From the Chinese press

Protect heritage sites' legacies

Moving up industrial value chain

Although China witnessed a record trade surplus in May, according to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, pressures remain on foreign trade growth.

'Referendum' has too many votes to be credible

The 6.22 "civil referendum," organized by the Public Opinion Program (POP) at the University of Hong Kong and the Center for Social Policy Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on behalf of the secretariat of the "Occupy Central" campaign, is now a complete mess. Even before physical voting began on June 22, close to 600,000 online votes had already been cast in the preceding two days.

Cage power to reduce abuse

EVEN WITH A NUMBER OF VICE-MINISTER-LEVEL officials and a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference placed under investigation for abuse of power in recent weeks, and Liu Tienan, former director of the National Energy Administration, sued by prosecutors, the anti-graft campaign will continue with the same momentum until officials have the awareness they need to toe the line when it comes to the exercising of their power.

One small cross-Straits step

Chinese mainland chief of Taiwan affairs Zhang Zhijun embarked on his trip to Taiwan on Wednesday. To paraphrase Neil Armstrong's moonwalk quote: one small step for Zhang, one giant leap for cross-Straits relations.

Cartoon

Fine twist in Sino-US military ties

China is participating in the US-led 2014 Rim of Pacific military exercise for the first time since it started in 1971, indicating improved Sino-US military ties. Among the fleet of multiple nations taking part in the joint military exercise are four Chinese navy vessels - the Peace Ark hospital ship, Qiandaohu depot ship, Haikou missile destroyer and Yueyang frigate.

Resolve South China Sea issue first

Maritime disputes are testing the wisdom of the Chinese government and have prompted it to handle its ties with the United States with utmost caution to ensure that China's peaceful development continues uninterrupted.

Right to belief needs State protection

Officials at Nanchang, Jiangxi province, didn't expect to catch the attention of the entire nation when they rolled out an ambitious urban development plan of demolishing three Buddhist temples and building a composite one - called "Nanhai Palace" - to "replace" them.

Letters

Amendment to food law necessary

Global vision for the future

Today countries are gaining in influence more because of the size of the economy than the strength of their military, and the new government in India may well respond to the global rebalancing and join hands with China to shape the "Asian Century" According to an analysis of long-term economic trends by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Asia will be the world's powerhouse around 2030, just as it was prior to 1800.

So-called referendum deceptive and dangerous

The "Occupy Central" campaign supporters have asked the Hong Kong public to select from three proposals, each of which includes an element of civil nomination for the Chief Executive in the 2017 election. This is a deceptive tactic - undemocratically decided upon - by the civil disobedience movement. They also plan to lead a massive occupation of Central to paralyze the financial heart of the city. The organizers believe this will make the central government bend to local pressure.