IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Economy

Minimum growth rate set at 7 percent

For the first time since the beginning of China's complex economic transition, a government official said on Sept 16 the minimum level of annual economic growth acceptable to the central government is 7 percent. But based on recent economic data, for August in particular, China is almost certain to achieve growth of about 7.5 percent this year, Yang Shubing, a senior official at the National Policy Research Office of the State Council, said at a news briefing.

In the coming years China will seek to achieve minimum growth of 7 percent to double the size of the economy from 2010 to 2020, as promised during the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress last year, Yang said.

Sheng Laiyun, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, said the government's minimum-growth tolerance level represents a comprehensive assessment of GDP growth and other factors like employment.

In a sign of the leadership's confidence in employment, Premier Li Keqiang disclosed in an article published last week in the Financial Times that in the first half of this year unemployment stood at about 5 percent, according to a survey.

Policy

Austerity push drives down tea sales

Sales of high-end tea in Guangdong province before Mid-Autumn Festival have declined sharply due to government policies to limit luxury spending with public funds.

"High-end tea, along with mooncakes, is usually used as gifts during some big Chinese festivals," said Zhang Liming, secretary-general of the Guangdong Tea Procession Association. "But this year, sales of tea have been greatly affected." An association survey showed that sales of high-end tea dropped nearly 50 percent year-on-year before Mid-Autumn Festival, which fell on Sept 19. The survey targeted about 1,000 tea-shops in Fangcun and Haizhu districts, the tea trading hubs in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province.

"The drop was mainly due to the government's policy to limit luxury spending, which has also posed challenges to other retail markets such as high-end liquor," Zhang said. Tea sales during Mid-Autumn Festival last year accounted for more than 60 percent of September's total business revenue.

Society

Elderly care to get more support

The government plans to increase support for families caring for elderly relatives, by providing community care assistance to all urban communities and to 50 percent of all rural communities by 2015, a senior official said. "In designing our policies, we will prioritize the improvement of the support system to provide care for senior citizens," Wang Suying, a senior official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said.

"The family should be the backbone of the support network for elderly people, regardless of China's circumstances, the needs of senior citizens or international experience," she said.

However, Wang, who is deputy director of the ministry's social welfare and charity promotion department, said many families struggle to meet the demands in caring for elderly relatives and that the government aims to respond to that situation. Statistics from the ministry show that less than 2 percent of the country's 194 million elderly people lived in nursing homes by the end of 2012. Fewer than 1 million of the 36 million senior citizens requiring care on a daily basis were residents of such facilities, Wang said.

Food

List of approved GM products published

Agricultural experts in China have issued a list of genetically modified food that have been approved by the government, in a move to counter widespread debate over the safety of such products.

Biosafety certificates have been issued for some GM strains of cotton, rice, corn and papaya, among which only cotton and papaya are allowed to be commercially planted, Xie Jiajian, a researcher on plant protection at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, was quoted by People's Daily as saying on Sept 16.

Meanwhile, import certificates for GM crops in China have been given only to soybeans, corn, rapeseed, cotton and beets, allowing them to be imported as raw materials for domestic processing, he said. The newspaper said some vegetables, such as cherry tomatoes and colored bell peppers, which are common in markets, are cultivated in conventional ways instead of using GM technology.

Twelve lawyers from across the country issued an open letter to the China Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture last week, asking them to make related information on GM food in China known to the public.

Travel

Tibet gears up for new climbing season

The Tibet autonomous region is bracing itself for the start of the autumn climbing season, with more than 250, mostly foreign, mountaineers expected to tackle the region's famous mountains, some of which stand more than 8,000 meters high. Even though the number of mountaineers visiting Tibet in recent years has fallen, the autumn climbing season is still a big boost for the local tourism industry, and a key source of revenue for locals. The China Tibet Mountaineering Association says 254 mountaineers from Austria, France, Nepal, Spain, South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries are either on their way to Tibet or have already arrived. Most of them will challenge the world's sixth highest mountain, Mount Cho Oyu, which has an elevation of 8,201 meters, or the world's 14th highest, Mount Shishapangma, which stands at 8,012 meters.

Zhang Mingxing, director of the association, said on Sept 16 that most of the climbers are foreigners and that more than 200 of them have been preparing for their climbs in Tibet.

Chinese 'shame' in Louvre ticket scam

The Louvre in Paris, one of the world's largest and most-visited museums, has been hit by a fake ticket scam after high-quality counterfeits were found in the hands of Chinese tourists last month, French media reported.

Police launched an investigation after Belgian customs officers seized a package sent from China containing 3,600 fake entry tickets for the museum worth at least 144,000 euros ($191,400), reports said. The incident also sparked sharp criticism on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, with many Chinese Internet users calling it a shameful incident that "seriously damages the image of Chinese people".

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/20/2013 page2)