WEEKLY WATCH

WEEKLY WATCH

OPINION

Moon Cake Packages

Moon cakes are the traditional food consumed on the M id-Autumn Festival. They are popular gifts and in recent years elaborately packaged high-end moon cakes have become available throughout the country. As a result of the grow ing number of “luxury”moon cakes, the price of this delicacy has risen by 65 percent since 2008.

This year, however, in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong Province, a lot of simply packaged moon cakes were available in local markets. Not only are these simply packaged moon cakes much cheaper than those lying in luxury packages, they are also more energy-saving and environment-friendly.

Returning moon cakes to what they originally were, a simple gift, w ill encourage more people to save energy and reduce waste.

It’s a pity that, nowadays, moon cakes are no longer culture-rich traditional food,but professional M id-Autumn Festival gifts.As gifts, naturally, they are packaged in an increasingly lavish style, selling at prices almost unaffordable to ordinary people. Tasty,simply packaged moon cakes are in danger of being squeezed out of the market.

To make more room for simply packaged moon cakes and to restore moon cakes original significance, the state needs to strictly regulate moon cake packaging, in order to prevent energy wastage. Moon cake producers should be educated to pay more attention to simple packages. Meanwhile, the whole society has to be educated as to the benefi ts of being frugal and consuming rationally.

Guangzhou Daily

Thriving Spirits Sec tor

The biannual report of listed companies in 2011 reveals that distillery companies continue to reap huge profi ts. While China’s overall econom ic grow th begins to slow down and lots of businesses see reduced profi ts, spirits companies have continued to perform well in terms of sales and profits,thanks to rocketing prices for alcohol.

Spirits production and sales have long been restricted in developed countries, however, in China, the spirits industry seems to be a “sunrise” sector, enjoying surging prices.

Why does the industry perform so well?One important reason is that high-end spirits,in particular, contribute high tax revenues.Another worry is the connection between the consumption of spirits and corruption. To some extent, some government departments’enormous consum ption of liquor, using public finances, has pushed up the price of spirits.

It’s time to impose some limits on profi ts and a ceiling on liquor prices. Meanwhile,it’s also important to strictly supervise the consumption of high-end liquor by officials.

China Youth Daily

Guidelines on Help

The Chinese M inistry of Health issued guidelines on September 6 for helping senior people who suffer falls. The guidelines caution people not to hurry to help those senior people up to their feet.

Five years ago, a man named Peng Yu in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province,helped an elderly woman up from the floor,but instead of being thanked, he was accused and blackmailed by the old lady’s family.Recently, a sim ilar case was reported in north China’s Tianjin Municipality. A man named Xu Yunhe paid a terrible price of more than 100,000 yuan ($15,384.6) for his attempts to help an old man up.

Panicked by this handful of examples,the public is now afraid to offer a hand on sim ilar occasions, which sadly has led to the death of several old people in some cities.These people died because they fell and no one dared to help them.

From a moral perspectives, almost no one would oppose offering help to the elderly who fall down on the country’s roads.Unfortunately terrible consequences sometimes follow acts of genuine kindness.

The public’s worry and hesitation result from the m isdeeds of some professional blackmailing groups, the lack of credibility in Chinese society and sometimes the judicial departments’ “absurd” verdicts.

Instead of the Health M inistry’s guidelines, what the public needs most is the judicial departments’ fi rm support to helping the elderly up, telling the public never hesitate to help the elderly. In no way should a judgment be made at the cost of the public’s w illingness to offer a helpful hand to others.

The Beijing Times

Fam ily Education

On the evening of September 6, a couple was beaten by two drivers. It was discovered that one of the two drivers was a 15-yearold adolescent, too young to have obtained a driving license. The boy’s father is China’s famous tenor Li Shuangjiang. How come a 15-year-old boy dares to use violence and intimidate those who want to call the police?This boy was selected as China’s Olympic ambassador at the age of 4, picked up calligraphy at 8 and entered the Chinese Youth Ice Hockey Team at 10.

The question now is why this excellent education background failed to teach him basic social principles. His prestigious father obviously had a strong impact on his life. No one can choose his or her parents and families.

We should not blame the boy too much.What makes him what he is today is the authority of power, wealth, prestige and things like this in today’s society. While these resources are used to affect social justice and fairness, basic education on personality seems so pale. Maybe this is something to be learnt from this tragedy.

Zhujiang Evening News

LUCRATIVE SPIRITS: liquo r p rices have kep t rising, w ith the developm ent o f m o re and m o re high-end p roduc ts

SOCIETY

Key Tasks

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, on September 14, specified five key areas that must be addressed by the government in order to augment the reform of the country’s political system.

They include fi rm ly establishing the rule of law, promoting social equality and justice, safeguarding judicial justice, ensuring people’s democratic rights and combating corruption.

“Of these five tasks, the most important are to expand democracy, promote social fairness and fight corruption,” W en said at the World Econom ic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2011, which was held in northeast China’s port city of Dalian, Liaoning Province.

“By doing so, disadvantaged groups w ill receive help and our people w ill feel secure and look to the country’s future with confidence,” he said.

Wen made the statement in response to a question raised by World Economic Forum Chairman Klaus Schwab.

Maternal Health

The maternal mortality rate in China has dropped significantly as the country has begun providing expecting mothers w ith subsidies that allow them to give birth in hospitals.

The maternal mortality rate stood at 30 out of 100,000 in 2010, said Fu Wei, a senior official w ith the M inistry of Health, at a press conference on September 9. The figure was 34.2 out of 100,000 in 2008.

Since 2009, each pregnant woman in the countryside has received 500 yuan ($77) to cover the cost of hospitalization.

From 2009 to July 2011, the Chinese Government allocated 7.9 billion yuan for the program and subsidized 22.62 million expectant mothers.

As a result of the program, 96.7 percent of rural expectant mothers gave birth to their children in hospitals, up 4.4 percent from 2008.

The increased rate of hospital delivery has also reduced the infant mortality rate.The infant mortality rate in China now stands at 13.1 out of 1,000 in 2010, having fallen by two thirds from its 1990 level. This meets the targets set by the UN in its M illennium Development Goals.

Agricu ltural Program

Pilot programs promoting the use of controlled-release fertilizer have been expanded to more than 20 provinces in China, compared w ith five in 2008, said the National Agro-Tech Extension and Service Center(NAESC). The NAESC is a department under the M inistry of Agriculture.

The move is aimed at reducing pollution caused by the excessive use of fertilizer to protect the environment and save energy, the NAESC said.

Controlled-release fertilizer is an energy efficient means of delivering fertilizer according to a preset program.

NAESC Director Xia Jingyuan predicted the use of controlled-release fertilizer could help increase agricultural production by 5 to 10 percent on average.

Great Wall Discovery

Surveys of several sections of the Great Wall have uncovered sections featuring two to three smaller walls built parallel to the main wall.

Duan Jingbo, chief of a surveying team in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, said that this type of construction allowed military leaders to garrison troops more effectively,increasing the defensive power of the wall.

It was previously believed the Great Wall was built as a single continuous extension.

The Great Wall was originally built in the Warring States Period (475-206 B.C.).Sections of the wall were rebuilt during later periods, including the M ing Dynasty(1368-1644).

China started surveying the Great Wall more intensively in 2006, in order to investigate the overall condition of the structure.

NATURAL WONDER Roaring w aves su rge a long the Qian tang Rive r in Haining,Zhe jiang Province, on Sep tem ber 13, du ring the tida l bo re tha t occu rs annua lly in the m idd le o f the eigh th lunar m on th

ECONOMY

Tire Expo rts Hit Hard

China’s tire manufacturing industry is suffering from the WTO’s recent unfavorable ruling.

The United States is now entitled to impose additional duties on imports of Chinese tires, the WTO said on September 12, upholding a 35-percent tariff ruling made in 2009.

Shandong Province, China’s major tire exporter, saw its tire exports plunge by about 25 percent in 2010, the first year after the United States slapped punitive tariffs on Chinese tires for cars and light trucks.

“We used to export $50 million worth of tires for cars and light trucks to the United States, now we only export about $5 million,one 10th of what it used to be,” said Wang Hai, President of Shandong-based Qingdao Doublestar Tire Co. Ltd.

Grow th Fo recast Dow n

The Asian Development Bank (ADB)on September 14 cut China’s grow th forecast to 9.3 percent for 2011 from its previously estimated 9.6 percent.

ADB also lowered its estimate for the country’s economic grow th to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent for 2012.

China’s economic grow th slowed during the fi rst half of the year due to the country’s tightening monetary policies and weakening outbound demand, said Paul Heytens, ADB Country Director for China.

A possible econom ic slow down in the second half is mainly due to the faltering global econom ic recovery, especially the weak demand from European countries as a result of the deepening debt crisis, said the ADB.

Investm ent Pro tec tion

Negotiations on a cross-Straits investment p rotection agreement have gone smoothly and consensus has been reached on most issues, said Fan Liqing, spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan A ffairs Office,on September 14.

Negotiators from both the mainland and Taiwan should accelerate the process so that the agreement can be signed during the seventh meeting of the heads of the mainland’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiw an’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), said Fan.

“Safeguarding the rights and interests of Taiwanese businesspeople is our duty, and we have treated the issue seriously and actively dealt w ith relevant problems,” Fan said.

Fan said the specific date for the seventh ARATS-SEF meeting will be set by the two organizations, which are authorized by the two sides to handle cross-Straits issues, and she hopes that it will be held soon.

EASTERN DAVOS Chinese Prem ier Wen Jiabao de livers a keyno te speech at the opening ce rem ony o f the 2011 Summ er Davos in Da lian on Sep tem ber 14. He exp ressed con fidence in China’s econom y and w e lcom ed fo reign com panies to share the oppo rtunities b rough t by the coun try’s g row th

MA ZHANCHENG

Helicop ter Takes Flight

China Aviation Industry Helicopter Corp. Ltd. will manufacture 10 civilian helicopters this year w ith the help of its new plant in north China’s Tianjin Municipality,said Wang Bin, the company’s general manager , on September 13.

The plant’s dual production lines w ill help the company to expand its annual production capacity to 300 helicopters by 2015,he said.

Three of the company’s models performed during the fi rst Tianjin International Helicopter Exposition held in Tianjin on September 15-17.

1. INDONESIA

Cen tra l bank o ffic ia ls and po lice o ffice rs destroy counterfeit Indonesian banknotes in Jakarta on Sep tem ber 13. The coun te rfeit banknotes, w ith a value o f nearly $2.9 m illion,w ere w ithd raw n from p rivate and sta te banks from 2003 to 2010

2. RUSSIA

Presiden t Dm itry Medvedev (le ft)shakes hands w ith visiting British Prim e M inister David Cam e ron in the Krem lin on Sep tem ber 12. It w as the first visit by a British p rim e m inister to Russia in six years

3. UN

The UN Genera l Assem b ly opens its 66th session at the UN Headquarters in New Yo rk on Sep tem ber 13. It listed build ing peace, p rom oting UN refo rm, im p roving disaster p revention and response and spu rring sustainab le deve lopm ent and g lobal p rosperity as its p rio rities

4. AFGHANISTAN

Po licem en keep guard at the site o f an attack in Kabu l on Sep tem ber 13. A series o f suic ide a ttacks by Ta liban m ilitan ts in the Afghan cap ital killed 12 peop le, inc luding five suic ide bom be rs, and in ju red 21 o thers

5. ARGENTINA

Rescuers w o rk a t the site o f a c rash o f tw o passenger trains and a bus in Buenos Aires on Sep tem ber 13. The m assive rush-hou r co llision at a suburban station le ft at least seven peop le dead and 100 in ju red

6. GERMANY

A BMW i8 concep t car is connec ted to a cha rging station at the boo th o f the Germ an luxury car m aker at an in ternationa l car show in Frank fu rt on Sep tem ber 13