Beijing Morning Post
February 24, 2009

The Beijing Morning Post reports that a 48-year-old woman went on trial yesterday on extortion charges relating to over 3,000 cars registered under her ID.

Before 2006, Beijing imposed strict restrictions on non-residents who wanted to register cars in the city. Sensing a financial opportunity, many Beijingers identified a loophole and went into business as "car backers" (背车人), charging fees to let non-residents circumvent the regulations by purchasing vehicles using their Beijing IDs.

The government eventually lifted the restrictions and subsequently issued rules ordering people who had lent out their IDs to transfer the registration to the cars' actual owners. The woman on trial yesterday had demanded a payment of 1,000 yuan before she would sign over the registration.

According to the newspaper, the woman's ID was used to buy more than 3,000 vehicles, and the owners of 1,000 of them had already paid her as asked.

The Beijing News
February 24, 2009

In other residency-related news, there has been a lot of speculation lately about policy reform in Shanghai.

Following the city's announcement that it would "borrow the successful experience of overseas cities" to grant residence permits to people who remained in the city for a certain period of time, specifics of the new measures were unveiled yesterday. In addition to a minimum of seven years' residence, a qualified applicant must satisfy a number of other requirements: posessing a clean criminal record, professional certification above a certain level, and payment of social insurance fees and income tax during the applicant's stay in the city.

Beijing, which is often compared to Shanghai in terms of its strict residence policy, will not consider changes to its current policy, The Beijing News reports.