By Jean-Charles Briand

NINGBO, July 29 - The Ningbo National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, located northeast of the city center and to the west of the Beilun District and the Ningbo port, serves as a powerful instrument for Ningbo’s shift from a single export-oriented model to that of a more comprehensive economy.

NBHTZ, which covers an area of 18.9 square kilometers, was created in 1999 and upgraded to a state level zone in January 2007. In line with these policies, NBHTZ has succeeded in bringing together more than 2,000 high-tech companies through preferential policies such as tax rebates, low rent or subsidies for equipment and also through the construction of a 250,000 square meter entrepreneurship base. Currently there are almost 600 enterprises in the zone. (more…)

BEIJING, July 29 - The dull boom of shells being fired in the layers of smog hanging the city echoed through streets around midnight last night as Chinese meteorologists attempted to improve the air over Beijing.

A battery of artillery fired shells into the air for about 30 minutes, giving rise to occasional lightning. The practice, which has long been considered controversial, is a last ditch attempt by China to remove the dense smog that has engulfed the city the past week, cutting visibility down to just 50 yards in some places, making buildings appear ghostly and wraith-like in the haze. By 10 a.m. today, the situation seemed to have improved, with visibility extending about a kilometer and the smog having lifted considerably. (more…)

By Jean-Charles Briand

July 24 - Located in Ningbo’s Beilun District, the Ningbo Economic and Technical Development Zone, one of China’s earliest and largest national development zones, represents a well-developed economy. The zone, approved by the State Council in 1984, currently covers an area of 29.6 square kilometers. A bonded logistics zone, a free trade zone, an export processing zone and the Ningbo Daxie island development zone are also located nearby.

Throughout its 24 years of operation, industries historically important in Ningbo such as textiles and food processing, as well as automobiles, machinery and equipment manufacturing, have used the NETDZ as their preferred export base. In 2005 the GDP of the zone reached RMB23.40 billion while the total investment amounted to US$2.59 billion, and the contracted FDI was US$1.05 billion.

Newer industries such as the petrochemical and chemical industry, the steel industry, the papermaking and shipbuilding have also established themselves in the NETDZ. The zone is now equipped to deal with petrochemical, as several berths have been built to accommodate their incoming raw material. (more…)

SHANGHAI, July 21 - A top aide for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been the suspected victim of a “honeytrap” operation by Chinese intelligence agents a leading British newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Sunday Times is reporting that a senior Downing Street advisor had his BlackBerry phone stolen after being picked up by a Chinese woman at a Shanghai disco.

“A senior official said yesterday that the incident had all the hallmarks of a suspected honeytrap by Chinese intelligence,” the paper reported. (more…)

BEIJING, July 21 - Beijing opened three new subway lines on Saturday to facilitate better transportation during the upcoming Olympics. The opening of the new metro lines represents yet another effort to combat the notoriously polluted air of the capital before the Games start in August.

The city has already enacted numerous efforts as to ease traffic issues. For example, a new law also went into effect Sunday that restricts driving private cars to alternate days through an odd- and even-numbered license plate system. Special Olympic road lanes, too, have been designated for the use of vehicles serving the Games. Measures such as these are crucial when a city has 3.3 million vehicles, increasing by over a 1,000 daily. (more…)

July 16 - Our Publisher, Chris Devonshire-Ellis has just returned from a ten day tour to the remote, ethnic Tibetan parts of China. This is his report on the social state of the region: (more…)

By Jean-Charles Briand

HANGZHOU, July 15 – This is the first part in an ongoing series that will focus on development parks in the Yangtze River Delta. Over the next few weeks, we will highlight several parks, looking at their strengths and weaknesses and future outlook. Today, we look at the Singapore-Hangzhou Science and Technology Park. .

Located within the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Area, the real estate developer Ascendas, in collaboration with local authorities, is developing a new development zone: the Singapore-Hangzhou Science and Technology Park. With a total area of 43 hectares, the SHSTP should provide after completion 800,000 square meters of gross floor area. (more…)

July 11 - Industry experts are predicting that sales of residential houses in China’s southern city of Shenzhen may slip further to prices found 10 years ago.

During the first half of this year, housing prices decreased by 36 percent to an average of RMB11,014 per square meter compared to October’s RMB17,350 per square meter.

Of Shenzhen’s six districts, Bao’an reported the biggest drop in May, with the average housing price reaching RMB10,418 per square meter, down 7.3 percent from last month. In comparison, the average housing price in Longgang District decreased by fell only 2 percent during the same period to RMB8,910 per square meter.

(more…)

SHANGHAI, July 7 –Shanghai reported blackouts on Monday as summer temperatures continued to rise. The city’s power network is struggling to meet electricity demands brought by increased use of air-conditioning.

According to sources, the city’s electrical grid is fully loaded with all backup power generation systems are in use. On Saturday, city temperature reached 38.8 degrees Celsius, the hottest July 5 on record.

Provinces surrounding Shanghai were also not spared of blackouts that did not allow them to send spare capacity to the city.

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau says that there will be temperatures of 35 degrees on at least three days this week. Last June, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission warned that the country would experience serious power shortages in summer.

(more…)

BEIJING, July 6 - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is opening an office and place an attaché within the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

The office, which will open “by the end of the 2008 fiscal tax year” according to Barry Shott, the deputy commissioner for the large and midsize business division, will focus on the Asia-PAcific region serve countries including Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Japan in addition to China.

The office “will be the face of the IRS in the Far East,” says Shott. The creation of the post is an agency response to the growing importance of the Asia-Pacific markets.

The IRS has already established overseas offices in London, Frankfurt and Paris, and this latest move is seen as an acceptance of the growing importance of developing relationships between foreign governments’ state tax departments and the co-sharing of tax data on both American individuals and multinational earning money overseas. It has not been uncommon elsewhere for U.S. businesses abroad to face visits from IRS officials.

For more information on filing taxes in the United States while living overseas, please visit the IRS website.

U.S. expatriates in China requiring advice over the paying of individual income tax in China and the implications of maintaining part U.S. paid salaries, or for the consolidation of China based accounts to U.S. GAAP standards, please contact tax@dezshira.com.