In an effort to ease complaints by the U.S. and Europe about a heavy influx of low priced Chinese goods, China will raise export tariffs on 74 categories of textile products next month. This follows plans from the U.S. to impose quotas on Chinese textiles and clothing.

Products likely to see an increase from the Chinese move include synthetic fiber shirts, trousers, knit shirts and blouses, cotton shirts, and combined cotton yarn. Last week, similar restrictions were imposed by the U.S. on cotton trousers, knit shirts, and underware. Currently, a 2.5 cent charge per item is imposed; the new tariff will raise this to the equivalent of 12 cents per piece now. While this is a four-fold increase, it is not expected to affect consumer prices. Because of this, some doubt the tariff will have any effect on correcting the trade imbalance.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) in recent years has begun an effort to reform its judicial system and make trials more fair and accountable, according to its state-run People's Daily. Those efforts came to a head today with the official May 1 start of jury duty by more than 27,000 newly qualified jurors. According to People's Daily, "It is the first time in Chinese history that the people's juries are appointed in a uniformed way by the people's congresses at all levels."

Two jurors and a judge will be sitting on each three-person panel, and decide both criminal and civil cases. The juries will be available when requested by litigants and also in cases "with considerable social repercussions", which appears to mean major cases. Appeals cases will be heard only by judges.

The jurors are not chosen for each trial but will serve a five-year term in the jury pool working on different cases from time to time.

An international study group report released Thursday calls China's internet censorship "the most sophisticated effort of its kind in the world," and details measures used within China to limit citizen access to internet resources, including the BBC. The study found though that sites of most American news outlets were available, such as CNN, MSNBC, and ABC, as were major anonymizer and human rights sites.

The OpenNet Initiative project (ONI), made up of researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada, Harvard Law School in the US, and Cambridge University in the UK, has a mission "to investigate and challenge state filtration and surveillance practices".

The report, by the project's National Filtering team, and named Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005: A Country Study (.pdf), was published on Thursday.

Defying government warnings against further demonstrations, as many as twenty-thousand Chinese protesters turned out for a second weekend of anti-Japan demonstrations in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Tianjin.

In Shanghai, a crowd broke many windows at the Japanese consulate, according to Kyodo News. The crowd also busted up a Japanese restaurant and set its sign on fire. The protesters then attacked a convenience store, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Authorities in China today questioned the testing methodolgy used by Greenpeace, the environmental awareness organisation that says it has found genetically engineered (GE) rice being farmed and sold illegally in the world's biggest rice producer.

As many as one thousand rioters attempted to storm the Japanese embassy in Beijing late Saturday, shouting "Boycott Japan!" and "Japanese pig come out!", as they threw rocks and smashed windows at the embassy guardhouse. Hundreds of police attempted to protect the compound, as protesters proclaimed, "Chinese people shouldn't protect Japanese," according to Associated Press reports.

The law provides a legal basis for China to use force against Taiwan, should reunification efforts fail.