The Lion Awakes
News at a Glance
今天的中国新闻
A compilation of Headlines + Brief Summary from Chinese & International Publications relating to China.
Just 5 Minutes each day to be up-to-date on the News of China
Combined with Kaixin’s boutique SITE SEARCH ENGINE, it is a unique source of knowledge about China"
China News Archive
From 2008
China Daily
Wen: Only democracy sustains governance
Top "livelihood concerns" of Chinese people such as employment, medicare, housing and widening wealth gap were key topics in Premier Wen Jiabao's online chat with netizens on Saturday.
Kaixin – See Premier Wen Jiabao's comments on each of these issues
David Shambaugh: Is there a Chinese model?
During 2009 there was an upsurge in Chinese academic and journalistic writings concerning the question of a "Chinese model". Since last year Chinese intellectuals have been heatedly debating whether there is such a distinct Chinese model for development - and, if so, what are its contents and is it transferable for other countries?
US officials' visit may 'save' ties
BEIJING: Washington is sending two senior officials to Beijing starting on Tuesday in what analysts describe as an effort to "save" the bilateral relationship, which has taken a beating following a series of "disturbing actions" by the US in recent weeks.
The US officials are expected to also engage Beijing on issues of mutual concern, such as Iran's nuclear program, analysts said.
Beijing "accepted" a US offer for dialogue, the statement said, without specifying which Chinese officials would be meeting with the US envoys.
Government to increase spending on education
Changes neededto reform educational bureaucracy, says Premier Wen
BEIJING: The Chinese government has vowed again to increase its spending on education to four percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012, a target previously set in 1993.
The pledge was included in the National Outline for Medium and Long Term Educational Reform and Development (2010-20), which was released on Sunday by the State Council.
China doing all it can in global affairs
BEIJING: China will use its full repertoire of diplomatic skills to deal with international affairs, but there may be issues beyond its influence, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has said amid growing global expectations of China exerting a greater role in world affairs.
As the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) - China's top legislature - convenes this week, foreign policy remains in the spotlight over a series of thorny affairs.
China's stand on the Iran nuclear program, its efforts to help rekindle the stalled Six-Party Talks on resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, and how it handles challenges such as climate change are on the list of contentious issues.
Property tax plan submitted for discussion in 'two sessions'
The issue of levying property taxes will be a major topic during annual meetings next week for China's top legislature (NPC) and top advisory body (CPPCC), or the 'two sessions', the China Times learned Thursday.
A plan to impose property taxes drafted by the State Administration of Taxation has been submitted. According to the taxation authorities, the property tax will be levied on the part of a property exceeding a certain area, the report said.
Property tax is a tax annually imposed upon owners of property, such as land, real estate and buildings, based on the value of such property.
US Deputy Secretary of State to visit China
BEIJING: US Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg will visit China early next month, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday.
Qin said the US side proposed the visit and China has accepted it.
The high-level visit comes amid recent tensions between the two countries following Washington's $6.4-billion arms sale plan to Taiwan and President Barack Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama.
Zhejiang facing worst labor shortage in 7 yrs
East China's Zhejiang province is facing the most severe labor shortage since 2003, with an average of 383 jobs for every 100 registered job seekers after the Spring Festival, the local Hangzhou Daily newspaper said Saturday citing the province's human resource department.
The province's labor needs are expected to increase by 20 to 30 percent over last year as its economy is rebounding strongly. Supply of workers is down because the labor-rich provinces in China's central and western regions retained people who used to go work in the southeastern coastal regions as their economy develops fast, the newspaper reported.
Vice premier calls for more efforts to develop west China
YINCHUAN: Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang called for more efforts to promote the development of China's west region on Saturday.
Li made the remarks during an inspection tour in the west Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
"Expanding domestic consumption is key to economic restructuring which is crucial to accelerating the transformation of economic development mode, a strategic task for China at present and in the long run," Li said.
New Feb lending 'to reach' 700b yuan
Slowdown due to govt calls to cool booming economic growth
Chinese banks may have issued some 700 billion yuan ($102.54 billion) in new loans in February, a major slowdown from January, due to repeated government calls to rein in lending to cool down the booming economy, analysts said.
New loans reached almost 600 billion yuan before Feb 13 - the start of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, so the amount may eventually exceed 700 billion yuan by the end of the month, Shanghai Securities Journal reported on Friday citing industry sources.
"There is no doubt that the February figure will be significantly lower than the previous month, as the authorities have been pushing commercial lenders to contain lending to head off inflation and possible default risks," said Chen Xi, a Shenzhen-based banking analyst with First Capital Securities.
Let us in on the secrets
Under the current law's definition of a "state secret", official establishments and their staff can easily stick that label to everything they want to hide from the public.
Besides prudence, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) should demonstrate a sense of urgency in reviewing and approving the proposed revisions to the state secret law that is nearly 22 years old.
The 1988 legislation needs an immediate reshuffle. It is a poorly conceived work of jurisprudence because it allows state organs and their functionaries virtually unlimited authority in defining and maintaining so-called "state secrets".
Rise of wages for migrant workers a must
As a man who has many relatives in rural areas, I was delighted at the news about the recent shortage of laborers in China's most developed coastal regions - the Yangtze delta and Pearl River delta.
According to the rule of market and the law of value, anything in short supply in a market will gain in value. The labor shortage in the coastal regions will undoubtedly help raise wages of rural migrant workers. This scenario is exactly what is happening there.
The municipal government of Shenzhen, for instance, is planning to raise the minimum wage. Entrepreneurs also showed a willingness to raise pay for their employees who hail from less developed regions in central and western China. Some trade associations in Zhongshan, a city in Guangdong province, are mulling over the possibility of boosting remuneration by 30 percent. Enterprises in the eastern Yangtze delta were considering similar moves much earlier than Zhongshan.
Doubts over increase in property price
When company executive Zhang Lan read the property news on Friday in Jiangsu province, he could not believe what was reported.
Property prices in 70 major cities nationwide climbed 1.5 percent year-on-year, with the price of new apartments rising by 1.3 percent and those of resale ones increasing 2.4 percent, latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.
"Only a 1.5 percent increase? Shouldn't it be 15 percent?" Zhang asked in disbelief.
"An increase of 20 percent from last year for property prices in a common, small town in my province is quite ordinary, let alone major cities like Beijing and Shanghai where the price could have soared by at least 50 percent," he said.
The Wall Street Journal
China's Wen Vows Inflation Focus in Chat
BEIJING—In a broad-ranging chat with netizens in China Saturday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reaffirmed Beijing's monetary policy stance and told the U.S. he didn't want this year to become a turbulent one in key bilateral ties.
Senators Urge U.S. Action on Chinese Currency Manipulation
WASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of senators urged the Obama administration to act urgently to investigate allegations the Chinese government is keeping its currency artificially low, saying a failure to do so is manifestly harming U.S. manufactures.
The New York Times
Red Highways
If China’s first urban planners had persevered, Peter Hessler’s road trip from east of Beijing to the Gobi Desert would have taken place on top of the Great Wall instead of alongside it. Never mind that the Great Wall is actually many walls and that it extends for more than 5,000 miles. Thinking big was both the curse and the blessing of 20th-century China, and that hasn’t changed in the 21st. The Great Wall road may never have materialized, but plenty of others are being carved through the countryside to accommodate what Hessler calls “the largest migration in human history,” with nearly one-tenth of the nation’s billion-plus people moving from rural areas to cities and factory zones. Despite its late entry into the car culture, China aims within the next decade to have more highway miles than the United States. And almost everybody on the road will be a rookie driver.
Defying Global Slump, China Has Labor Shortage
GUANGZHOU, China — Just a year after laying off millions of factory workers, China is facing an increasingly acute labor shortage.
As American workers struggle with near double-digit unemployment, unskilled factory workers here in China’s industrial heartland are being offered signing bonuses.
Factory wages have risen as much as 20 percent in recent months.
The Sydney Morning Herald
John Garnaut
The Australian ambassador could not have had any idea about the fuss he caused by simply asking through proper official channels to see a respected Chinese scholar.
But Yu Jianrong is not just any scholar. He may know more about China's street-side social and political realities than anyone on the planet.
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