This Day, That Year

Item from Sept 30, 1988, in China Daily: Liaoning, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have seen a great increase in their areas open to foreign investment. Liaoning used to have only one such "open" city - Dalian - but now the province has 27 open counties and cities.

Many ensuing specific policies have also been formulated. These new policies give local governments the right to authorize the setting up of Sino-foreign equity and contracted joint ventures and wholly owned foreign enterprises.

Amid the sluggish global economy, the total value of China's foreign trade stood at nearly 15.7 trillion yuan ($2.5 trillion) for the first eight months, down by 7.7 percent from the same period last year, according to the General Administration of Customs.