Financial shot in the arm

In spite of seasonal factors such as the timing of the Chinese New Year, which may have dragged some lending forward, the stronger-than-expected growth in loans in China has considerably boosted confidence in the growth prospects for the world's second-largest economy.

Transparency, not hiding, can help desensitize govt staff salary issue

ACCORDING TO REPORTS, several provinces plan to adjust the salaries for employees in government agencies and State-sponsored institutions. The public response to the news, which they interpreted as "raising salary for officials", prompted the provincial governments to delete the news from their official websites. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

Death of detainee shows malpractice of guards

IN DECEMBER, a detainee at a local detention center in Gan'gu county, Northwest China's Gansu province, was reportedly beaten to death by other detainees because he didn't wipe his nose. The local People's Procuratorate later said the guards at the detention center were guilty of a serious dereliction of duty as the detainee was under their protection. The Beijing News says:

Period leave requires more consideration

ANHUI PROVINCE in East China is proposing to introduce a special regulation that employers should give one or two days paid leave to female workers suffering abnormally heavy menstrual bleeding or severe period cramps if they have a prescription from the doctor. Beijing Times said:

Hot words

Poverty alleviation assessments

Cartoon

Market economy status not a bilateral negotiation

The protectionist sentiment and the confrontational approach that have emerged in the European Union are worrying, as well as being regrettable and misleading.

Law must be enforced so HK can move forward

Rioters clashed with the police late at night on Feb 8, the first day of the Lunar New Year, and things escalated and turned bloody in the early morning of the next day, with the rioters deliberately injuring close to 100 policemen. In the process, the police had to fire some warning shots. Worryingly, fires were started in a number of places.

The price of fish and how it was sold matter

This is something that does have to do with the price of fish.

Sign of economy's resilience

Chinese shares shrugged off weaker-than-expected trade figures to surge on Tuesday, brightening the prospects for the Year of Monkey, a Chinese zodiac animal usually associated with change rather than certainty.

Lack of parental care is the root problem for left-behind children

ON MONDAY, the first working day after Spring Festival, the State Council, China's Cabinet, published a guideline requiring all levels of local governments and families to better take care of left-behind children, those left in their rural hometowns by their parents when they work in cities far away. Better care means family reunions, not money, says The Beijing Times:

Zero-tolerance to non-recyclable plastic bags

SEVEN YEARS AFTER China introduced a bill forbidding supermarkets and shopping malls to offer consumers non-biodegradable plastic bags for free, Chinese shoppers reportedly still consume a great number of them every day. Some supermarkets even rake in considerable profits by charging shoppers for plastic bags. Beijing Youth Daily calls for a stricter ban on the production of non-degradable plastic bags: