To have and to hold, at least until real estate do us part

DATA FROM THE BEIJING CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU show the number of divorces in the city reached 97,600 in 2016, 73 percent higher than the number in 2014. At the same time, the number of couples getting remarried reached 22,607, 131 percent higher than in 2014. Ifeng.com comments:

Extra exams hurt education fairness

HIGH SCHOOLS AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS, be they public or private, have reportedly been conducting unauthorized tests, most of which are about the Mathematical Olympiad, to select "qualified" applicants. Such a selective admission approach violates China's compulsory education policy that upholds indiscriminate recruitment, said Changjiang Daily on Wednesday:

Genetic testing of artistic ability is nonsense

SOME GENETIC TESTING agencies advertise that salvia can reveal how talented a child will be in certain arts. Even if the testing may cost more than 10,000 yuan ($1,464), many parents are willing to pay the price so they can increase their inputs to nurture their children's innate talents. Legal Daily comments:

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Seoul needs to get out of THAAD 'dilemma'

There is a silver lining behind the cloud of relationship between China and the Republic of Korea, which has been sour since the latter decided to allow the US to deploy Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system on its soil in July last year. During a strategic dialogue between foreign ministries on Tuesday, both countries voiced a willingness to improve bilateral ties.

Joint efforts can better protect Chinese overseas

In late May, two Chinese tourists kidnapped in Quetta in Pakistan's Balochistan province may have been killed. On June 9, Zhang Yingying, a 26-year-old Chinese student visiting the University of Illinois in the United States went missing, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case. On June 12, a British court sentenced two suspects to prison for beating a 67-year-old Chinese man, who was visiting his daughter in Preston, Lancashire, to death in a local park on Jan 1.

Let midnight snack shine its real light on me

I was a fan of the hit Japanese TV series Shinya Shokudo, known in English as Midnight Canteen, telecast in the late 2000s. I watched the first 10-episode series as well as the second. Centered on a small eatery in one corner of a shopping district, each episode of the series narrated the stories of its proprietor and his customers on whose request he cooks a special dish or two.

Tougher regulatory environment would aid A-share market

Some of the mainland's big-cap stocks have been included in a benchmark index of US index provider MSCI, which is widely expected to give a big boost to the wobbling domestic A-share market.

Reform in financial sector imperative for progress

Healthy financial institutions are a prerequisite for preventing a financial crisis, as central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan rightly pointed out at this year's Lujiazui financial forum in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Corporate honesty certificates

Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong province has introduced China's first standards on anti-bribery applicable to all enterprises.

Spoiling of Liaoning's business environment is a case in point

NORTHEAST CHINA'S LIAONING PROVINCE recently publicized a list of the "spoilers" of the business environment, on which appeared several local government departments. For example, the bureau of law enforcement in the Heping district of Shenyang, Liaoning's capital, "rented" offices from an enterprise and refused to pay the rent. China Youth Daily comments:

Audiences not to blame for poor films

WHILE ATTENDING A SEMINAR at the eight-day Shanghai International Film Festival, which started on Saturday, Chinese director Feng Xiaogang suggested the box office success of poorly made films has something to do with their "rubbish" audiences. China Youth Daily commented on Tuesday: