Oriental Outlook

Oriental Outlook

South Africa Shines June 7, 2010

When the FIFA World Cup finals kicked off on June 11, the world's eyes turned to South Africa.

Though facing the problem of social polarization, which may be more challenging than apartheid, South Africa still hopes to establish its important status at least in the region through holding the great event, just as other emerging countries have.

Of the 48 countries in Sub-Sahara Africa, South Africa's GDP exceeds one third of the total area. However, owing to the apartheid era, the country was long excluded by the world community. Since obtaining independence in 1994, the country needs an event such as the World Cup to demonstrate how far it has come in the last 16 years.

The only African country in the G20, South Africa also hopes that hosting the World Cup can change the stereotypical images of Africa, namely hunger, disease and war. South Africa is also actively involved in the peace process of other African nations such as Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo, further evidence of its position as a regional power.

Nanfeng Chuang

Nanfeng Chuang 

Education Equality June 4, 2010

In May, Beijing abolished its 24-year-old school enrollment policy for primary and middle school students, enabling students who are not Beijing residents to have records in Beijing schools and enjoy the same enrolling status as Beijing students.

Previously, non-Beijing-resident students had no choice but to hand over big cash payments to schools for admission. Yet, these students do not have equal status with their Beijing counterparts when it comes to enrollment in high schools and university entrance examinations.

Beijing has the best education facilities in China with higher admission rates in universities than other parts of the country. Many parents in Beijing worry that the policy change may encourage more non-Beijing-resident students to come to the city seeking better education, and put pressure on the already crowded education facilities.

But actually, this policy change may have an impact on the education order in Beijing in the short term. In the long term only when college admission rates in Beijing are not so high compared with other areas, can the problem of non-Beijing-resident students crowding in to take university entrance exams be solved. In general, good education facilities should not be the exclusive preserve of Beijing students, as China needs a holistic improvement in education equality.

Phoenix Weekly

Phoenix Weekly

Super Rice June 5

Genetically modified (GM) food may be controversial when it comes to safety issues, but China is set to embrace a new strain of insect-resistant GM rice that was awarded a bio-safety certificate from the country's Ministry of Agriculture. The rice is expected to stimulate the development of other GM rice and crops in developing countries.

Strong objections have however been raised from China's academic circles and international organizations. Early this year, more than 120 experts and scholars proposed the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, to stop commercial planting of transgenic rice and manage production of other transgenic foods.

But Zhang Qifa, a professor of Huazhong Agricultural University believes GM rice "is as safe as ordinary rice." To alleviate the ongoing controversies surrounding GM crops, scientists should not only develop better GM technologies, but also do a better job in explaining these technologies to the public, said Zhang.

Despite being conscious of the objections, the Chinese Government will continue to support the development of transgenic technologies. Although general agricultural production will continue along its current path using the standard technologies available, transgenic technologies should also be applied to ensure sustainable future agricultural development.

Zhujiang Evening News

Court Helps Land Victims

June 2, 2010

The number of court cases against local governments has risen sharply in recent years.

Many of the people who filed lawsuits asked to stop local governments from evicting them from their homes to make way for commercial real estate projects. In some cases, local governments forced farmers to sell their land to them at giveaway prices and then resold the same land to developers for sky-high prices.

However, many people lost the lawsuits against the government and were forced to turn to higher-level governments for help.

Local officials then tried every means possible to prevent the people from petitioning higher-level governments, including declaring them mentally challenged and putting them in asylums.

The Supreme People's Court, the highest judicial organ in China, has announced the launch of a campaign from May 22 to the end of the year to deal with cases involving people suing government agencies. The judiciary from the very beginning should have supervised these incidents.

Beijing Times

School Priorities

May 29, 2010

After several campus attacks in recent months, students' safety has now become the priority of many primary schools and kindergartens. Fear of attacks motivated many schools to cancel their celebrations for this year's Children's Day due to be held outside campus.

Students' safety should be given top priority, but when absolute safety becomes the only objective of the school's operation, the overemphasis proves to be unfavorable for children, who should be exposed to more congenial surroundings to ensure healthy growth.

Schools are not supposed to become so overcautious to forbid all out-of-school activities using the excuse of ensuring students' safety. Why don't they do more work on enhancing security measures, rather then take the easy option of always choosing to cancel an event?

China Youth Daily

Follow the Money

June 3, 2010

In the past three years, Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province has spent 500 million yuan ($60 million) on cleaning up a local river. In the process little has been achieved.

This is only one of the many failures of this kind. It's reported the disappointing cleanup campaigns for Dianchi Lake in Yunnan Province and Taihu Lake in Jiangsu Province cost 4.6 billion yuan ($673 million) over 13 years and more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) over 16 years, respectively.

The efforts to control water pollution in Taihu were doomed, experts said, though the financial input was huge. The methods used to try to clean up Taihu and many other lakes and rivers around the country lag behind current world standards by nearly 50 years. The reason is simple: those involved in the cleanup campaigns are profiting.

We have always blamed slow progress in eliminating pollution sources and an inefficient, redundant management system for China's disappointing pollution control performance. Corruption also costs us our valuable resources in environmental conservation.