Chinese cities climbing up global cost ladder

When it comes to how much we spend on groceries, few of us are given options. We don't fly off to a city in a distant country to do our food shopping more economically. Yet we are aware that there are significant variations in prices of everyday goods across different locations, even within the same country. For example, according to the findings of the latest Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, a kilogram of white grain rice costs 19 yuan ($2.99) in Shanghai but only about 9 yuan in nearby Suzhou.

Belgium gets back to normal but still has much to do

When I got out of a taxi and rolled my suitcase into Brussels-South station to get a train to London on Thursday evening, two heavily-armed soldiers patrolling the concourse stared at me up and down, with their hands holding their guns against their chests.

Uncivilized behavior by passengers unacceptable

For the first time, airline passengers have been blacklisted for uncivilized behavior. Their names will remain on the blacklist for one or two years, according to an announcement by the China Air Transport Association on Saturday.

Sense of neighborliness needs to be restored

Despite former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama's outright stance that Japan is mainly responsible for the tensions in Sino-Japanese relations and his criticism of the government's distorted views on history, territorial disputes and China's rise, Japanese right-wing politicians continually defend the Abe administration's accelerated efforts to revise the country's pacifist Constitution and other provocative moves.

New tariff policy for cross-border e-businesses adopted too hastily

SINCE FRIDAY, China has been implementing new, mostly higher, tariff rates on cross-border retail purchases. But the implementation of the change was too quick, says Beijing News:

Protection of whistle-blowers a welcome move

THE SUPREME PEOPLE'S PROCURATORATE, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Finance recently issued a joint regulation that says whistle-blowers providing tip-offs about officials committing crimes by taking advantage of their positions should have their homes and property protected, and they might be given a substantial bonus if they make a special contributions to the anti-corruption campaign. That's a welcome move, but the key to its effectiveness lies in how it is implemented, says cjn.cn:

Manager's remarks further damage hotel's reputation

THE MAN suspected of assaulting a young woman in a Home Inn hotel in Beijing on April 3 has finally been detained. However, the comments by the hotel manager in a TV interview have provoked further public ire at the hotel's response to the incident. China Daily's Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

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Japan perpetrator, not the victim, of war

During the two-day G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, which began on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the other G7 foreign ministers are scheduled to visit the Peace Memorial Park. Since the memorial is dedicated to the victims of the 1945 US atomic bombing of the city, Japanese media see the gesture as a call for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

Action plan needed to address obesity

Obesity is increasingly, and rapidly, becoming a serious public health problem in China, particularly among children and adolescents. According to Chinese Ministry of Health data, boys aged 6 years are taller and heavier on average now than 30 years ago. Because obesity can have serious consequences on children's health and quality of life, as well as on the country's economy, this is a problem that demands urgent attention. Some doctors have warned that obesity could become China's biggest public health problem in the future.

A welcome and useful debate on diplomacy

Delivering a speech on the modern world and China's diplomacy at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing on March 30, Wu Jianmin, China's former ambassador to France and former president of the university, said the main theme of the world is peace and development, and criticized the Global Times for publishing some articles with extreme views which could mislead readers into believing in war and revolution.