhui province was home to a pilot
project that for the first time mapped farmers’ land holdings,
putting it on the front line of China’s efforts to build a
modern agricultural sector that can underpin the country’s food
security – a policy priority for the Communist Party.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China unveiled sweeping tax reforms on Tuesday to make wealthy state-owned firms, property speculators and the rich pay more to narrow a yawning gap between an urban elite and hundreds of millions of rural poor.

The plans approved by the State Council – China’s cabinet – also included commitments to push forward market-oriented interest rate reforms to give savers a better return and more security.

BEIJING (Reuters) – France’s Trade Minister Nicole Bricq said on Monday a decision by her country’s new government to review the country’s nuclear cooperation with China was a regular process and was “normal”.

At the end of December, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said France was investigating a nuclear partnership deal between EDF and Chinese nuclear utility China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation Holding (CGNPC).

BEIJING (Reuters) – The website for a private school in Changzhou, one of China’s smaller cities, features blue blazers and plaid skirts, music classes and an ivy-clad brick doorway — all the trappings of the British school system designed to appeal to wealthy Chinese parents.

In choosing a smaller city, Oxford International College – no relation to the British university – is tapping into a growing market of upwardly-mobile Chinese willing to pay as much as 260,000 yuan ($41,700) a year for a Western-style education and a ticket to college overseas for their children.

BEIJING, Jan 7 (Reuters) – In September, the largest factory
in the northeastern Chinese coastal city of Yantai called on the
local government with a problem – a shortage of 19,000 workers
as the deadline on a big order approached.

Yantai officials came to the rescue, ordering vocational
high schools to send students to the plant run by Foxconn
Technology Group, a Taiwanese maker of smartphones, computers
and gaming equipment.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the non-manufacturing sector rose to a four-month high of 56.1 in December from 55.6 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday, adding to signs of a revival in the world’s second-largest economy.

The services sector index follows twin manufacturing PMI surveys that showed China’s growth reviving in December, although signs persist that such growth still depends primarily on state-led investment.

BEIJING, Jan 3 (Reuters) – China’s official purchasing
managers’ index (PMI) for the non-manufacturing sector rose to a
four-month high of 56.1 in December from 55.6 in November, the
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday, adding to
signs of a revival in the world’s second-largest economy.

The services sector index follows twin manufacturing PMI
surveys that showed China’s growth reviving in December,
although signs persist that such growth still depends primarily
on state-led investment.