New Year's wish: Greener China and safer Europe

While wandering on a square in downtown Brussels on a quiet, wintry Christmas morning, I saw some people with lighted candles standing around a high-rise monument. But it seemed only a couple were reading the messages left on the cards with the flowers at the foot of monument.

Balancing security acts with rights of individuals

Terrorism is not something peculiar to foreign soil.

Guarding the aged in earnest

It is unbelievable that a 45-year-old maid in South China's Guangdong province is being tried as a serial killer.

Expectations of postgraduate studies yet to be proven in jobs

THE NATIONAL entrance examination for postgraduate studies was held on Saturday and Sunday. According to official data, 1.77 million people have applied for the exam, 7 percent more than last year. Many graduates choose postgraduate study in the hope of a better future, but will it truly grant them one? West China Metropolis Daily says:

Festival buying spree shows emptiness of spirit

AN APPLE, whose Chinese name pingguo sounds close to the word for Christmas Eve, was reportedly sold at 176 yuan ($27) on the Internet during Christmas, with the extra benefits including a fine wooden box for the apple and handmade flowers and chocolate. Costly as it is, the package has been purchased by many Christmas celebrators in the country. A comment on rednet.cn questions such festival-oriented spending and attributes it to the spiritual emptiness of a number of Chinese people:

Migrants may opt to return to rural life

BIDDING farewell to the countryside for a better future in big cities was once the dream of millions of rural residents. However, a survey by a statistics bureau in Sichuan province, Southwest China, showed that about 54 percent of migrant workers in nine cities in the region are reluctant to change their rural household registration or hukou into an urban one. A regional website cnhubei.com comments:

Hot words

Canceling late-marriage leave

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Shift to a more sustainable world has begun

Ask anyone for their abiding memory of 2015 and they will most likely recall a negative one.

The world economy's labor pains

The ongoing global economic slowdown, which began in 2008 with the financial crisis in the United States, could set a new endurance record.

Proper law can streamline e-loan platforms

A series of scandals involving online financing platforms, including Fanya Metal Exchanges, Ezubao and Dada Group, have come to light in recent times. These former online financing services are under investigation, and investors risk not getting back their assets worth hundreds of billions of yuan.

Japan's record defense budget unsettling region

The record-high defense budget Japan's cabinet approved on Thursday is heavily geared toward expanding the role of the country's Self-Defense Forces and broadening the cooperation between Japan and the United States.