SMALL SHRIMPS, BIG MONEY: A fisherman dries small shrimp on August 21 in Lianyungang, east China's Jiangsu Province. The city saw a bumper harvest this summer. The daily sales volume of the city's dried small shrimp amounts to 5,000 kg (GENG YUHE)

Broadband Cover

China will strive to complete broadband coverage of both urban and rural areas by 2020, the State Council, China's cabinet, announced on August 17.

The State Council elevated national broadband development as a national strategy and announced an implementation timetable for its development over the coming eight years.

The strategy aims to achieve WiFi coverage in key public urban areas by 2013 and fixed broadband coverage for half of Chinese households by 2015.

Families in some developed cities will enjoy a broadband speed of one gigabit per second in 2020, the announcement added.

The strategy will be carried out in three phases. Fiber optic networks and 3G mobile coverage will be expanded in 2013, while broadband coverage will expand between 2014 and 2015.

Greater Oil Imports

China will surpass the United States as the biggest crude oil importer by 2017 as its economy continues to grow and Chinese drivers push up demand for fuel, according to a report on August 20 by global energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

According to the report, China will spend $500 billion annually on crude imports by 2020.

"The price China pays will far outstrip the peak cost incurred by the United States of $335 billion annually with U.S. import spend falling to only $160 billion annually by 2020," the report said.

From 2005 to 2020, China's oil imports will rise from 2.5 million barrels per day to 9.2 million barrels a day. U.S. imports, on the other hand, will fall from a peak of 10.1 to 6.8 million barrels per day within the same period. That roughly represents a 360-percent increase in China's crude oil imports and a 32-percent decline for the United States during that period.

"By 2020, 70 percent of China's oil demand will come from imports. On the other hand, the U.S. import requirements will reduce due to tight oil production," said William Durbin, Wood Mackenzie's Beijing-based president of global markets.

"However, the essential issue here is not when China will surpass the United States to become the largest crude importer, but how the nation will secure its energy supply," said Liao Na, Vice President of Shanghai-based energy consultancy ICIS-C1 Energy.