Scorn that greeted health claim shows ills arise from ambiguity

A NEWS RELEASE issued by the National Health and Family Planning Commission claiming that "500 million people have access to family doctor services in China" has been met with doubt and scorn, as the figure does not match people's experience. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Thursday:

People have the right to privacy

ON WEDNESDAY, Qihoo 360 Technology announced it would permanently shut down its Jia livestreaming platform, which has been embroiled in controversy for the past several weeks, because people could watch other people go about their daily lives without their consent via the free cameras installed by the company. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

Foreign enterprises breaking laws will be duly punished

ON TUESDAY, a local court in Shanghai sentenced an entrepreneur with foreign citizenship to five months' detention plus a fine of 40,000 yuan ($6,082) because he owed 158 of his employees 600,000 yuan. Beijing News comments:

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Commercial banks must rein in bad assets

The nonperforming loans (NPLs) of China's commercial banks have grown rapidly in recent years, exerting enormous pressure on the banks' asset quality, and posing a big challenge to their operation and management. And the resultant accumulation of credit risks is detrimental to the stable development of the economy.

Proper rules vital to healthy realty sector

The ever-rising housing prices have been tamed thanks to the intensive macro-control measures of local governments. In fact, housing prices have either fallen or increased at a much slower rate in 70 big or medium-sized cities because of the purchase restrictions imposed on homebuyers in many first-and second-tier cities.

Online tutorials can't replace schools

Xue Zhaofeng, a professor from Peking University, reportedly has more than 170,000 subscribers to his online teaching course and could be making about 35 million yuan ($5.3 million) a year. Xue is only one among the hundreds of online teachers making millions of yuan a month. According to iResearch, an agency specializing in internet data collection, the online education market was worth 156 billion yuan by the end of last year, and it is expected to reach 260 billion yuan by 2019.

US politicians use double standard to assess China's growing influence

For most of this year, many US politicians were busy with their witch-hunt against Russia. However, of late they have found a new target as they are afraid of the growing Chinese influence in the United States and the rest of the world.

Meeting charts course for growth in new era

High-quality development and prevention of major risks are top of the agenda in the policy road map laid out at this year's Central Economic Work Conference, which wrapped up on Wednesday.

Beijing working to narrow Israeli-Palestinian divide

The two-day peace symposium for representatives from Israel and Palestine that started in Beijing on Thursday couldn't have come at a more timely moment given US President Donald Trump's decision to ignore UN resolutions and unilaterally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Dec 6.

Securities commission sets example for other central departments to follow

HUANG WEI, assistant chair of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, appeared in court in Beijing on Tuesday, as a representative of the top securities watchdog in an appeal hearing. Beijing News commented on Thursday:

House prices have hopefully been tamed

THE NATIONAL BUREAU of Statistics has released the latest data on property prices in 70 big and medium-sized cities. The prices of new houses in 11 key cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, have all fallen slightly since last year. Beijing News comments: