A southwest China city will publicize the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a planned refinery that residents protested last month, the city’s mayor said Sunday. Li Wenrong, mayor of Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, said at a press conference that details of the EIA will be released to the public, subject to procedures. The city government will listen to comments and suggestions from the public and communicate with residents, especially [...]

The use of ultra-thin plastic bags is still widespread five years after the introduction of a national ban aimed to reduce pollution and save energy, a new report revealed on Thursday. In April, the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency, said the use of plastic bags had plunged since regulations were brought in on June 1, 2008. Use in large supermarkets and shopping malls has decreased [...]

Now recognized by some people as a young leader exampling how freedom of speech should be championed, junior law student Guan Kaiyuan believes that the hardest battles often hold the most potential to making positive and lasting changes. In an unexpected court case win against Peking University’s contemporary Chinese literature professor Kong Qingdong on May 7, in which Guan sued the academic for publicly cursing at him, the 22-year-old said [...]

China ranked 13th among 14 developing countries in terms of anti-smoking efforts and measures, according to an analysis conducted by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and its counterpart in the United States. China is only ahead of Russia on the list, which considers efforts to ban tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion, tobacco tax rates and retail prices, warning labels on cigarette packages and smoking bans in public [...]

Local authorities in Kunming, Yunnan Province, Wednesday denied rumors that they had banned sales of white T-shirts in an effort to prevent them from being used in protests against an oil refinery and paraxylene (PX) project. For a “rumor” the crackdown seemed all too real to local factory owner Zhang Ping, 40, whose factory has been the subject of an investigation over the last week because it produced white T-shirts [...]

Protests and demonstrations will be strictly forbidden during the China-South Asia Exposition from June 6 to 10, in an effort to maintain social stability, according to a statement released by the city government of Kunming, Yunnan Province on Tuesday. The statement, which vows to punish violators severely, came after two rounds of protests by thousands of local residents against the potential pollution that would be brought by an upcoming paraxylene [...]

The CPC Political and Legal Affairs Committee is separating petitions related to legal and litigation affairs from regular cases by sending them to political and legal organs, in a move to reform the country’s letters and calls system. The move, listed as a main task for the year by the committee, aims to solve such cases through judicial channels to change the current situation that petitioners would rather trust higher [...]

Local authorities in Kunming, Yunnan Province, have regulated printing, photocopying and T-shirt sales businesses in a bid to prevent further protests against a paraxylene (PX) project that has ignited two massive demonstrations. Local residents in Kunming and neighboring Anning, where the project will be located, confirmed to the Global Times on Monday that they have to bring ID cards and register their real names when purchasing white T-shirts and printing [...]

Local authorities in Kunming, in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, reassured the public that the massive oil refinery and paraxylene (PX) project would not harm residents’ health and the pollution would be strictly controlled. Mayor Li Wenrong on Tuesday answered concerns about the project’s pollution in the second meeting of the kind with 23 resident representatives and environment authorities. Local residents have fiercely objected to the project, initiated by the State-owned [...]

“Homosexuality is an indecent perversion, a hindrance to personal psychological health and purification of society, and a hotbed for the transmission of AIDS …” Zhang Yanxi, 22, was shocked to read this description of homosexuality in a Chinese textbook while preparing for an exam last year. “I realized it was totally wrong and misleading as soon as I read it,” the girl from Anhui Province said about the part regarding [...]