China reaffirmed on Monday that it will ramp up public spending and try to simulate domestic demand to ensure stable growth as the global financial crisis weighs on the economy.

International banks such as Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland will see new competition in China as Taiwanese banks enter the market, leveraging their cultural ties and links to local firms. The Taiwanese could quickly reap profits in their giant neighbor this year, helping underpin their battered shares over the coming months, and at the expense of bigger Western rivals which have troubles of their own at home.

China's exports fell more than expected in January, down 17.5% from a year earlier, marking the biggest drop in more than 10 years, figures have shown. Analysts say the slowdown could prompt more factory closures and job losses, while some argue that this worsening trend will continue, as the world economy contracts.

A Qimonda spokesman, Ralph Heinrich, said in a telephone interview that the division is in talks with potential investors in Asia. Wirtschaftswoche magazine reported that CSMC Technologies, a unit of China Resources Microelectronics, is interested in buying Munich-based Qimonda and has been negotiating with the company for months, citing an unidentified person in the industry.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has launched an initiative to boost the development of solar energy technology, in a bid to turn it into a major energy source in China by 2050. The plan will be carried out in three phases, including "utilization in selective areas" by 2015, "utilization as an alternative energy" by 2025 and "large-scale utilization" by 2035, respectively.

Asia's export-driven economies had benefited more than any other region from America's consumer boom, so its manufacturers were bound to be hit hard by the sudden downward lurch. Asia's low rate of consumption and borrowing means that it has huge scope to make consumption the engine of growth over the next decade.

Asia's largest economies showed stark new evidence on Thursday of contagion from the global financial crisis as China reported its slowest growth in seven years and Japan's central bank admitted it faces two years of contraction and deflation.

China's economic growth slumped to 6.8% last quarter, dragging down the pace of expansion for all of 2008 to a seven-year low of 9% as the full force of the global financial crisis struck home.

A severe economic slowdown in China is one of the biggest risks faced by the world this year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has warned.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China's top contract chip maker, is discussing the possibility of selling a strategic stake in itself to Intel, sources familiar with the talks said on Tuesday. The possible alliance could help Intel expand its business in China, which it has described as its fastest-growing major market.

China faces surging protests and riots in 2009 as rising unemployment stokes discontent, a state-run magazine said in a blunt warning of the hazards to Communist Party control from a sharp economic downturn.

Former United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) chairman Robert Tsao and former vice chairman John Hsuan were found not guilty by the Taiwan High Court yesterday of illegal investments in a Chinese company.

Taiwanese semiconductor company ASE Group plans to invest about one billion yuan in a Chongqing factory for consumer electronic products and components in April 2009, reports China Business News. However, ASE has denied the paper.

Fears of a prolonged recession in China have triggered a sharp increase in divorce inquiries addressed to lawyers and financial advisers, state media reported on Monday, with timing a key issue.

Asia is being hit by a financial tsunami that is not of its doing but which will hurt it all the same. Unlike the Asian crisis of 1997, which was caused by poor macroeconomic policies and weak financial systems in the region, this time most Asian countries are being affected despite strong macroeconomic fundamentals and sound banks and corporations. Regional growth will decline in 2008 and 2009 by as much as 2 to 3 percentage points, hurting many businesses and millions of people whose lost jobs will send them back into poverty.

Samsung Electronics has been ordered to pay 50 million yuan (US$7.3 million) to a Chinese company for infringing its dual-mode cellphone patent, Xinhua news agency reported. Samsung was sued by Holley Communications in April last year for violating a patented technology allowing cellphones to operate on both CDMA and GSM networks, Xinhua said.

TCL, a major Chinese television and mobile phone manufacturer, announced that it has started mass production of the LCD module (LCM) at its Huizhou plant in Guangdong province, aiming at further controlling costs and increasing profitability.

China may follow its latest interest- rate cut with steps to spur consumer spending as deepening recessions in the U.S. and Europe pummel exports. The People's Bank of China yesterday lowered its one-year lending rate by 0.27 percentage point to 5.31% and the deposit rate by the same amount to 2.25%.