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Reuters: Urbanizing China long way from residence reform 11/03

Despite a push for reform ahead of this week's annual legislative meeting, the household registration, or hukou, system is likely to stay in place for the near future, slowing China's rapid urbanization by denying city services to its estimated 200 million migrant workers.

Granting them rights in cities could encourage them to spend more, fulfilling the goals of central planners to raise Chinese consumption and reduce dependence on export markets.

Reformers were disappointed when Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, who has made fairness and reducing income disparities a hallmark of his administration, called for relaxing the hukou requirements only in small and medium cities in his work report this month.

He didn't mention giving migrants equal treatment outside their provinces, or in China's biggest cities.

Reuters: China's top judge frets about morals, training 11/03

China's top judge expressed concerns on Thursday about training and ethical standards within the judiciary, as the country's courts were being stretched to the limit.

"Some legal officials have an incorrect understanding of legal concepts," Wang Shengjun, president of the Supreme People's Court, told the annual meeting of parliament.

"A small number do not have high morals ... Some cases drag on for a long time without resolution, and people complain a lot."

The legal system is also struggling to tackle a rising workload on the back of the country's booming economic growth.

Reuters: China unsure on warming cause, to stick with CO2 cuts 10/03

China's top climate negotiator said on Wednesday that the cause of global warming was still not clear but the problems it was creating were so serious that the world must anyway act to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, also warned the United States it should not use domestic divisions over climate change as an excuse to pass its responsibilities off onto other countries.

There are powerful constituencies among China's politicians and business community who would welcome a slowing of Beijing's push for cleaner growth, although they are less vocal than their counterparts in the United States and Europe.

But Xie made it clear that Beijing has no intention of rowing back from ambitious commitments to greener growth that it sees as vital to energy security and growth as well as tackling warming.

China has pledged to cut "carbon intensity", or the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each yuan of national income, by some 40 to 45 percent by 2020.