CHINA
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Car Purchases to Be Subsidized: The government, keen to build a world-class auto industry, said last week that it would subsidize private car buyers and “support” four major plants that make Volkswagens, Peugeots and Daihatsus. The new industrial policy, unveiled in Beijing by Minister of Machinery He Guangyuan, buries the socialist-era doctrine that until recent years restricted auto ownership to officials and state enterprises. He trumpeted Beijing’s dream of building a huge world-class auto industry driven by demand from domestic and foreign consumers and not by the Chinese state.
