[JURIST] A change to Chinese criminal law [1997 text] which would strengthen insider trading prohibitions was introduced before the country's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (SCNPC) [government backgrounder] on Monday. If adopted during the committee's week-long session, the amendment would prohibit employees from using not only classified, but also other non-public information to buy stocks. The committee will also consider amendments which increase penalties for those who illegally use or copy military license plates in order to gain additional vehicle privileges, and for those who organize or participate in pyramid schemes [Xinhua reports]. Xinhua has more.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also taken steps to increase controls over insider trading, and announced [press release; JURIST report] earlier this month that it had reached a tentative agreement [PDF text] with ten US stock exchanges to centralize insider trading controls among the institutions. Under that plan, the programs to prevent and detect insider trading will be centrally controlled by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and a section of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) [corporate websites], instead of having each exchange run its own program.