Economic Observer News- China business, politics, law, and social issues

PRICES: CPC Politburo: Prices to Remain Stable Over Next 5 Years; At a meeting of the Political Bureau of The CPC Central Committee held yesterday, party leaders pledged to use every means available to prevent major economic disturbances and to maintain general price stability over the course of the 12th Five-Year Plan period which runs from 2011-2015. Reports of the meeting also said that the politburo was committed to continuing to expand domestic demand.; The Beijing News | 2011-02-22

SHARE: Shanghai Index Up 9.52% Over Past 14 Days of Trading; The A-share market has increased by 9.52% in the 14 trading days since January 26, statistics from Wind data show. Meanwhile, of the 103 new stocks that have listed on either the Shanghai or Shenzhen exchanges since the market touched bottom on November 12 last year, the price of 57 of them has fallen to below that offered during their IPO.; Securities Daily | 2011-02-22

E-COMMERCE: Alibaba CEO Quits; David Wei Zhe, the CEO of Alibaba, resigned yesterday, after accepting responsibility for the alleged fraud perpetrated by 1,107 users of the e-commerce portal in 2010. Li Xuhui, the COO of the online B2B company, also resigned. Lu Zhaoxi, former CEO of Taobao, has been appointed as Wei Zhe's replacement.; Oriental Morning Post | 2011-02-22

SALARY: New Generation of Migrant Workers Earn an Average of 1,747 Yuan a Month; Yesterday, the All China Federation of Trade Unions published a report into the "new generation" of migrant workers. The results of a survey into salaries of these young migrant workers (defined as those born after 1980, but also over 16), revealed their average monthly salary was only 1,747 yuan, 57.4% of the average monthly income of urban workers which is 3,046 yuan. Younger migrant workers als...; Beijing Times | 2011-02-21

COURT: Court Leaders Told to Stop Interfering in Ongoing Cases; The Supreme People's Court has released a notice prohibiting court officials from randomly asking for a lot of information about particular cases that are the process of being dealt with. This new policy is aimed at curbing corruption.; Beijing Times | 2011-02-21

PROPERTY: Ten Cities Issue Further Policies to Rein in Property Market; Following the latest announcement from the central government requiring municipal-level government's to further tighten regulation of the housing market, ten cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Guiyang, Nanning, Changchun, Chengdu, Ji'nan and Harbin, have released their local policies. Although the specific nature of each city's policies differ, are involve purchase restrictions that put...; People's Daily | 2011-02-21

FINANCE: State-owned Enterprises Register Almost Two Trillion Yuan of Profits in 2010; China's state-owned enterprises have gained profits of 1.98 trillion yuan in 2010, up 37.9% on the level of 2009, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Finance. However, only 44 billion yuan, roughly 5% of the profits, were passed on as dividends to the Ministry of Finance.; People's Daily | 2011-02-21