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Restrictions on Internet cafes to be relaxed?

According to a story on the website Shuimu Wang, part of the Yantai Newspaper Group, the Minsitry of Culture has decided that Internet cafés will no longer be classified as 'entertainment businesses'.

This means that not only will Internet Cafés not be bound by the new regulations in Beijing forbidding karaokes and night clubs from opening between 2am and 6am, but their tax burden will also be reduced from the current 20% rate. The report aslo says that other types of restrictions on Internet Cafés will gradually be relaxed.

This good news comes on the same day that the Financial Times reports on the infuential anti-market economy rants of Marxist economist Liu Guoguang and debates on the role of the Party and state in the economy that don't sound good to free marketeers.

Somehow I don't think Mr Liu would be a big fan of unregulated Internet cafés.

China 2006: Two steps forward, one step back. Two steps back and one step forward.

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