Cultivate awareness that picking endangered wild plants is a crime

A FARMER IN LUSHI COUNTY, Henan province, was reportedly given a three-year suspended prison sentence and fined 3,000 yuan ($436) for illegally collecting endangered plants. Southern Metropolis Daily commented on Thursday:

Class sizes betray educational fairness

A RECENT REPORT on China's educational development says that the average size of a primary school class across the nation has declined in recent years, while the average size of many junior and senior high school classes in cities has grown. China Youth Daily commented on Thursday:

Joy of reading is being lost in the digital age

THE CHINESE ACADEMY of Press and Publication's annual survey found that Chinese adults read 7.86 books on average last year, 0.02 more than 2015. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

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What Belt and Road mean for the world

In less than a month's time, President Xi Jinping will host the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation - his landmark program to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa and Europe. The vision of the Belt and Road Initiative (the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road) projects is essentially about connectivity - facilitated by infrastructure.

Journey to the West inspires theories

Yang Jie, director of the TV series Journey to the West, passed away on April 15 at the age of 88 years, triggering nostalgia, especially among those born in the 1970s and 1980s. Yang's series was adapted from Wu Cheng'en's novel of the same name. Written in the 16th century, the Chinese classic chronicles the legendary pilgrimage of a Buddhist monk, Tang Sanzan, and his four disciples: a monkey (Sun Wukong), also known as the Monkey King, a pig (Zhu Bajie), a former court official (Sha Wujing) and a dragon prince (Bailong) who can transform into a horse.

Real steps needed to reduce medical costs

The Beijing municipal government launched a landmark medical reform early this month by separating drug sales from medical treatment in public hospitals with the aim of lowering overall medical costs and improving services for patients.

US must send a thank-you note for yuan policy

China is not a currency manipulator, US President Donald Trump and the US Treasury Department ultimately said earlier last week. Yet the same conclusion has been reached in the past by many US economists, including former US treasury secretary Larry Summers who admitted the US government was wrong all these years in trying to push China to shore up the yuan when market forces were keeping it down.

Scaremongering about food safety constitutes a crime

THE CHINA FOOD AND DRUG Administration said recently that 45 percent of online rumors are related to food safety. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

High-speed rail is public service, not a gravy train for monopoly

CHINA RAILWAY CORP, the State-run railway company, will adjust the ticket prices for high-speed trains in certain southeast provinces starting on Friday. Most of the ticket prices will go up, and the ticket price from Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province to Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong province has risen by over 50 percent. Legal Daily comments:

Dots of isolated incidents reveal rising militarist trend

Viewed in isolation, Japan's decision to allow schools to use Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf as teaching material might not be unacceptable.

Polluters beginning to feel the pinch

TWO EMPLOYEES of Shandong Lyujie Green Technology Co in Jinan, East China's Shandong province, have been detained for locking environmental protection inspectors inside a boiler plant affiliated to the company for more than an hour on Sunday. Thepaper.cn commented on Tuesday: