BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — China said Thursday to conduct an reexamination of the anti-dumping measures against mostly-used optical fiber imported from Japan and the Republic of Korea.

    According to a statement from the website of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), the MOC will start Friday to examine the possibility of recurrence or continuity of dumping actions and damages if anti-dumping measures come to an end.

    The MOC did not say when, or under what circumstances, these reexamination would be ended.

    The target product, the dispersion unshifted single-mode optical fiber, or G652 single-mode optical fiber, accounts for about 70 percent of the total used optical fiber in the world, according to the ministry.

    The ministry announced on June 16, 2004, that it decided to levy anti-dumping taxes ranging from 13 percent to 46 percent over imported dispersion unshifted single-mode optical fiber from the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea, starting from Jan.1, 2005 with a term of five years.

    BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — China on Thursday mourned the passing away of Indonesian former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who died of disease Wednesday evening at the age of 69.

    Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement that the Chinese government and people mourned the death of Wahid, and Chinese President Hu Jintao had sent a message of condolences to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyoho.

    ”Mr. Wahid made important contributions to the development of the Sino-Indonesian relations,” said Jiang in the statement.

    Wahid served as the Indonesian president from October 1999 to July 2001. In January 2001, Wahid made the announcement that Chinese New Year was to become an optional holiday, and he followed this up in February by lifting the ban on the display of Chinese characters and the importations of Chinese publication.

    BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Zhang Chunjiang, party chief and vice chairman of China Mobile, has been removed from his post for involvement in “serious economic issues,” the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committeesaid here Thursday.

    Zhang, 51, was confirmed to be under investigation for “serious discipline breach” on Dec. 26 by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party’s internal anti-graft body.

    Zhang became secretary of the leading Party group and vice chairman of China Mobile in May 2008.

    China Mobile is the country’s biggest wireless service provider and the world’s largest mobile carrier by subscriber number.

    BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese equities closed slightly higher on Thursday, and ended the 2009 trading at the Shanghai market with an annual gain of 80 percent.

    The smaller Shenzhen market rose 111 percent in 2009.

    The figures indicate that China’s stock market is among the remarkable performance in the world’s major emerging economies, insiders said.

    Government’s timely stimulus package and record bank lending helped drive up the gains which was in contrast with an annual slump of 65 percent in 2008, analysts said.

    The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went up 0.45 percent, or 14.54 points, to close at 3,277.14 points Thursday.

    The Shenzhen Component Index gained 0.41 percent, or 55.5 points, to close at 13,699.97 points.

    Combined turnover shrank to 220.86 billion yuan (32.48 billion U.S. dollars), from 254.09 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

    Paper making companies and telecom stocks led the rise. The index for the paper making industry rose 1.79 percent and that for the telecom equipment sector was up 1.28 percent.

    Financial stocks continued to advance on rumours of the launch of stock-index futures. Citic Securities, the nation’s largest securities broker, added 0.89 percent to 31.77 yuan. Hongyuan Securities ended at 23.80 yuan, up 0.93 percent.

    Statistics showed that more than 1,100 stocks, or 64 percent of the A-share market, doubled in market value in 2009.

    An online survey showed on the Chinese website portal Sina.com said more than half of the polled expected the Shanghai index to peak at least 4,000 points in 2010.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis

    HONG KONG, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong stocks jumped 375.88 points, or 1.75 percent to close at 21,872.52 in the shortened session on Thursday, the last trading day of 2009.

    The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened 0.73 percent higher and moved up all the way till finishing the session near the day high of 21,886.32.

    Turnover totaled 30.05 billion HK dollars (about 3.88 billion U. S. dollars), a much applauded achievement for the half-day session given subdued activities on the market around Christmas.

    Heavy-weight China Mobile and the Hong Kong-listed mainland financial stocks contributed the most to Thursday’s market gain.

    The leading telecom service provider, which topped the daily turnover chart, climbed 3.55 percent after it said it was “well on track” for its listing in the mainland bourse.

    China Construction Bank helped add 49 points to the gauge by rising 2.93 percent, followed by Bank of China, which contributed 38 points by rising 3.19 percent.

    The nation’s biggest commercial lender ICBC, though a little lagged behind in terms of points contributed, still managed to grow 1.42 percent.

    In addition, the two leading insurer Ping An and China Life advanced 3.5 percent and 1.72 percent respectively.

    The properties sub-index moved up 1.64 percent on the day, with Cheung Kong gaining 1.36 percent and SHK rising 1.31 percent.

    The Commerce and Industry category excelled by surging 2.13 percent on the day, amid increasing signs of a reviving economy and the willingness to spend.

    Utility shares were soft on the day, up only 0.18 percent. The sector was also the worst-performer of the year.

    Compared to the beginning of the year, the Hang Seng Index was up 52.02 percent, the highest annual gain in percentage terms since 1999, according to Dow Jones.

    The Hang Seng Index started the year at 14,387 and fell as low as 11,344 on March 9, three days ahead of HSBC’s rights issue.

    Hong Kong’s stock market will close Friday for New Year’s Day and will reopen Monday.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis

    MACAO, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — The rate of usage of Information Technology (IT) in Macao’s business sector stood at 47 percent last year, an increase of four percentage points over 2007, according to the figures released on Thursday by Macao’s Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

    Analyzed by industry, the rate of IT usage of wholesale and retail trade (43 percent) surged significantly by seven percentage points year-on-year in last year, and that of the gaming sector and travel agencies reached 100 percent and 97 percent, the figures indicated.

    In 2008, among the establishments or enterprises using IT, 80 percent have connected to the Internet and the major purposes of accessing the Internet included information search (39 percent) and purchasing (17 percent), the DSEC said.

    Meanwhile, 76 percent of local households possessed IT equipment or devices such as computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), etc., with 55 percent of the male aged three or over were computer-users and 51 percent had access to the Internet.

    Regarding the age group, 90 percent of those aged 15 to 24 were computer-users and 89 percent had access to the Internet. Analyzed by educational attainment, the rate of computer usage and Internet usage for those with tertiary education was 88 percent and 86 percent respectively.

    With respect to the location of accessing the Internet, the majority were at home (91 percent) or at work (26 percent); the major purposes of accessing the Internet included information search (87 percent), communication (84 percent) and government services (46 percent), according to the DSEC.