MORE RESPONSIBILITIES
Nanfeng Chuang
June 4, 2014
Modern Chinese enterprises started to develop in 1984, when the focus of China's reform shifted from the countryside to cities. That year, late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's inspection tour of the south spurred the birth of such modern institutions as Lenovo, Haier, and Shanghai Vanke.
Over the past 30 years, these industrial enterprises have played an integral role in pushing forward China's market economy, and the entrepreneurs who have grown alongside them have accumulated wealth and enjoyed high social status that comes with it.
What also comes with prosperity is not just prestige and honor but responsibilities. At this crucial juncture when China is facing economic and social transformation, Chinese entrepreneurs should set positive examples, serving as role models for the betterment of their country and its people.
COOLING DOWN
Outlook Weekly
June 2, 2014
The successful operation of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone spurred several local governments to apply for the same title. However, many of them don't understand the true purpose of establishing such economic hubs.
An industrial experiment like the Shanghai Free Trade Zone is not simply a combination of manufacturing and exporting. It is a critical step in the rise to greater internationalization and the expansion of economic opportunities. China set up the free trade zone to deepen economic reforms in areas such as marketization and ownership diversification. If it successfully leads to new economic breakthroughs, the reforms may be carried out nationwide.
Some local governments, however, are requesting preferential treatment and scrambling to invest in new infrastructure - methods that have been widely used over the last 20 years to win bids for economic development zones and industrial parks. As a result, the utility of the free trade zones in carrying out reforms is overlooked, if not entirely forgotten.
For local governments, rather than asking for favorable policies, they should focus more on exploring ways to vitalize the economy.
RESTART TELECOM REFORM
Caijing Magazine
June 2, 2014
Since 1999, China's telecom sector has experienced a complete reshuffling four times, creating far more profit and providing more benefit to the society than any other monopolized sectors in the country.
Now China's telecom market is in need of a new round of reform. Compared with previous reforms, this time, the reform is to be conducted against the background of a new technological revolution.
The application and use of new mobile technologies, products and services depend on telecom networks, and this is forcing the government and telecom companies to give up more and more monopolized resources. The three major telecom operators in China - China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, still retain the dual role of being both referees and athletes.
Lead Poisoning
Xinhua Daily Telegraph
June 17, 2014
In response to wide media coverage of 300 children suffering from lead poisoning in Hengdong, central China's Hunan Province, the local government shut down a chemical plant suspect of being responsible for the poisoning. It was also requested that a local public security bureau investigate its owner. The chemical plant is accused of discharging untreated water and dust.
However, the measures taken by the government to investigate this lead poisoning incident cannot remedy the miseries already suffered by these children and their families. The highest lead density recorded in the local children was 322 micrograms per liter of blood, far above the national standard of 100 micrograms per liter for children.
This lead poisoning case is only one in a slew of pollution incidents that have come to light across the country in recent years. Local governments' neglect of environmental protection is to blame.
In order to prevent similar incidents from occurring, local governments should strengthen supervision of factories. This includes assessing a factory's environmental impact at the time of its launch and supervision of its production process thereafter. Officials must bear in mind the public's health and actively protect the environment instead of taking action after serious pollution incidents occur.
