Tax reform to improve people's income

In the Government Work Report delivered to the first session of the 13th National People's Congress on Monday, Premier Li Keqiang said China will raise the individual income tax threshold and create expense deductions for items such as children's education and treatment for serious diseases, which are important measures to help improve people's incomes and increase their sense of gain, happiness and security.

Clearing 'last mile' of poverty alleviation

Premier Li Keqiang has said in the Government Work Report that the central government has appropriated more than 280 billion yuan ($44.23 billion) of poverty reduction funds over the past five years.

Tsai blind to fruits of cross-Straits exchanges

Upholding the one-China policy, Beijing will continue to promote peaceful development across the Straits and advance the peaceful national reunification process, said Zhang Zhijun, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council at a "ministers' passage" on March 5 during the ongoing two sessions. China has the confidence and capability to stop any scheme or activity promoting "Taiwan independence", Zhang added.

Unique political system rooted in China's historical and social soil

Two punctuation marks have generally symbolized the world's impression about China in the 21st century: the exclamation mark and the question mark. The first signifies surprise over a developing country with a huge population and economic aggregate faced with complicated situations maintaining long-term stability and achieving unprecedented development to become the world's second-largest economy and a leading promoter of better global governance. And the second represents curiosity over the secret to China's marvelous development, hoping to understand the inherent logic of China's well-functioning economy and society.

History shows it ain't that easy to win a trade war

China is used to bearing the brunt of Washington's beggar-thy-neighbor trade protection measures. But now, as the United States threatens to impose high tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products across the board, all its major trade partners will feel the pain, which would lead to a series of repercussions that will affect the US' own interest, disrupt the global trade order, and ultimately risk derailing the world economy.

Hopes for Korean Peninsula progress should be nourished

The "openhearted talk" between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's top leader Kim Jong-un and envoys for the Republic of Korea's President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang on Monday marks major progress in efforts to defuse the tensions on the Korean Peninsula after more than a year of verbal exchanges between Pyongyang and Washington threatening war.

More investment in R&D required to create new drivers for growth

IN THE GOVERNMENT WORK REPORT he delivered to the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing on Monday, Premier Li Keqiang said that the input into research and development has grown 11 percent on average annually over the past five years, making China the world's second-largest investor in innovation, and that science and technology's contribution rate to the country's economic growth has increased from 52.2 percent to 57.5 percent. Beijing News comments:

Law must better protect cultural relics

SPEAKING TO THE MEDIA in Beijing on Saturday at the start of the session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body, Liu Yuzhu, head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said the safety of cultural relics is the bottom line and red line for the administration. Guangzhou Daily comments:

Age ratings for cybergames are necessary

YU XINWEI, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, has proposed a classification system for cybergames. Thepaper.cn comments:

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Supervisory bodies to boost rule of law

The fact that Yang Xiaodu, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and minister of supervision, said on Monday that the planned national supervisory commission (NSC) will not be a powerful watchdog without restraints confirms the new supervisory body will be under the leadership of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and responsible to and supervised by the National People's Congress now that it has been proposed to be written into the Constitution.

Developing a new landscape for opening-up

Forty years after the launch of reform and opening-up, China has reached a new stage of economic development, where it is making efforts to create a new landscape for further opening-up. In the Government Work Report delivered to the National People's Congress on Monday, Premier Li Keqiang said: "China will further expand the scope and raise the quality of its opening-up; the structure, layout, institutions, and mechanism for opening-up will be improved, and we will use high-standard opening-up to generate high-quality development."