Is the ban on tainted stars justified?

With the Spring Festival round the corner, Ha Wen, director of the Spring Festival gala telecast by China Central Television, has said celebrities who have violated the law or moral and social values have been banned from taking part in the annual show. Earlier, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television had said that celebrities who have broken the law should not be invited to appear in TV programs. Besides, the Beijing Trade Association for Performances has signed an agreement with 42 agencies not to hire or invite celebrities who have been booked for drug abuse to perform in any program.

High fine for Qualcomm promotes fair competition

The 6.088-billion yuan ($975 million) fine imposed by the National Development and Reform Commission on chipmaker Qualcomm Technologies Inc for violating the anti-monopoly law is the highest on any company on the Chinese mainland. But it is equal to only 8 percent of what the US-based company earned from sales on the mainland in 2013 and less than the 10 percent of its sales revenue that it could have been asked to pay.

Sustainable global growth

The international community should join hands to explore new specific, practical and sustainable development on the basis of the Millennium Development Goals, says an article in People's Daily.

Warm winter and late arrival of Spring Festival lead to low CPI

THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS' latest report shows that the consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, for January 2015 rose by just 0.8 percent, the lowest in five years. The index for food products increased 1.1 percent and that for non-food products, 0.6 percent. Comments:

Favorable exchange rate lures shoppers to Japan

A SUDDEN TREND HAS EMERGED AMONG CHINESE CONSUMERS, with many of them rushing to Japan to purchase small electrical goods such as rice cookers. Reports show that in some shops in Japan, orders from Chinese tourists account for 80 percent of the total. Comments:

Fine wines no excuse for grand party

ON MONDAY, the wine imports department of the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp, China's largest State-run oil and food importer, reportedly spent at least 200,000 yuan ($32,010) convening a wine-tasting party at a luxury hotel in Southwest China's Yunnan province. Comments:

Hot words

Officials just going through the motions

Cartoon

Promote people-first image to the world

With both Chinese and English subtitles, the three-minute-long video "The CPC is on the Way Together with You", which was shot in 2013 and first released at the beginning of last year, has become popular again since People's Daily posted it on its official WeChat account on Sunday.

Video gives a stage to variety of dreamers

In contrast to past failed efforts for the same purpose, the international publicity video of the Communist Party of China has become a huge hit in China. Its success lies in its striking a chord with ordinary people. Instead of feeding audiences rigid ideological dogma, it simply displays the different dreams of a number of Chinese people. These are dreams most Chinese can relate to.

Buried gold surely belongs to the State

A 7.85-kilogram chunk of gold found by a herdsman in Qinghe county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, last week has sparked heated discussions across the country over its ownership. Going by the Property Law, the gold surely belongs to the State because it is an "ownerless property" found within China's border.

US can learn from China's Ukraine policy

The Ukraine crisis is front-page news again with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin to broker peace between Kiev and Ukrainian pro-independence insurgents. The three will meet in Minsk, capital of Belarus, with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to find ways to restore permanent peace in Ukraine on Wednesday.