Incentive of entering top colleges won't nurture top soccer players

PEKING UNIVERSITY and Tsinghua University, the two top institutes of higher learning in Beijing, staged competitions over the weekend to recruit high-level teenage sports talents, including soccer players. Promoting soccer education is indeed praiseworthy, but it would be better done by nurturing more talented kids at a young age than simply using easier college entrance as an incentive, says China National Radio.

Law ought to protect members of loyalty schemes

FRUIT CAMP, a fruit company with chain stores in over 20 cities nationwide, has reportedly closed hundreds of its shops over the past two weeks. Members of the company's loyalty program, who prepaid for products, are now finding it hard to get their money back. This is not the first such incident and the root cause of this problem lies in the judiciary failing to do its duty, says a comment on Beijing Youth Daily:

Speculative stunts for personal gain hurting society

A VIDEO in which someone claiming to be a Beijing resident scolded another passenger on the subway, telling them not to come to Beijing, caused a stir when it was posted online. Yet it later transpired that the incident was staged by an actor from Northeast China's Liaoning province. More regulation is needed to stop such speculation, says an opinion article on China Youth Daily:

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No reason to deny China market economy status

The European Union will take the first step on Wednesday to debate on whether to grant China "market economy status".

Deepen reform to ease students' burden

Chinese students have been busy with exams this week, and many of the questions in their papers have left even their parents puzzled. Just a few days ago, a mother with a PhD was reportedly perplexed by her child's homework.

Policy change not enough to address shrinking workforces

It's official. China has put an end to its strict family planning policy which allowed most of the couples to have only one child. From Jan 1, all couples can have two children.

Iran talks have set a good example for response to DPRK

A new round of tensions is rapidly building up on the Korean Peninsula after the fourth nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Jan 6. Such an undesirable trend could revive the old vicious circle of provocation and retaliation, driving efforts to denuclearize the peninsula into a dead end again.

Resilience of the economy not to be underestimated

The rapid decline in China's foreign exchange reserves last year and the recent deprecation of the Chinese currency have been competing for headlines with the recent domestic stock market plunges, which dropped another 5 percent on Monday after two 7-percent dives last week.

Women's right when to give birth

The timetable recently set by some employers for female staff to have children underscores the need for the authorities to take measures to protect women's rights.

Onus on online platforms to regulate their clients or face consumer backlash

FOUR MAJOR domestic airline companies recently announced they were canceling their cooperation with qunar.com, a domestic airline ticket booking website, because of customer complaints. That should be a lesson to all online platforms, says a comment on Guangming Daily: