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China has set sights on cleaning up its vast rural regions. Page 3

Can Washington ensure the safety of China's foreign exchange holdings stakes now that the US is going more heavily into debt? Page 4

The global economic recession did not stop furniture makers in South China's Guangdong province from attending a recent furniture trade fair in Guangzhou. Page 5

China's banking regulator said it will step up efforts to control risk management in Chinese banks as domestic lending continued to grow in March. Page 4

Contemporary artist Yue Minjun is undaunted by the art market's financial woes. Page 6

Chinese automaker BYD said it had accepted Warren Buffett's invitation to display its electric cars at a shareholders' meeting in the United States next month. Page 9

A senior official said China's steel industry will respond forcefully if the US government launches a probe into whether Chinese mills are dumping steel pipe in the US market.

China's exports fell 17 percent in March, a less sharp contraction than the month before, amid signs the plunge in overseas demand may be easing. But a sharper weakening in imports pushed China's trade surplus to $18.56 billion, up from $4.84 billion the month before, the General Administration of Customs said Friday.

Yuan trade settlement gets the nod from the central government last week in Shanghai and four cities in the Pearl River Delta, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Zhuhai. It is considered part of the government's efforts to expand the use of China's currency globally, help reduce the risk from exchange rate fluctuations and give impetus to declining overseas trade, according to a statement posted on the government website.

Grain yields in China are expected to reach 550 million tons by 2020, an increase of 50 million tons from 2007, according to the State Council's plan, which was approved by Premier Wen Jiabao.

"Grain security has always been the top priority in maintaining development and stability. It is also an important foundation to boosting domestic demand to cope with the global financial crisis," the plan said.

Executive salaries of China's State-owned banks and insurers will be cut as part of the central government's efforts to promote income fairness amid an economic slump that has put pressure on profits and wiped out millions of jobs. The directive follows rising public grumbling about huge pay packages for top executives at State-owned financial companies. Total executive pay for 2008 at financial institutions -- which many are still computing -- must not surpass 90 percent of 2007 levels, the Ministry of Finance announced last week.

(China Daily 04/13/2009 page1)