Rural development

Despite the increase in grain output and the incomes of rural villagers for nine consecutive years, long-term and sustainable agricultural production and improving the quality of villagers' livelihoods is still a hard nut to crack.

China's year of challenges

The decision of the 2013 Central Economic Working Conference is to raise the quality of economic growth and make it more result-oriented by focusing on "six musts".

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Time to avoid another scar on humanity

Going by the developments of the past two years in the Middle East and North Africa, it seems someone has opened a Pandora's box in the region. Worse, it appears there is no end to the region's woes as crises in countries like Syria get from bad to worse and threaten to spill over into other places.

Parents feel the pinch of tainted milk

Although I've been coping with the incessant stranglehold of smog on Beijing with considerable calm, recent reports of tainted milk from New Zealand have sent a chill down my spine, because if proved true, it might have also harmed my 4-year-old son.

Time to act on reform

Once again, China has defied the naysayers. Economic growth picked up in the final quarter of 2012 to 7.9 percent - half a percentage point faster than the 7.4 percent increase in GDP in the third quarter. This was a meaningful increase after 10 consecutive quarters of deceleration, and it marks the Chinese economy's second soft landing in slightly less than four years.

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Obama should defend pro-choice

The United States is a jarring contrast between liberals and conservatives.

Scandals over hukou

The criminal detention of four police officers and three others involved in the recent case of a woman counterfeiting multiple identities to buy luxury real estate should not be the end of the authorities' handling of the scandal. Instead, it should be the start of a thorough probe into possible similar malpractices across the country and loopholes in its household registration system.

Stricter air quality control

Zhong Nanshan, a medical scientist and academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that air pollution is even more hazardous than severe acute respiratory syndrome since no one can escape it. That the incidence of lung cancer has risen by 55 percent in Beijing in the past decade vindicates what Zhong said.

Flaws of private education institutions

Winter vacation has started, but perhaps it has become another school season for many children in China, especially in cities.

Getting workers their wages on time

A new but sad story is unfolding across China. With Spring Festival approaching, migrant workers have taken to the performing arts - not for recreation but for getting their dues. In Wuhan, Hubei province, several migrant workers performed Gangnam Style dance to demand their salaries. In Xi'an, Shaanxi province, they dressed up as ancient officials to seek their collective dues of about 4 million yuan ($642,764).