Beijing bans ivory trade, leads the world

By banning the processing and selling of ivory products on Dec 31, China has fulfilled its pledge to protect wildlife and honored the announcement it made several months ago that it would outlaw all domestic trade in ivory by the end of 2017.

Turning poverty alleviation from a great dream into reality

As China rings in the New Year, it is racing against the clock to fulfill a promise its leadership has made: lifting 10 million rural residents out of poverty, which translates into more than 800,000 people a month, or about 20 every minute.

Revised law will improve business environment

The first day of the year marked further progress in China's efforts to improve its business environment, with a new Anti-Unfair Competition Law taking effect on Monday.

Internal and external factors behind the protests in Iran

The anti-government demonstrations in Iran entered their sixth day on Tuesday, with growing attention focused on whether the government will be able to resolve the crisis and restore social stability at an early date without resorting to a violent response.

Green development index helps boost construction of an ecological civilization

THE GREEN DEVELOPMENT INDEX for local governments aims to encourage operable policies and actions for sustainable development. It is based on evaluations of six primary indicators, namely resource utilization, environmental governance, environmental quality, ecological protection, growth quality and green lifestyles. It emphasizes people's sense of gain. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Tuesday:

Denying workers their wages is a crime

IN 2016, a traditional Chinese medicine hospital in Shangzhou district, Shangluo city, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, finished building an outpatient complex. However, two years later, the construction company still owes the laborers wages of about 2 million yuan ($307,976) in total. Legal Daily comments:

Duty of care allows for no livestreaming

A NURSE at a hospital in Wannian county, Jiangxi province, has been logging into a livestreaming platform and interacting with audiences during working hours. Huaxi Metropolis Daily comments:

Hot words

Strictly control land reclamation

Cartoon

Testing year ahead for Sino-US ties

Strategic ambiguity is a tried and tested diplomatic stance. It translates well into Chinese thinking.

Cooperation will boost China-Japan relations

The year 2017 marked the 45th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic relations. But instead of celebrating the occasion, the two sides remained locked in an almost frozen political relationship thanks to a series of standoffs between Tokyo and Beijing, including the detainment of Chinese fishermen by Japanese officials on Sept 7, 2010, and the "nationalization" of Diaoyu Islands by the Japanese government on Sept 10, 2012.

Mutual benefit is the hallmark of initiative led by China

Despite the Belt and Road Initiative projects yielding positive results in several areas, some Western observers still view the initiative with suspicion and liken it to a Chinese version of the Marshall Plan. One such example is an article in the Dec 19 edition of The Washington Post.