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China spells out

rules for foreign

news vendors

BEIJING: China said all foreign news vendors supplying it with economic information would have to pay a fee and warned that agencies slandering the country or endangering its national interest would be punished.

China's new rules on economic information were spelled out by Xinhua, the official news agency, late on Monday.

The United States said it opposed the rules as a matter of principle, and a British business leader said they left many questions unanswered.

Xinhua, setting forth the new rules, said no foreign news agency could publish economic information in China without its examination and approval.

Xinhua said all approved foreign news agencies supplying economic information in China must pay it a service fee.

An official of Xinhua's Foreign Information Administration Centre, which is responsible for regulating foreign agencies, did not know what percentage of revenues they would be charged.

Xinhua officials had suggested a figure of seven percent, although the level would ultimately be set by the Ministry of Finance, industry sources have said.

Approved agencies that released any information forbidden by Chinese law or which "slanders or jeopardises the national interests" would be dealt with according to law under the new rules, a Xinhua official told Reuters.

She did not explain how such reports would be defined or dealt with.

U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns, in South Korea with President Clinton, said of the ruling: "We oppose it on principle. We stand for the free flow of information and freedom of the press.

"As China tries to reform its economy, we assume they will find this a very difficult proposition to execute," Burns said, noting that "in the age of personal computers and faxes, it doesn't seem to us to be something that will work."

Peter Batey, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, said the rules left many questions unanswered.

Of particular concern was Xinhua's role as both player in and referee of the economic information business, Batey said.

The rules implement a January 16 decree by China's State Council, or cabinet, ordering foreign economic news vendors to submit to regulation and possible censorship by Xinhua.

The regulations aimed to "uphold the state sovereignty, protect the legitimate rights and interests of domestic users of economic information and promote a healthy development of China's information industry," Xinhua said.

All subscribers to foreign economic news vendors were required to seek the approval of the administration centre, but would pay no service fee, the Xinhua report said.

The new rules were valid from April 15 and an earlier April 16 deadline for the registration of foreign news vendors no longer applied, the Xinhua official said.

Foreign economic information vendors with a presence in China include Reuters Holdings Plc, Dow Jones-Telerate and Bloomberg.

Reuters East Asia managing director Phillip Melchior said: "The regulation does not resolve major concerns and leaves fundamental issues very unclear. We are studying it closely and will continue to discuss our concerns with Xinhua."

Xinhua would undertake real-time monitoring of "various categories" of economic information provided by foreign news agencies, which must supply and maintain equipment for receiving it free of charge, the agency said.

While Xinhua appeared motivated by a desire to profit from foreign agencies' sales, the possibility of future action against vendors of news judged to be against China's interests could not be ignored, a Chinese media analyst said.-Reuter