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Mrs Obama right to focus on education

US First Lady Michelle Obama is visiting China to promote cultural exchanges and stress the importance of education, but no US news media outlets seem to have got this message.

Referring petitions to court

THE AUTHORITIES' LATEST PRESCRIPTION FOR litigation-related petitions may work better than previous ones, because it represents a serious attempt to have things done within a legal framework. But its efficacy ultimately rests on how well the judiciary works.

No uniform urbanization

Only through people-centered urbanization can residents become attached to the urban environment and develop a sense of belonging and thus serve as a major force in facilitating the urbanization process, said a People's Daily commentary on Thursday.

Xi's visit to boost China-EU ties

President Xi Jinping's visit to European Union institutions in Brussels on March 31 will be historic. It will be the first visit by a Chinese head of state to the EU. It will be an occasion where the new leadership of China will lay out its vision for relations with Europe.

Treat abandoned kids with kid gloves

News of an abandoned children center (known as "baby hatch") in Guangzhou city being temporarily closed down because its staff couldn't take care of the large number of babies dropped there has raised public concerns. According to Xu Jiu, director of one of Guangzhou's welfare centers, 262 babies had been handed over to the center since it opened on Jan 28.

Hot words

Ukraine crisis 乌克兰危机(wu ke lan wei ji)

Rumors spread panic for a reason

Rumors of stabbings in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, led to panic among residents last week, a day after a knife fight between food vendors in Changsha, Hunan province, left six people dead. On March 14, hours after the Changsha violence, dozens of shoppers at a busy mall in Chengdu fled in panic because of rumors that some people had gone on a stabbing spree. Seemingly, people were on the edge after the knife attack at Kunming, Yunnan province, in which 29 people were killed and 140 injured two weeks ago.

Move to cool hot money

From Monday, the yuan's exchange rate fluctuation against the US dollar was expanded from 1 percent to 2 percent above or below the daily midpoint the central bank sets in the interbank spot foreign exchange market.

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Chinese media needs to improve to compete

As the missing Malaysia Airlines plane continues to grab the headlines worldwide, the gap between Chinese and Western media in covering the incident has become ever more evident. During the first few days after the aircraft vanished from civilian radars, Chinese media criticized Malaysia Airlines for delaying the release of information, while their Western counterparts began to question the Malaysian government for suppressing crucial facts.

Warning of defaults

The quick denial by the people's bank of China that it is involved in bailout talks with a small property developer in East China's Zhejiang province, gives fair warning against the widespread moral hazard within and beyond the overheated property sector that reckless lenders and borrowers can always count on the government to bail them out.