Social Stability - 117. page

Guangming Daily reported that, in November 2013, Insight China magazine and the Media Survey Lab of Tsinghua University conducted a survey in which 2013 Chinese people participated. The survey results showed that most people had mixed feelings about their lives in 2013. The description that was used most to describe their feelings durig 2013 was that they were exhausted both physically and mentally.

The article quoted Fu Chunsheng, the Principal of Beijing Boai Psychological Medical Research Institute on why Chinese people felt exhausted. According to Fu, feeling exhausted is a reflection of people’s lack of a personal value system in their lives. Therefore, they tend to lack a goal in life; they do not know who they are or why they are busy with life. Another reason is that people often felt insecure due to the uncertainties in their lives: they were unable to afford a car or housing and were therefore unable to get married. In addition to feeling exhausted, people also used “uninterested,” “good,” “busy,” and “irritated” to describe their feelings.

Source: Guangming Daily, December 6, 2013
http://life.gmw.cn/2013-12/06/content_9724288_2.htm

On December 2, 2013, China Review News published an article on China’s social security problem. Based on data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China, 23 percent of the working people in China no longer pay anything into social security for their future retirement. According to China’s official data, 38 million of about 300 million Chinese who have participated in China’s basic pension insurance for urban employees stopped paying their fees in 2013. The article gave a number of possible reasons behind this trend of leaving the government’s social security system.

Source: China Review News Agency, December 2, 2013
http://hk.crntt.com/crn-webapp/aboutus_en.html

On November 7, Xinhua published a commentary on the multiple explosions that took place in front of the Provincial Communist Party building in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province.

China Gate republished an article originally from the Central News Agency, the state news agency of the Republic of China (http://www.cna.com.tw/) about a recent series of fabricated bomb threats that targeted mainland airlines.

On October 31, 2013, at least four different airlines had flights, either to or from Changsha City in Hunan Province, that received bomb threats. The threats disrupted China’s flights and caused chaos at the airports. According to the article, as China’s ruling Communist Party will hold the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee soon (on Nov. 9-12 in Beijing), these ardent bomb threats to the airlines have made the Chinese authorities very nervous.

Source: Central News Agency, November 1, 2013
http://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2013/11/01/2759992.html  

Following the October 28 incident in Beijing in which a car crashed into a crowd in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square causing five deaths and dozens of injuries, Guo Jinlong, Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, issued a directive that counter terrorism and anti-violence measures are to be included in the city’s public stability work. According to Guo, the effort will focus on the development of public safety measures in strategic key locations and improve the early warning ability of the city’s management system, especially in its data collection on the mobile population living in leased apartments and hotels.

Source: Xinhua, November 3, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-11/03/c_117979881.htm

According to an article that Xinhua originally published, Chinese medical doctors are facing increased pressure and frequent medical disputes. Work safety has become a huge concern. The article reported that 80 percent of all medical patients are spread throughout the countryside while 80 percent of medical resources are concentrated in urban areas. This imbalance was blamed for costly medical expenses, the inaccessibility of medical facilities, and frequent medical disputes. Hospitals in China also tend to prescribe excess medication, examinations, and treatments in order to increase their revenue. This has resulted in deep dissatisfaction from the patients.

According to statistics that the China Hospital Management Association published, medical disputes in China have grown an average of 22.9 percent each year since 2002. Recently in Guangzhou, after the death of a patient, the patient’s family member seriously injured his doctor. A patient in Zhejiang Province, who became violent, injured two doctors and caused another’s death. Doctors in China often suffer physical and mental stress. Statistics show that 78 percent of doctors do not want their children to become doctors.

Source: China News, October 27, 2013
http://news.china.com.cn/2013-10/27/content_30414901.htm

Ye Zicheng and Long Quanli, two scholars at Beijing University, wrote an article that was published in the International Herald Leader recommending that China’s fine traditions should be used to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.