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China plans to scrap its state monopoly on the sale of salt, marking the end of a system with nearly 2,700 years of history. The move is intended to bolster competition, the Beijing Youth Daily reported, citing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. 中国计划取消盐业专营，这标志着一个已有近2700年历史的制度的终结。《北京青年报》援引工业和信息技术部的话称，此举是为了促进竞争。 China’s economic planners have tried for years to eliminate the monopoly, but faced opposition from the China National Salt Industry Corporation, the state-owned agency that controls salt distribution, and from consumers concerned about prices and food safety. 中国的经济规划者数年来一直试图取消盐业专营制度，但遭到控制盐类分销的国有企业中国盐业公司及担心物价及食品安全的消费者的反对。 A monopoly on salt production was introduced as early as 685 B.C. in the state of Qi on the Shandong Peninsula, though it may have existed even earlier than that, the scholar Rowan K. Flad writes in “Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient China.” 学者傅罗文(Rowan K. Flad)在《古代中国的盐业生产和社会等级》(Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient China)一书中写道，早在公元前685年，山东半岛的齐国就开始对盐业生产进行垄断，但这种制度或许出现得更早。 | 
