WEEKLY WATCH

WEEKLY WATCH

OPINION

A Tax fo r Fairness

Recently, southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality issued a document on real estate market regulation. The document indicates property tax is to be levied on high-grade houses.

There has recently been a passion for the construction of high-grade homes among property developers. This market provides houses for fam ily use and also for speculative investment. Because of the huge profi t margins of high-grade houses, greater numbers of investors are preparing to enter this market.As a result prices w ill surge.

Over-development of high-grade housing is not suitable for China’s national conditions.This category of houses, especially luxurious villas, surely occupies much more land than ordinary houses. In a country of lim ited land resources, when land, in most cases the best,is disproportionately allocated to expensive luxury houses, it’s encroaching on ordinary people’s rights.

High-grade houses are usually located in suburbs. To develop in these areas undoubtedly damages the local environment. Besides,natural resources belonging to the public are transformed into rich people’s private property.

Many Chinese fam ilies are eager to possess a house, or an apartment, but even if it’s an ordinary shelter, they can’t afford it. But,meanwhile many high-grade homes are empty, and are not for living in but for investment.

The imbalance between the high-grade and m iddle and low-grade house markets is adding to the existing problems in the property market. That’s why regulatory policies have to be adopted to control the situation.Even if property taxes are unable to rein in rich families’ desires for high-grade houses,at least the public should be compensated through the taxes.

Dazhong Daily

Put It Into Prac tice

China will cut taxes on low and middleincome individuals and most Chinese companies in a large-scale tax reform during the 12th Five-Year Plan. Personal income tax reform is expected to come as early as the beginning of 2011. This round of tax reform w ill not raise the cutoff point, but cut the rate.

When the country’s national tax revenues keep reaching new highs year after year,reducing the tax burden so the public can benefit from development achievements is urgent. Taxation reform is not to temporarily appease people’s dissatisfaction, but to help econom ic grow th in the long run.

The principle of reducing tax burdens on low and m iddle-income individuals should always be followed. More importantly, authorities must get rid of the bad habit of turning to tax collection whenever economic strain occurs.

Tax cuts should never come at the cost of public products and public services. The shortage of public services and welfare is an urgent problem to be tackled during the 12th Five-Year Plan. While cutting taxes on the ordinary public, it’s also important to cut government expenditure and increase taxation on monopoly state-owned enterprises.

A t present, large-scale tax reduction scheme is just a plan, and it’s not certain if it w ill really take effect. Given the miscarriage of many other excellent plans, the most important thing is to put it into practice.

Procuratorial Daily

Hom eless Receive Help

Shanghai’s Civil Affairs Bureau is to set up temporary refuges for w inter and next spring, so the homeless can survive the cold safely. These shelters w ill provide food,shower services and accommodation. They w ill be open to receive new arrivals around the clock.

To help the homeless through w inter safely is the bottom line for a civilized city. The life of a homeless person is not something that can be done away w ith in several days. Almost every year, vagrants somewhere freeze to death, so to make special arrangements for them during winter as Shanghai does is a good way to avoid tragedy.

Apart from government resources, social resources have been mobilized to join in the aid in the city. In bus and railway stations, subway lanes, ports and bridge caves where the homeless tend to concentrate, patrolling w ill be more frequent and w idespread. For those who refuse to be helped, cold-proof necessities and information on aid access w ill be offered.Communities will offer aid consultation while police stations and urban management teams are also prepared to help. Community volunteers, especially the elderly, will go out to the streets on patrol and help.

If Shanghai, the most populous city in China, can reach this level, so can other cities, especially cities in north China, where the w inter is much colder than in Shanghai.The government should pay greater attention to the poor and the frail. Skyscrapers show a city’s econom ic level but care for the weak reflects a city’s civilization level.

Qilu Evening News

Un fair Traffic Contro l

Fee charges have become an important measure for Beijing to cope w ith traffic congestion, including rises in parking and congestion fees. Higher fees w ill add greatly to the current cost of driving and surely many people w ill be forced to give up car transport.

A good public policy largely depends on its fairness. Who will be worst affected by the rising fee charges? Undoubtedly, it’s middle and lowincome car owners, but not the wealthy class or officials that buy cars at government expense.Gradually, downtown roads and parking lots will become the private property of the rich and the privileged. Worse still, the higher the charges, the more serious this condition will become.

But are roads and parking lots designed to be private property? Excessively high fees w ill mean a lot of people w ill be left outside.In this case, even if the streets are no longer so crowded, public resources are nevertheless unfairly distributed. No matter how lim ited they are, by no means should public resources be reserved for the privileged.

Is raising the fees the last straw? How about a better-developed urban bicycle network,or setting up more pedestrian streets in busy downtown areas and allocating more motor lanes exclusively to public transport? To raise fee charges when there is need is okay, but a blind belief in this sort of measure is unw ise. In millions of private cars are Beijing’s ordinary taxpayers and they do not deserve to be charged so severely for road use.

The Beijing News

SQUEEZE: Ove rdeve lopm ent o f high-g rade housing w ill su re ly cu t back on space availab le fo r o rd ina ry houses and have an e ffec t on the environm ent. This is w hat has happened in Yunnan Province

SOCIETY

Tax Concern

Taxpayers have voiced hope taxes w ill be reduced on vehicles and boats as China’s top legislature discontinued soliciting opinions for the draft law on vehicle and boat taxation.

The Legislative A ffairs Comm ission of the Standing Comm ittee of the National People’s Congress said 97,295 comments,along with 40 letters, had been received as of November 30, after the draft law opened to public comments a month ago.

About 37 percent of the comments are in favor of the draft law, and some 55 percent hope the law w ill reduce taxes.

Some people voiced their concerns the draft law m ight result in price hikes and heavier burdens for auto and boat owners.

Others suggested tax reductions be broadened to vehicles w ith 2.0-liter engine capacities. The current draft law reduces taxes for vehicles of only 1.0 liter or lower engine capacities, which only covers a small number of vehicles.

Brain Gain

China has launched a fresh initiative to recruit around 2,000 outstanding young professionals from overseas in five years,according to a statement issued by China’s central authorities on December 14.

Under the government-funded “Thousand Young Talents” program, each of the selected overseas young professionals will be offered a subsidy of 500,000 yuan ($75,153) to cover their living expenses and another subsidy of 1 million yuan ($151,500) to 3 million yuan($454,500) for scientific research.

Applicants for the program should be professionals working in natural sciences or engineering fields and under age 40, according to the statement.

W ith doctoral degrees gained from prestigious overseas universities as well as more than three years of scientific research experience, targeted professionals should currently hold teaching or research positions in wellknown overseas universities, institutions or companies, the statement said.

Xiam en Run

The N inth X iam en In ternational M arathon, co-organized by the Xiamen Municipal Government and Chinese Athletic Association, w ill be held in the coastal city of Xiamen in southeastern Fujian Province on January 2, 2011.

As one of China’s leading marathon races, the annual event is registered w ith the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races in 2004 and is held on the first Saturday of January. This 2011 event consists of full marathon, wheelchair half marathon, 10-km skating marathon and exhibitions on marathons. The event is expected to have 80,000 registered participants from more than 30 countries and regions, which w ill create records for the number of participants and their nationalities.

Photojournalists’ Gala

The organizing comm ittee o f the Seventh China International Press Photo Contest announced in Beijing that the event w ill be held in Nantong, Jiangsu Province,from March 22 to 26, 2011. Photographers from around the world are invited to subm it their pictures.

Zhao Derun, Jury Chair for the contest and Executive Chairman of the China Photojournalists Society, said at a press conference on December 12 that entries w ill be judged in eight categories of daily new s, war disasters, non-w ar disasters,economy and technology news, nature and environmental protection news, culture and entertainment new s, sports new s and celebrities. Prizes, including one gold prize,one silver prize, one bronze prize and two awards of excellence, w ill be awarded for single photos and portfolios separately in each category. There is also a Photo of the Year award, which w ill bring the w inner a prize of 100,000 yuan ($15,000).

GROUNDBREAKING FACILITY China’s first deep underground labo rato ry is inaugurated at the Jinp in Hyd ropow er Station in Sichuan Province on Decem ber 12,o ffering an independent cuttingedge underg round scientific research and experim en ta l p latform in physics

ECONOMY

ODI’s Big Increase

China’s outbound direct investment(ODI) in non-financial sectors in 122 countries and regions reached $47.56 billion in the first 11 months of this year, said the M inistry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

The country’s non-financial ODI in the first 11 months was just under last year’s total of $47.8 billion, said Yao Jian, a MOFOCM spokesman.

The investment mainly flew to Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden, the United States,Canada, Russia and Brazil. The majority of the investment went into m ining, manufacturing, transportation and the service sector.

Yao also predicted the nation’s total nonfinancial ODI would amount to $220 billion during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10), which would make China the fifth largest investor around the world, up from the 18th five years ago.

Dissatisfied Consum ers

LINK TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD The last tunne l o f the M etok Road p ro jec t is open on Decem ber 15. The 117.278-km-long road, lead ing to the road less Metok Coun ty o f Nyingchi, Tibe t Au tonom ous Region, is expec ted to be com p le ted in 2011 at a to ta l investm en t o f up to 950 m illion yuan ($142.63 m illion)

The proportion of Chinese citizens satisfied w ith price levels has sunk to an 11-year low despite government efforts to rein in prices, the central bank said on December 15.

The residents’ price satisfaction index fell to 13.8 percent—the lowest since the fourth quarter of 1999, when the quarterly survey began—according to a statement published on the central bank’s website.

The central bank conducted the 20,000-respondent survey during the fourth quarter in 50 cities across China.

Some 73.9 percent of respondents said current prices are “too high,” up 15.6 percentage points from the third quarter, while 61.4 percent said they expect prices to continue to rise into the next quarter.

Treasury Bonds

The M inistry of Finance sold 30.78 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) of 10-year bookentry treasury bonds to the public from December 16-20.

The bonds—the 41st batch of their kind to be sold by the ministry this year—carry a fixed interest rate of 3.77 percent.

They became tradable on December 22 through the national interbank bond market and over the counter at designated commercial banks. Interest on the bonds will be paid every half year.its own projects.

Aside from the U.S. projects, Longyuan will also expand its business in South Africa,Hungary, Kazakhstan and Australia in 2011.Major developments w ill be made on two to three of those overseas projects in 2011.

Green Drive

Longyuan Power Group, the Hong Kong-listed new energy unit of China Guodian Corp., w ill invest 3 billion yuan($450 million) in overseas expansion next year, and three w ind projects in the United States are already under negotiation.

Xie Changjun, General M anager of Longyuan, said the scale of the projects w ill range from 300 to 1,000 megawatts.He said Longyuan w ill expand its business in the United States mainly by buying existing w ind power plants and investing in

Am bitious Mac

Fast-food giant M cDonald’s announced on December 15 that it is planning its biggest expansion in China by raising its capital spending in the Chinese market by 40 percent in 2011 and opening 200 new stores in the next three years.

The com pany has been operating in China for 20 years, but is lagging behind its rival KFC, which has about 3,200 stores in the country, while M cDonald’s current has about 1,200 stores.

Besides the expansion, the company also decided to upgrade designs for new stores and remodel 80 percent of existing ones.About half of the 200 new stores w ill be drive-through locations.

1. THAILAND

Anti-governm ent “red shirt” p rotesters partic ipate in a dem onstration in Bangkok on Decem ber 10. The g roup w as comm em o rating their con flic t w ith po lice eight m onths ago as w e ll as Thailand’s Constitu tion Day

2. BRITAIN

Mark Stephens, the law yer for W ikiLeaks founder Ju lian Assange,speaks to the m ed ia in London on Decem ber 14 a fte r his c lien t w as g ranted bail

3. UN

Iraqi Foreign M inister Hoshyar Zebari(righ t) em b races U.S. Vice Presiden t Joe Biden at the UN headquarters in New Yo rk on Decem ber 15. On that day, the UN Security Council passed a reso lu tion lifting m a jo r sanc tions on Iraq

4. ITALY

Supporters o f Italian Prim e M inister Silvio Berlusconi ce leb rate in Rom e on Decem ber 14 after he sc raped th rough a c ruc ia l low er house con fidence vote

5. SOUTH KOREA

South Korean rescuers take part in a chem ica l w arfare de fense d rill on Decem ber 15 in Paju, near the dem ilitarized zone be tw een the coun try and North Korea. It w as South Korea’s first nationa l c ivil de fense d rill since 1975

6. RUSSIA

Football fans c lash w ith riot po lice in cen tra l M oscow on Decem ber 11 after a fan w as sho t in a m ass figh t severa l days earlier