Unsurprisingly, most China-focused news outlets provide extensive coverage of the devastating earthquake that hit Sichuan province Monday, killing at least 10,000 people.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Shanghai stocks fell more than 3% in the minutes after the market opened in the wake of the earthquake, before climbing again after the “initial knee-jerk reaction”. Monday’s inflation figures and the central bank’s decision to further tighten monetary policy through a half-point hike in reserve requirements also weighed on market sentiment. Merrill Lynch analysts wrote in a note to clients that the earthquake was expected to have a "much smaller impact on China's macro-economy than the snowstorm in January-February, especially regarding consumer price index inflation, industrial production and exports," the newspaper reported.

The South China Morning Post reported that PetroChina had suspended oil flows at a key fuel pipeline to check for possible damage in the wake of the quake. A prolonged halt could force production cuts at the 200,000-barrel per day Lanzhou refinery, the largest in western China, sources told the newspaper.

The China Daily reports that domestic grain prices have remained stable amid hikes in international prices. Average grain retail prices on the Chinese domestic market grew only slightly from US$0.59 (RMB4.14) per kilogram from the beginning of January to RMB4.19 by the end of March, statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show. Wheat prices on the Chicago Board of Trade surged more than 140% in March, while rice prices jumped more than 80%

Staying with food, US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt warned exporters of food, drugs and other products to the US that they must be prepared to face closer scrutiny on quality and safety during a visit to Shanghai Monday. "We believe the system that we have for ensuring safety is a good one but completely inadequate for the future," Leavitt told the SCMP. "What you'll see from the United States is a substantial change in our strategy." He said Washington planned to station Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors on the mainland and in other countries.

The WSJ reports that footwear retailers in the US are likely to raise prices between 5% and 15% this year after a decade in which prices fell 4.3%, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices fell largely as a result of shoemakers shifting production to low-cost places like China, and they are now rising as costs in China, which makes around 85% of the shoes sold in the US, climb in the face of higher labor and raw material costs and an appreciating yuan. Prices for handbags, belts and other leather accessories are likely to follow. The China Perspective provides more on the changing environment for Chinese footwear makers in a recent featured article focused on Jinjiang province.

The Financial Times updates an ongoing Q&A with Jing Ulrich, chairman and managing director of China equities at JPMorgan, about the next chapter in China’s development.

The current chapter should become clearer when the results of China’s second national economic census are in. Vice Premier Li Keqiang talked to the China Daily Monday about preparations for the census, which will help form the basis of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). Li said the census was essential to promote the strategic and structural adjustment of the economy. A key goal is to obtain integrated data on the service industry and gain a thorough understanding of the intensity of energy and water consumption by the secondary and tertiary sectors. Xie Fuzhan, head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said around eight million industrial enterprises and more than 30 million private businesses would be involved in the census. The results of the census will not be available until 2010.

Today’s Papers covers key China business stories carried by major international and Chinese dailies, sourced from their web editions. It concentrates on original stories rather than wire news. Other news and breaking stories are carried on The China Perspective's homepage or in the Daily Briefs section.