Beijing curbs foreign financial news providers

China has moved to restrict the local operations of foreign financial information providers by ruling that such organizations “must not undertake news gathering activities,” the Financial Times reported. The surprising development emerged on Thursday as the government published new rules which give foreign financial information providers the right to set up businesses in China under the regulation of the State Council Information Office. Industry observers said Beijing was backtracking on a deal struck last November with the US, the EU and Canada that allows the likes of Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones to distribute financial information – news stories as well as raw data such as stock market indices – to corporate clients. The deal came after the three countries filed a complaint with the WTO concerning Beijing’s attempts to make Xinhua, the government news agency and a competitor to the foreign providers, the de facto industry regulator.