Zhang Lijun, vice minister of China's Ministry of Environmental Protection, stated at a recent working conference that implementing environment taxes and carrying out ecological compensation on a trial basis will be one of the most important tasks for MEP in 2009.

According to the Tianjin Commission for Commerce, a number of Tianjin's large and medium-sized department stores have made six promises about providing a good shopping environment, quality products, and convenient service to consumers.

Shanghai is claiming to be the first municipality in China to set up an early warning system to help prevent bacterial food poisoning.

Unlike previous years when incandescent light bulbs was used, this year's Sun Island Snow Carving Festival in Harbin is using LED energy saving lighting.

After hearing that Sanlu Group plans to declare bankruptcy, more than 400 Sanlu distributors have come to the company's headquarters in Shijiazhuang, asking for the estimated CNY1 billion they've prepaid to consumers who returned contaminated Sanlu milk powder.

The Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Industry and Commerce has conducted an audit of the toothpaste products sold in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, and found that about a third of the toothpaste sold in the city was substandard.

China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine has reported that its Zhejiang branch has identified three pesticides in a batch of soybeans imported to China from the United States.

Shenzhen Municipal Department of Industry and Commerce has released the result of their tests of imported clothes during the third and fourth quarters of this year showing that 18 out of 30 batches of the imported clothes checked were substandard.

Guangdong Province has promulgated a new rule on the use of flood-lighting and street lamps.

Guo Wencai, director of the Grass Roots Organization Set-up Division of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, said at a press conference that multinational companies would not be allowed to delay or hinder employees in the setting up of trade unions, or have two standards on human rights issues.

Bank of Beijing has opened its fifth branch out of Beijing in Hangzhou to offer help to small and medium size enterprises during the global financial crisis.

China National Petroleum Corporation and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, two giants of China' petroleum industry, have announced the signing of a crude oil mutual supply agreement to withstand the decline of oil prices and help China in its energy needs.

Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau has designated six hospitals as the emergency centers for critical new born babies.

The effect of China's post-Olympic melamine scandal is still causing corporate ripples as China's leading dairy group Mengniu, a sponsor of the U.S.-based National Basketball Association, has published a report stating that according to the unaudited management accounts as of November 30, 2008 and other relevant documents, the group might see a CNY900 million loss [...]

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said when he visited Beihang University this past week that the government had given top priority to college graduates' employment and would draw up some effective measures to ensure that all students can have a job.