China appears to have made a great deal of headway in cleaning up its spam problem.

China was previously considered the largest source of the world’s spam but it has been getting it under control, and now the country is probably only just in the top 20.

According to the International Telecommunications Union China has 420 million Internet users. In January 2009, China was ranked the number three spam-producing country in the world, according to data compiled by security vendor Sophos.

But by the end of 2009, spam from China started to drop off significantly. Sophos now ranks China as spam producer number 20, right behind Spain.

Spam fighters from the US are now working more closely with members of the Internet Society of China – the group behind China’s anti-spam effort – to work out standards and better ways of cooperating. These efforts will be released next month in a report, “Fighting Spam to Build Trust.”

ComputerWorld reports the US remains the top-spamming country and the source of about one-fifth of the world’s spam.

Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest automaker, passed rival Ford Motor in the auto industry earnings race last year on surging demand in China.

Volkswagen said net income surged sevenfold to US$9.42 billion while Ford posted profit of US$6.56 billion for the same period. General Motors reported US$4.7 billion in profits.

Volkswagen aims to pass Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, in sales and profitability by 2018 on growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China.

VW forecasts deliveries will grow 5% this year after reporting a record 7.2 million deliveries of cars and sport-utility vehicles in 2010. Sales in China, VW’s biggest market, jumped 37% last year to 1.92 million.

The Press-Enterprise reports that VW, the first overseas carmaker to enter China three decades ago, is planning to add two plants and double production to 3 million cars annually.

The manufacturer, which also owns the Audi, Skoda and Lamborghini brands, currently has nine Chinese factories.

The China Energy Research Society (CERS) said China’s thermal power plants may suffer more losses this year as rising coal prices on global markets drive up domestic coal prices.

In a report, the CERS said, “The economic recovery around the world, especially in emerging economies, will boost coal demand and push up coal prices, and cause China’s coal prices to hike.”

It forecasts domestic prices of coal for power generation will rise by around RMB30 (US$4.50) per ton in comparison with last year.

According to the China Electricity Council, China’s power plants suffered total losses of RMB32.9 billion (US$5 billion) in 2010.

English.News.cn reports that the five largest power producers – China Huaneng Group, China Datang Group, China Huadian Group, China Guodian Corp and China Power Investment Corp – lost RMB 12.4 billion (US$1.89 billion) through their power plants.

Nike has opened its largest distribution center in Asia, the China Logistics Center in Taicang, Jiangsu.

The new 200,000-square meter facility may well be the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System]-accredited warehouse complex in China.

Construction of the facility generated 1,800 jobs and is expected to provide up to 1,500 permanent jobs by 2015.

The China Logistics Center will handle all in-bound and out-bound Nike products including apparel, footwear, equipment and Nike Golf.

Nike hopes that by using modern techniques and machinery the center will reduce distribution time and optimize the overall logistics process.

Vadvert.co.uk reports that the China Logistics Center is designed as a green facility and even has a solar heating system. It is claimed that the design should help Nike to reduce 4,200 tons of CO2 emissions annually while saving up to 4.4 million kilowatts of power.

Taiwan’s Asustek is working with China Mobile to launch five smartphones that run on the mainland’s homegrown 3G network.

That is TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), which runs on China Mobile’s network and uses China Mobile’s Ophone operating system.

These phones are a triumph for China Mobile as TD-SCDMA was thought, perhaps, to be a laggard in the network stakes. China Mobile has pushed it forward until it is now a serious international player.

Two of the new smartphones – the T10 and T20 series – are powered by a new integrated chip, the PXA920, from Marvell, a US-based chip maker. These were designed specifically for TD-SCDMA and will bring down the cost, size, and power consumption of these new Asustek models.

Focus Taiwan cited media reports as saying that China Mobile will purchase a total of 12.2 million TD-SCDMA-based handsets this year. How many will come from Asustek is not known.