From the foreign press

No change will be made to the controversial Labor Contract Law because it has had nothing to do with the widespread failures of export-oriented small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in coastal regions, as entrepreneurs have claimed, a senior lawmaker said.

Xin Chunying, deputy director of the legislative affairs commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said yesterday in Beijing that a recent investigation had found that the law, in effect since early last year, increased business costs by only 2 percent.

While factory owners decried the law as a crippling burden, workers hailed the new legislation.