Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Tuesday, March 22, 2011 10:10 pm TWN, AFP



	A woman walks past foreign name-brand advertising on a building that once was home to the state-owned Friendship Store in Beijing, China, on Monday, March 21. China's capital has banned outdoor advertising that promotes hedonistic or high-end lifestyles as the government seeks to ease public concerns about the country's widening wealth gap. (AFP) Enlarge Photo

Sponsors
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.

Beijing targets luxury ads amid growing wealth gap

BEIJING -- China's capital has banned outdoor advertising that promotes hedonistic or high-end lifestyles as the government seeks to ease public concerns about the country's widening wealth gap.

The Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce said in a recent statement that businesses were given an April 15 deadline to rectify such ads, along with any that excessively promote “foreign” things.

It gave no details on which “foreign” things were deemed objectionable.

Such promotions help create a politically “unhealthy” climate, it said.

Violators could face fines of up to 30,000 yuan (US$4,600), the state-run China Daily said Monday.

Newly forbidden words include “supreme,” “royal,” “luxury” or “high class,” which are widely used in Chinese promotions for houses, vehicles and wines, it said.

Authorities in the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing last week issued similar rules that barred real estate advertisements from using phrases including “best,” “unique” or “irreplaceable.”

Chinese officials are struggling to cool criticisms over a widening income gap at a time when high inflation has put economic pressure on the country's hundreds of millions of low-income farmers and industrial workers.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier this month that “resolving unfair income distribution” would be a major objective under a 2011-2015 state economic plan.

The brokerage firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets predicted in January that China would become the world's largest luxury goods market by 2020, accounting for 44 percent of worldwide sales and bigger than the entire global market is now.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here