Wield power within framework of the law

The leadership of the Party should never be an excuse for a leader to consider his or her own words as the law, to place power before the law or bend law for personal gain. This is what top leader Xi Jinping told a group of provincial leaders at a forum on governing according to the Constitution and the law on Monday.

Confidence in own culture

Only through creative absorption can a culture incorporate positive elements from other cultures into its development. Any indiscriminate duplication of outside models, which would reflect a lack of cultural self-confidence, would inevitably result in the forfeiting of its own foundation, says a People's Daily article.

Clean air requires the efforts of all, not just people in Hebei

THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION has released a list ranking the air quality in 74 major cities in 2014, sparking a debate because it says seven of the 10 cities with the worst air quality are in Hebei province, while another, Tianjin municipality, neighbors it. Comments:

Link officials' higher salaries to performance

PROMOTION IS NO LONGER THE ONLY WAY up for civil servants. A recent official document shows that low-ranking officials who have worked for a certain time without being promoted - eight years for the lowest level - can enjoy salary of a higher level. Comments:

Hostage deaths no excuse for Japan to build up its military

IN RESPONSE to the recent beheadings of two Japanese citizens by Islamic State militants, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday that he wanted to debate the possibility of rescuing nationals overseas when they were in danger. Comments:

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Maker culture

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By denying wartime history, Abe will lose faith

Since taking office in 2012, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made consistent efforts to reinterpret the historic 1995 Murayama Statement: the then Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama's apology for the damage and suffering caused by Japan to its neighbors before and during World War II.

All that glitters to hook you could be deadly

If you have visited or lived in China, chances are you have seen beautiful, glittering displays of cigarettes in specialist tobacco stores or around the cashier in convenience stores.

Pension reforms help promote social equality

The State Council, China's Cabinet, announced pension reforms for civil servants and public sector employees in Jan 2015, bringing them under the purview of the urban basic pension insurance scheme. The historic move signifies the abolition of the fragmented pension fund systems and the end of the privilege pension system for public sector.

Manila's antics just self-serving troublemaking

To confront Beijing over their South China Sea territorial dispute, Manila has resorted to many tricks in recent years. Its real intention is to lead others by the nose and cajole them into believing the story of its own making in which it portrays itself as a weak and small country trying to stand up to the bullying of a big neighbor.

Official words can lift GM food awareness

As usual, the top leadership's first "document" of the year was exclusively agricultural.