From the Chinese Press

Staff not to blame for lack of tickets

Work for a better world

Nearly one year into office by the current Chinese government, China, which has enjoyed stability and steady progress, is attracting increasing attention from around the world. Many are eager to see what China will bring to the world. My answer: a better China will make for a better world. As the Report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out, China will remain committed to peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development, get more actively involved in international affairs, play its due role as a major responsible country, and continue to promote friendship and partnership with its neighbors and consolidate amicable relations with them. This is the pledge China has made to the world.

Tough laws needed to protect investors

Tasked with implementing the latest directives of the State Council, the head of China's securities watchdog, Xiao Gang, had a busy year ahead of him. At a recent conference on the protection of personal investors' interests, Xiao spoke in detail about his daunting mission.

Lesson to be learnt from fire

The conflagration that engulfed part of the ancient town of Dukezong on Saturday seems to have caught the local authorities unprepared. It took about 10 hours to put out the fire, which destroyed 242 houses and almost two-thirds of the 1.5-square-kilometer old part of town in Shangri-La county in Southwest China's Yunnan province

US accusations groundless

Countries around the South China Sea should not be deceived by the United States' supposedly helping hand in the region, says a Xinhua News Agency commentary.

Perilous retreat from global trade rules

Over the last half-century, the world has been undergoing a "great convergence", with per capita incomes in developing countries rising almost three times faster than those in advanced countries. However, developments in 2013 have revealed that the open trade regime that has facilitated this progress is now under grave threat, as stalemate in multilateral trade negotiations is spurring the proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs), including the two biggest ever negotiated - the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Emerging world's vaccine pioneers

Vaccines work wonders. They prevent disease from striking, which is better than treating it after the fact. They are also relatively cheap and easy to deliver. Yet millions of children do not get them. This has always been stunning to me. When we started the Gates Foundation 15 years ago, we assumed that all of the obvious steps were already being taken, and that we would have to go after the expensive or unproven solutions. In fact, delivering basic vaccines is still one of our top priorities.

What's the buzz

As the Spring Festival draws near, the race to secure railway tickets for the peak travel period has become so white hot that getting a ticket was compared to the monk Xuanzang's odyssey to fetch scriptures from the West. Have you secured your ticket back home? China Daily's mobile phone news readers share their views:

Letters

No denying history

For a clean and fair society

President Xi Jinping's speech at the two-day National Political and Legal Work Conference, which concluded on Wednesday, is exceptionally important for political and legal work in China. Ranging from the supreme social and political position of the Communist Party of China's leadership to its core values, development direction and priorities, Xi's observations acquire added importance because they come at a time when China has accelerated its efforts to deepen reforms.

Cartoon

Japan's hysteric desire for global sympathy

Just because both invoked the fictional evil wizard of the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort, the bickering between Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming and his Japanese counterpart Keiichi Hayashi in the Daily Telegraph has been a huge media sensation.