Car dealers in Beijing may lay off up to 70 percent of their sales staff in the wake of measures to limit new car sales and improve traffic, the China Economic Times reported. There are currently at least 4,000 sales staff working at the Beijing Yayun Automobile Trading Market. "80 percent of them will be laid off if the situation gets worse," said salesman Li Feng.
Boss's son fails to land plum job
The son of a government official in Hunan Province has been denied a job obtained by exploiting connections, Xinhua reported. The boy's father, the director of the Human Resources Bureau in the city of Lengshuijiang, had secured his son -- still a college senior -- a post with the city's Finance Bureau, and put him in the government payroll. But the father's application letter was leaked on the Internet and, amid criticism and pressure from all sides, he withdrew the application.
China cracks down on fake receipts
The revised Regulation on Invoice Management which comes into force on Feb. 1 next year will shift the war on counterfeit receipts up a gear, China News Service reported. The maximum fine for misuse of receipts will be raised tenfold to 500,000 yuan from 50,000 yuan.
School bus crash kills nine
A school bus crashed into a river at 7:30 am today in Hengnan County, Hunan Province, killing nine students and injuring ten, Xinhua reported. One person is still missing. The cause of the accident is being investigated.
China world's 2nd largest economy
China has replaced Japan as the world's 2nd largest economy according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China.org.cn reported. And the country's volume of corporate mergers and acquisitions is the second largest in the world.