Higher-level action needed if local authorities cannot stop polluters

BEIJING NEWS REPORTED ON THURSDAY that the dust and sewage from an iron ore processing factory in Urad Middle Banner, Bayannuur, in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, have caused serious pollution in adjacent pastures, and contaminated the Moleng River downstream. China Daily reporter Li Yang comments:

Talks can produce fresh progress toward a deal

Amid a good fall of snow, which Chinese traditionally believe promises a year of harvest and prosperity, Chinese and United States top officials started two days of talks in Beijing on Thursday.

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Festival consumption defies doomsayers

According to some international observers, the Lunar New Year sales figures indicate a plunge in Chinese consumption. Economic realities tell a different story.

India unlikely to accede to US trade policy

The Office of the US Trade Representative is reviewing India's status as a beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences, a US trade program aimed at promoting the economic growth of developing countries by providing duty-free entry for up to 4,800 products from 129 designated countries and regions, and considering cancelling the zero-tariff arrangement for $5.6 billion of Indian imports, according to Reuters. Among the developing countries, India has benefitted the most from the US program with about 3,500 Indian products getting zero-or low-tariff entry into the US market.

Technology eases travelers' Spring Rush journeys

During this year's Spring Rush (or chunyun), which started on Jan 21 and will end on March 1, Chinese people are expected to make about 2.99 billion trips. This is equivalent to relocating the entire population of Africa, Europe, the Americas and Oceania in 40 days.

Family planning law should not be too onerously enforced

THE PUBLIC HEALTH BUREAU of Chengwu county, Shandong province, fined a migrant worker couple 64,626 yuan ($9,570), in the form of the so-called social maintenance fee, for breaking the provincial rules made according to the Population and Family Planning Law. The local court then seized all of the couple's savings, 22,958 yuan, last month, after they failed to hand the fine to the bureau before the 30-day deadline expired. China Daily reporter Li Yang comments:

Mentality of US poses biggest threat to humanity from space

Forget asteroids, it is the United States and its pathological need to maintain its hegemony at any cost that pose the biggest threat to humanity from space.

Indian govt trying to find a winning position for election

Editor's note: The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has said the cancellation of some Belt and Road projects in Pakistan and Nepal is testimony to some unacceptable conditions of the initiative proposed by China. In his interview with Guancha.cn, Lin Minwang, a researcher in South Asia studies at the Shanghai-based Fudan University, comments:

Warsaw conference an exercise in futility

The two-day Middle East conference that started in Poland's capital Warsaw on Wednesday proclaims it will help promote peace and stability in the region. But it is sailing against the wind if it wants to yield any substantial result. There will likely be "all thunder and no rain" - as the Chinese saying goes - given the deep divisions between the United States and its European allies on such key issues as the Iran nuclear deal, as well as the diverse agendas being pursued by the participating countries.

Restrict, not ban kids' use of smartphones

ZHAO ZHIZHONG, a professor of geography at Hainan Normal University, recently proposed to amend the law and forbid pupils below the age of 16 to use smartphones. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

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