China's SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission) has told state-owned telecom operators China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom to slash promotional spending by 20% for three years, reported the Beijing News on July 9. In 2013, the three telecom operators collectively spent around 205.1 billion RMB on marketing, including smartphone subsidies and advertising, and a 20% reduction will translate into 40 billion RMB (US$6.4billion; US$1 = 6.2076 RMB). As many as 50 percent of smartphones sold in China are subsidized by telecom operators and the reduction is expected to exert an impact especially on the high-end segment, said the report.