Food security more than just quantity

It is always the top priority for the government to ensure people have access to enough food, especially in a populous country like China, Tuesday's central rural work conference emphasized. The tone echoes the annual central economic work conference in mid-December, which listed guaranteeing national food security as the primary major task for 2014.

Anti-graft storm continues

It is not too much to call 2013 the year of an anti-corruption storm.

Cooperation on Syria

China has always supported the United Nations' endeavor to dispose of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, and it will, along with the international community, continue to give assistance within its capacity, said an opinion article in People's Daily on Tuesday.

Mao in theory and practice

Open and subterranean left-and-right debates have been raging on Mao Zedong's legacy and the direction of China's future. Although respectable, the debates seem simplistic. Their common focus is Chairman Mao's place in history. The views range from the various degrees of retention (the left-leaning views) to the rejection (the right-leaning views) of the revolutionary Mao. In extreme cases, the left wants to keep the practice of revolutionary Mao in as pristine a state as possible, and the right wants to eradicate the practice of revolutionary Mao as thoroughly as possible. The net result is that theoretically each would lead to a different future for China.

Express delivery at people's service

China, according to reports, may become the largest express delivery service country in 2014. But the fast growing express delivery sector still has many loopholes, as was evident last month when packages soaked in a deadly chemical killed one recipient in Shandong and left seven critically ill.

Letters

Improve metro services

From the Chinese Press

Money doesn't always mean success

New era in global diplomacy

China's new leadership has been pressing ahead by taking several new measures, putting forward new ideas, and crafting a new image by rolling out a multi-pivot diplomatic strategy.

Cartoon

Education system is not the sole culprit

Overseas education has boomed in China in recent years, with a growing number of students pursuing courses abroad at younger ages.

Meaningful law amendment

The current deliberation of the amendment to the Administrative Procedure Law by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress takes on a particular meaning when the independent and fair exercise of judicial power by judges has been written as a goal of judicial reform.

Time to mend the fences

The United States' ties with Israel appear to have run into rough weather after documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency contractor on Friday, accused the US of spying on Israeli leaders. Unless the US shows real sincerity in redressing its blunders, it seems that the nightmare caused by Snowden's leaks will wreak further havoc on its ties with other nations.