China is on track to pass the United States within two years as the nation with the most Internet users, according to the Chinese government.

　　China's online population grew by 23.4 percent last year to 137 million people, about 10 percent of its 1.3 billion population, the China Internet Network Information Center says on its Web site.

　　"We believe it will take two years at most for China to overtake the United States," the China Daily newspaper quoted Wang Enhai, an agency official, as saying.

　　About 210 million U.S. citizens are currently online, according to the U.S. government.

Tax system overhaul

　　China will change its tax policies to try to close a politically volatile wealth gap, the Xinhua news agency has reported. The plan involves cutting taxes on the poor and stepping up efforts to stop cheating by the new rich.

　　Xie Xuren, the commissioner of the State Administration of Taxation, said that tax revenues soared by 22 percent last year to 3.7 trillion yuan ($475 billion), driven by surging trade, car sales and securities trading.

　　The changes will "ensure fairness and social justice and to minimize the wealth gap," Xie said at a Beijing news conference.

　　Northwest Airlines has asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to reconsider its decision to award United Airlines a nonstop daily route between Washington, D.C., and Beijing.

　　The Detroit News reported that Northwest urged the agency to award it a nonstop route between Detroit and Shanghai. The airline said that such a route makes economic sense because of the large number of Michigan companies that have ties to the Shanghai region.

　　"The (department) erred in prioritizing the needs of government over private industry in terms of advancing the United States trade and business relationship with China," Northwest said.

　　Taxi drivers in Shanghai are to be issued "spit sacks" to try to break them of their habit of spitting out the windows, The China Daily reports.

　　The special sacks will be distributed to 45,000 taxis by the Shanghai Patriotic Sanitation Committee.

　　"The no-spitting regulation came after Shanghai decided to make people give up the ugly and unhygienic habit and present a healthy city for the 2010 World Expo," the China Daily said.

　　Chery Automobile plans to build three overseas assembly plants - in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America, macauhub.com has reported.

　　Chery, headquartered in Wuhu in China's Anhui province, already has seven assembly plants outside china - in Russia, Egypt, Iran, Malaysia, the Ukraine and Brazil.

　　In 2006, the group sold 305,000 cars. It exported 51,600. The company's export target for this year is 70,000 vehicles.

　　China faces the possibility of a 4.8 million ton grain shortage in 2010, almost 9 percent of the country's grain consumption, according to the Study Times, a newspaper affiliated with he Communist Party of China.

　　The supply of domestic grain will be insufficient for the next 15 years, making　the country　increasingly reliant on

　　China is expected to become the biggest exporter to Korea by the end of this year, replacing Japan, the perennial No. 1 provider of foreign goods to Korea, the Korea Times reports.

　　According to KOTRA, Korea's trade and investment agency, China sold Korea products and services worth $44.1 billion in the first 11 months of 2006. The amount was closely behind Japan's $47.2 billion. The United States is Korea's No. 3 importer with about $31 billion.

　　Five years ago, textiles, vegetables and coal were the biggest Chinese exports. Computers, semiconductors and electronics are now the biggest imports.

　　China remained the world's largest steel producer in 2006 with its output totaling 418 million tons, according to statistics from the International Iron & Steel Association.

　　Last year, by comparison, steel production in Japan and the United States hit 116.2 million tons and 98.5 million tons respectively.

　　Steel production in Asia accounted for 53.7 percent of the world's total, the People's Daily Online reported.

　　Analysts attributed the growth of the steel industry to strong world demand, particularly in Asia. But they warned that such demand isn't sustainable.

　　Macau appears to be the the world's biggest casino center. The Associated Press reports that the Chinese territory's gambling revenue hit $6.95 billion last year.

　　The American companies like Las Vegas Sands Corp., MGM Mirage Inc. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. have been furiously building casino and resort projects in the city.

　　"Las Vegas doesn't have the radius of the population that is as anxious to come to gamble," Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson told the news agency.