China rescinds 2,600 year-old agricultural tax

The agricultural tax levied on China's peasants since 594 BCE has now been officially abolished, promising to spare the country's 900 million peasants a total of 50 billion yuan a year (on average, each peasant pays 55 yuan in tax per year). You can read a Chinese report here. Though the new law takes effect on January 1, 2006, taxes on peasants had already been scaled back significantly in the majority of China's provinces previously. January 1 just marks the official end for the entire country.