650m netizens

    THE number of Internet users in China has risen to nearly 650 million, authorities said over the weekend, as the world’s largest online population continues to rise.

    There were 648 million Internet users in China at the end of 2014, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), Xinhua reported. The figure represents an increase of 30 million over 2013.

    Urban unemployment

    CHINA’S labor market was stable last year even as its economic growth plumbed a 24-year low, with the urban unemployment rate little changed at 4.1 percent at the end of December, the government said Friday.

    The urban unemployment rate hovered between 4 and 4.5 percent in the last decade, even during the global financial crisis, partly because it does not account for China’s 298 million migrant labor, which includes blue- and white-collar workers. It was 4.07 percent at the end of September.

    Air agreement

    AUSTRALIA and China are allowing more flights with each other, and paving the way for new routes, in an air services pact that follows a historic free trade agreement they struck last year.

    China is Australia’s top trading partner and its most valuable tourism market, with almost 800,000 tourists spending some A$5 billion (US$4 billion) in the last financial year. The new pact, which Australia announced Friday, lets both countries’ carriers immediately add 4,000 seats a week to current caps between Australia’s major gateway cities and the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.