Seaweed video shows how rumors spread

THE MAKERS of seaweed products mentioned in a video clip claiming their products were made of plastic, say they have lost hundreds of millions of yuan since the video went viral. The companies in Quanzhou, Fujian province, East China, have reported the matter to the authorities. Beijing News commented on Tuesday:

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Beijing closer to Tianjin, Hebei in year three

During President Xi Jinping's two-day inspection tour last week, when he visited the construction site of the capital's new airport in southern Beijing and the administrative sub-center Tongzhou district, he urged officials to improve urban planning, in order to build a "harmonious, world-class capital city" that better serves its residents.

Tobacco lobby holding back smoking ban

On Wednesday, Shanghai becomes the latest municipality in China, following Beijing and Shenzhen, to launch a 100 percent smoke-free policy in public places and work spaces. Some 60 million people - more than the population of many countries - living in these cities can now enjoy smoke-free public places.

Fall in forex reserves not a cause for concern

In January China's foreign exchange reserves dropped to $2.9982 trillion, the first decline below $3 trillion in the past five years. According to People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, the main reason for the decline is the release of foreign exchange funds to help maintain the balance between supply and demand. In addition, Chinese residents' travel and consumption overseas, as well as enterprises' debt repayment and settlement also increased during Spring Festival, which is the seasonal cause of the decline in the foreign exchange reserves.

New way of tackling poverty is precisely what China needs

While growing up in a village at the foothills of a mountain in Southwest China's Sichuan province I would stare at a truck or a bus when it passed by on the only bumpy road that led to the outside world. I always dreamt of planes flying overhead every day, but in those days one was lucky to see even one in a month. Those were the days when the villagers used oil to light their lamps and lanterns, because there was no electricity. The village was connected to a power grid just before I enrolled in a university in the early 1990s.

China, Singapore signal ties are on the up again

Co-chaired by Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli and Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, the meeting of the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation held in Beijing on Monday signaled that bilateral ties have returned to normal after the frictions between the two countries last year.

Anti-poverty battle still tough

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed the importance of lifting the rural impoverished population out of poverty and accomplishing the poverty alleviation targets on schedule.

Investments that officials attract should not sway their evaluations

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN HANDAN, North China's Hebei province, recently said it suffered heavy losses in a 2008 project with expected investment from a South Korean company that called itself Hyundai Construction Group, which later turned out not to be part of the Hyundai Group as the government believed. Beijing News comments:

Truck test cheats worsen air pollution

SOME DRIVERS IN TANGSHAN, a city in North China's Hebei province, including drivers of heavy trucks, reportedly paid local "test brokers" so their vehicles passed the compulsory annual tests for all road vehicles without actually taking them. Beijing News commented on Monday:

Live streaming sites must cap viewers' tips

A WOMAN IN HANGZHOU, East China's Zhejiang province, recently found her husband stole 30,000 yuan ($4,361) from her Alipay account and 10,000 yuan from her bank account to pay gratuity to live streaming website hosts. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Monday:

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