Beijing probes company claiming to sell land on moon : AZ IMC

Beijing probes company claiming to sell land on moon

http://www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-27 15:39:20

BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- The Beijing Municipal
Administration of Industry and Commerce has stepped into the probe of a
local company, registered early last month, claiming to sell land on
moon.

The administration is working together with its Chaoyang District
Branch, other concerned departments and legal experts to study and
collect evidence on whether the company's businesses are legitimate,
the Beijing News reported on Thursday.

The administration found that the company, the Beijing Lunar Village
Aeronautics Science and Technology Co., Ltd. with domestic financing,
was registered on Sept. 5 to do businesses covering space travel,
development of the moon and sales of land of moon.

With a registered capital of 10 million yuan (1.23 million US
dollars), the company has actually turned in only 100,000 yuan, a
source with the administration was quoted as saying by the Beijing
News.

Previously, the Chaoyang District Branch of the Beijing Municipal
Administration of Industry and Commerce claimed that sale of land on
the moon was not listed as the company's business when it was
registered, according to early reports by the paper.

The Xiaoguan sub-branch of the Chaoyang District branch has
launched an investigation into the legitimacy of the company's
practice. The Xiaoguan sub-branch found that the company, the so-called
Lunar Embassy in China, claimed to be the sole agent in China for
US-based Lunar Embassy, but it could not provide any materials which
are put on record in the United States and only an authorization
certificate by the US company.

Staff with the municipal administration said that it is a kind of
"special practice" to sell land on the moon and legal experts have
different views.

The so-called Lunar Embassy in China, through which one can
purchase an acre on the moon for 298 yuan (37 US dollars), started
operation on Oct. 19.

The Lunar Embassy will issue customers a "certificate" that
ensures property ownership including rights to use the land and
minerals up to three kilometers underground, Li Jie, chief executive
officer of the company was quoted as saying by the China Daily several
days ago.

"We define it as a kind of novelty gift with the potential of
unlimited increase in value," said Li, who was nominated as the agent
in China by Dennis Hope, a US entrepreneur who founded the first
extraterrestrial estate agency Lunar Embassy in 1980, 11 years after
the Apollo II mission first landed people on the moon.

Hope thinks a loophole in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty which
forbids governments from owning extraterrestrial property but fails to
mention corporations or individuals.

"I have 3.5 million customers including ex-US presidents Ronald
Reagan, Jimmy Carter and movie stars who have purchased land on the
moon," Hope was quoted by the China Daily as saying.

And there appears to be at least some moonstruck people in China.
According to Li, with the Lunar Embassy in China, several hundreds
telephone orders were received in the past few days.

At the same time, not all believe that the trading is legal and
some even regard it as fraud or a joke.

"It's ridiculous! The moon belongs to the whole mankind and how
can a company sell it," said a man surnamed Xu, who works at a media
group in Beijing.