The Information Office of the State Council, or China’s Cabinet, issued a white paper on Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2012 Tuesday. Following is the full text: Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2012 Information Office of the State Council The People’s Republic of China May 2013, Beijing Contents Foreword I. Protection of Human Rights in Economic Construction II. Protection of Human Rights in Political Construction III.Protection of Human [...]

Summary: Both heavy and light industries have been hurting over the past several months, and few say there’s any relief in sight. Slumps in heavy industries like steel are reverberating throughout the economy. Results from a recent survey of small and medium-sized enterprises are also very discouraging. After two days in Qingdao, Hong Daoqing (洪道清) failed to persuade Qingdao Iron & Steel Company to order any coking coal from him. [...]

The increasing number of left-behind children in China’s rural areas has exceeded 60 million, according to a report published by the All-China Women’s Federation on Thursday. The number of children under 17 years old in rural areas whose parents leave them with grandparents or other family members in order to earn money in cities has soared to 61.02 million, accounting for 37.7 percent of rural children and 21.88 percent of [...]

Summary: Both heavy and light industries have been hurting over the past several months, and few say there’s any relief in sight. Slumps in heavy industries like steel are reverberating throughout the economy. Results from a recent survey of small and medium-sized enterprises are also very discouraging. After two days in Qingdao, Hong Daoqing (洪道清) failed to persuade Qingdao Iron & Steel Company to order any coking coal from him. [...]

Official audit results released Friday for 10 State-owned enterprises (SOEs) exposed unregulated financial management resulting in millions of yuan in losses and the subsequent suspension of 15 senior executives. The audited companies, which are administered by the central government, cover the telecommunications, mining and aviation industries. All were found to have malpractices or law violations in 2011, according to the National Auditing Office (NAO). Inaccurate accounting, illegal investment and incomplete [...]

Conditions in China are similar to what Britain faced during Thatcher’s reign, something the new leadership should note As the world mourned the passing of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and remembered her belief in small government, free enterprise and monetarism, we should look at what today’s China can learn from her legacy. At almost exactly the same time Thatcher was leading Britain out of an economic slump, China [...]

Concepts about masculinity can contribute to abusive behavior An international survey on domestic violence that interviewed more than 2,000 Chinese found that half of male respondents confessed they have physically or sexually abused their wives or girlfriends. James Lang, program coordinator of Partners for Prevention, a regional joint program by four United Nations agencies including the UN Population Fund, said “some preliminary findings are shocking”. The survey showed that one [...]

The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) will not issue data related to soil pollution for the time being but will discuss the situation after an in-depth investigation, the ministry confirmed on Thursday. The ministry said it will be difficult to investigate soil pollution nationwide, adding that it will conduct further investigations in heavily polluted areas. In January, Beijing lawyer Dong Zhengwei sent an application to the MEP asking the ministry [...]

Focus should be on improving people’s quality of life, sustaining resources and protecting the environment Urbanization has played an important role in driving China’s economic growth over the past decades since the launch of reform and opening-up. However, with economic development driven by industrialization, investment and measures to expand the size of the economy, urbanization has been reliant on the low-cost utilization of resources and a degraded environment. For example, [...]

Survey reveals dissatisfaction with officials’ performance in the sector More than 60 percent of respondents to a recent survey said they are unsatisfied with, or unclear of, transparent government information regarding environmental protection. The survey, conducted by the Public Opinion Research Center under Shanghai Jiao Tong University, aims to find out residents’ attitudes toward the country’s environmental protection and how they evaluate government performance in this sector. The survey, released [...]