Expanding deficit will inject vitality into the economy

Editor's note: Some people insist that the Chinese government should exhaust all means to keep its financial deficit below 3 percent of the gross domestic product, so as to control financial risks, but columnist Hu Yifeng comments in a post:

Bigger sales of tobacco products go against plan for healthy nation

LAST WEEK, China Tobacco Corporation urged its local branches to try their best to fulfill the annual sales objective of 47.5 million cases of cigarettes - which is 2.38 trillion cigarettes - by the end of next month. China Youth Daily comments:

Diplomatic moves show China will not be cowed

With President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang both on visits to the Asia-Pacific region to attend international meetings this week, China is sending a strong message to the outside world that it is attaching more attention and importance to countries in its neighborhood and looking to strike an even more resonant note in implementing its neighborhood diplomacy.

Blue skies are not an occasional luxury

BEIJING, TIANJIN AND HEBEI suffered from heavy air pollution from Tuesday to Thursday, with smog covering the whole region. Thepaper.cn comments:

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Guangdong takes bullying by the horns

THE EDUCATION BUREAU of South China's Guangdong province recently issued a regulation together with 12 other departments, which prohibits bullying in primary and secondary schools, including the use of insulting nicknames. Thepaper.cn comments:

Brexit still unsettled despite agreed terms of divorce

Brexit has been compared to someone leaving a marital house to put an end to the arguments, only to find that their former spouse is keeping the house, the car and the joint bank accounts.

Nationalism poses test for transatlantic ties

In his speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of World War I on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that self-interested nationalism marked "a betrayal of patriotism". The reverberations of his words were felt from across the Atlantic Ocean.

Environment remains vulnerable to corruption

Editor's note: Last month, online reports showed a villa has been constructed on Qinling Mountain, Shaanxi province, where such construction is prohibited, with the owner being the son of a local official. The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee recently issued a document about the incident, saying the local Communist Party of China committees had violated Party discipline. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

Fortunes of private companies in the hands of local governments

FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS OF the central authorities, at least seven provincial-level regions have issued supportive policies to ease the burden on private enterprises. Beijing News comments:

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Building a more prosperous Asia-Pacific