From today's Taipei Times

http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/07/12/story/0000093760

Olympic cleanup hits Beijing's dogs

(snippet:)

"Dog ownership was considered a bourgeois affectation by Mao Zedong's communist revolutionaries and discouraged after they seized power in 1949.

Ownership was tolerated after Mao died in 1976, but Beijing imposed tight restrictions in the 1990s under then-mayor Chen Xitong. He reportedly hated dogs after being bitten as a boy.

Large dogs are banned, although officials don't define how big is too big. Registering a small dog costs 5,000 yuan (US$600), about half the average annual wage in Beijing, and another 2,000 yuan each year. Fines are added if the animal was first seized as an illegal."

(There's more -- )

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001