The News from China...

China may cancel stock market dividend tax

China was considering canceling the dividend tax paid by shareholders to liven the laggard stock market.

Unidentified sources said that the State Council met last Tuesday and decided to remove the dividend tax beginning June 1.

Officials from the central bank and the securities regulator attended the meeting.

The securities regulator would hasten its steps in carrying out favorable tax policies for investors, said Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Analysts think it signals a possibility that the dividend tax might be cancelled.

At present, shareholders are levied a 20 percent tax for any dividends received, a policy that has remained unchanged for years.

Analysts said that it would hugely benefit stockholders if the dividend tax were canceled. Investors would receive in total 10.08 billion yuan (US$1.22 billion) more dividend if the tax were canceled, according to 2003 data released by companies listed on domestic exchanges. The dividend distributed by 655 listed companies in 2003 reached 55.43 billion yuan.

Cool.

Don't miss the shrimp hiding in her navel

It's quite amazing it took this long. The State Administration of Industry and Commerce has finally banned Chinese restaurants from serving sushi on the naked bodies or young women.

The administration has officially issued a notice to a restaurant in southwestern China, which put the order into effect.

The restaurant was another in a string of eateries that has been found to be serving sushi on unclothed female university students, rather than on tables.

Slow or not, the officials have finally deemed that the practice of serving Japanese food on naked women is not up to China's standards of conduct because it "insults people's moral quality", the Beijing Times reported.

Serving such food on women's bodies also "spreads commercial activity with poor cultural attributes", the administra-tion's notice said, whatever that means. Not to mention that it's a bit demeaning to the women...

Avant garde restaurants have been seeing a renaissance in this business among male clientele in particular, with men reportedly attracted to such eateries both because of the tender and delicate seafood and the tender and delicate surfaces the food is served on.

As reported in April, 2004, the Hefeng Village Huaishi Cuisine Restaurant in Kunming, Yunnan Province, was serving sushi and other Japanese food on two prone naked university girls. Diners paid as much as 1,000 yuan (US$120) each for a meal. The deal was popular, with reservations required as much as three days in advance.

But serving seafood on women in the raw just didn't sound all that appealing to most Kunming residents. The restaurant soon cancelled the service.

Not to mention what happens if the wasabi gets in the wrong places.


And to think I thought that was only cinematic over-absurdity when it was in Rising Sun.