More tuition fees for secondary vocational school courses are to be waived the State Council announced after an executive meeting led by Premier Wen Jiabao. From the autumn term, all rural students, urban majors in agriculture and related disciplines, and pupils from poor families will not have to pay. Previously, only agriculture students and those from poor families were covered by the waiver scheme. Raymond Li

More than 300 regulations, across sectors from banking to online retail, are being removed or amended to encourage business. The changes included scrapping the need for foreign banks to get permission from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to change a branch address. The reforms are intended to let the government "exit" all areas where parties can make their own decisions, the State Council said in its statement. Bloomberg