Clearer regulations on digital hongbao needed

This Lunar New Year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has once again stressed members of the Communist Party of China must obey the Eight-Point Regulation, which aims to curb corruption and extravagance. Festivals and holidays used to be peak periods for such extravagance and gift-giving in exchange for favors. But over the last five years, thanks to the enforcement of the code of behavior for officials, expensive banquets paid for with public money have largely disappeared during the holidays.

To cope with black swan events - hang in there

As the United States' economy has recovered in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the US Federal Reserve has gradually raised interest rates. As a result, rates have risen from 0.25 percent in December 2008 to their current 1.5 percent. Although each increase had an initial negative impact on the stock market, every downturn has been accompanied by a subsequent rebound due to an influx of large buy orders.

Visit boosts productive Sino-US ties

The visit to Washington by State Councilor Yang Jiechi has helped set in motion what a spokesperson for US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says will be a "constructive and productive" bilateral relationship during the second year of Trump's presidency.

Poverty relief requires complete commitment

President Xi Jinping's visit to Zhaojue county in Southwest China's Sichuan province, one of the country's most poverty-stricken counties, five days before Spring Festival, points to the importance China's top leadership attaches to the poverty alleviation task.

US act would put it at risk of being pawn of secessionists

The Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages high-level exchange of visits between the United States and the island, passed the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations last week as expected, and will now move to the Senate, where it is quite likely to get the seal of approval before being sent to the president to be signed into law.

Launch of China's oil futures contract will increase its say in global markets

CHINA WILL launch its first crude oil futures contract at the Shanghai International Energy Exchange on March 26, China Securities Regulatory Commission announced on Friday. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Monday:

Companies must have confidence in the law

IN ITS TRIAL of the second instance on Sunday, the Intermediary People's Court of Jiujiang, East China's Jiangxi province, annulled the two-year prison sentence given a businessman found guilty of tax evasion. Beijing News comments:

Many local govt apps are merely vanity projects

ONE AFTER ANOTHER, local governments have developed apps, which they claim allow residents greater convenience in the application procedures for certain issues. However, China Central Television recently found that many of these apps do not work. Southern Metropolis Daily comments:

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West's attempt to discredit China in Africa

Western countries mistake China's cooperation with Africa as something new, which is not the case. Although China's presence in Africa is more visible today than ever before, with increased trade, large infrastructure projects and loans, the friendship between China and Africa dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, when African countries were struggling for independence.

Holiday celebrations are not a zero-sum game

Due to a clerical error, my birthday was wrongly recorded, resulting in some people celebrating my birthday using the date of the lunar calendar and others the date of the solar calendar. I have tried to clarify and correct this in the past. But now I am in my mostly unglamorous middle-age life, I have given up trying to correct people, since I figure I can use all the celebrations I get. They just provide an excuse for having a good time with friends and family.

Belgium shows its confidence in Belt and Road

This year is the 10 anniversary of the 2008 calamity of Wall Street, following the fall of the Lehman Brothers, which caused the chronic global financial crisis and economic recession. The recent global stock market plunges, again originating in the United States, have been an unwelcome reminder of their volatility.