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Finding a Job is Tough for College Graduates in China

People’s Daily published an article in which it reported on the results after the Mycos Institute polled college graduates who were searching for jobs in China. The poll was conducted during December 2012 and January 2013. It showed that 35 percent of the trade school graduates surveyed signed employment contracts, nine percentage points lower than last year; 38 percent of graduates with college degrees signed employment contracts, eight percentage points lower than last year; and 29 percent of those with masters degrees signed employment contracts, 7 percentage points lower than last year.

The highest success rate was for jobs in manufacturing, followed by telecommunications and information technology.

Source: People’s Daily, February 14, 2013
http://edu.people.com.cn/n/2013/0214/c1053-20485368.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

CRN: Safety of Food Supply Calls for New Strategy

China Review News (CRN) recently published an article discussing the growing risk of managing the availability of food. China’s food self-sufficiency rate has been on a continuous decline. Chinese Customs has provided statistics which show that, in 2012, China’s food imports increased by 25 percent over the year 2011. Imported food now constitutes almost 14 percent of all of China’s food supply. In 2012, China’s food importing demands accounted for 20 percent of the global food exporting market. This means any fluctuation in the international food market will have a major impact on China’s food supply. China is currently the second largest food buyer in the world (after Japan). The article suggested that China must have a significant policy focus as well as implementation on domestic agricultural development. In the meantime, China should invest internationally to secure food supply sources on a nation-to-nation level. Lastly, the author called for serious action to be taken on activities that waste food, such as having no control over public funds spent on meals. 
Source: China Review News, February 8, 2013
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1024/3/3/9/102433990.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=102433990&mdate=0208072923
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

An Estimated 80,000 Prayed at Yonghe Temple on the Chinese New Year

According to CCTV, an estimated 80,000 people went to Yonghe Temple, a Buddhist temple located in the northeastern part of Beijing, to burn incense and pray on Chinese New Year’s Day. According to People’s Daily, people have established a pattern of going to Yonghe to burn incense and say their prayers every Chinese New Year’s Day. Some of them even lined up overnight in front of the temple so they could be the first to burn the incense.

Due to the large number of incense-burners, the metro stop at the Yonghe Temple in Beijing was shut down. People had to walk an additional three kilometers to get to Yonghe Temple. By midnight on New Year’s eve, there were more than a thousand policemen on site. Each four of them stood hand in hand to form a “human wall divider” to cut the long lines of the crowd into small groups of about one hundred people each. There were about 10 meters distance between each of the “groups.”

Source: People’s Daily, February 11, 2013
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2013/0211/c70731-20478188.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Woman Petitioner Detained in a Mortuary for 3 Years; Now a Paraplegic

Departments of the local government detained Chen Qingxia, a resident of Yichun City in Heilongjiang Province, in an abandoned mortuary for 3 years because she persisted in petitioning the higher level government. After her story was exposed on January 24, 2013, people throughout society discussed it. 

Reporters from China Youth Daily learned that the room where Chen had been detained was guarded 24/7. A surveillance camera was installed on one side of the door and the rear window was fitted with iron railings. The guards told the reporter that these bungalows were part of a former mortuary used for the storage of bodies and wreaths. 
Chen Qingxia was a paraplegic, wearing diapers all the time. According to Chen herself, the condition came about because the beatings at the detention center injured her legs. 
An eyewitness told reporters that many people had seen Chen Qingxia lying in the rain in front of the detention center. Now however, few people dare to come forward to testify. “Her issue is quite serious. However, if neighbors or friends get involved in her matter, the Public Security Bureau will come after them, so nobody dares to do anything." 
Source: China Youth Daily, January 25, 2013 
http://zqb.cyol.com/html/2013-01/25/nw.D110000zgqnb_20130125_1-03.htm
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

CRN: Experts Criticize China’s Official Gini Coefficient

China Review News (CRN) recently reported on the Gini Coefficient that the National Bureau of Statistics released. It has been over a decade since the Bureau last released China’s Gini Coefficient. In this current new release, the Bureau published official numbers for the past ten years. All numbers were between 0.473 and 0.491. Immediately after the official announcement, many economists posted their comments online. Some called the official numbers “unbelievable” compared to unofficial numbers that are typically around 0.6. Some even described the official results as “braver than fairy tales.” The most conservative comments suggested that these numbers “still reflected a big income gap between the rich and the poor.” The Gini Coefficient is commonly used as a measure of the inequality in income or wealth. The global average Gini Coefficient is 0.44, and the Index number of 0.4 is a widely accepted international red line. All experts asked for the details on the methodology used for the official calculation.

[Editor’s Note: The Washington Post reported on December 11, 2012, for example, that a new study from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics found "that China’s Gini coefficient was, as of 2010, an alarmingly high 0.61."]

Source: China Review News, January 19, 2013
http://www.zhgpl.com/crn-webapp/doc/docDetailCreate.jsp?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=102408573&mdate=0119153611
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Survey Shows 40% of People Dare Not Go Out at Night

A recent government survey on 38 cities in China showed that 39.91 percent of people dare not go out at night and that 38.69 percent would worry about the safety of their personal property if they left home for a long period.

On December 20, 2012, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences issued the Public Service Blue Book 2012. The Blue Book examined the causes of people’s lack of a sense of security. “The intense changes in social structure will result in increased uncertainty and risks. Deep adjustments in income redistribution could lead to polarization, conflicts of interest, and social psychological imbalances. Some people in the low-income population, with hostility toward the unequal distribution, might wantonly release that hostility, thus leading to increases in public security related incidents.”

Source: Beijing New, December 21, 2012
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2012/12/21/240484.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

RFA: Rights Lawyer Prohibited from Giving Media Interview

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that, in August of 2012, Wang Chen, a rights lawyer from Hang Zhou, Zhejiang Province, initiated a petition campaign calling for an end to the labor camp system. Recently, Wang mailed the petition, which had over 10,000 signatures, to the People’s Congress and the State Council. Wang told RFA on Monday, December 3 that, when he was about to leave for an interview with a Hong Kong media on November 30, the police blocked him from leaving his house. They later summoned him to the police station for “Inciting subversion of state power.” Wang told RFA that the signatures he collected came from people from all walks of life, including lawyers, business owners, farm workers, public servants, people who had been locked up in labor camps, and some famous public figures, including Ai Weiwei, Jiang Tianyong, Li Heping, Li Fangping, Xu Zhiyong and Ten Biao.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 3, 2012
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/ql1-12032012094501.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Yangtze Evening News: 27% of Wealthy Company Owners Have Completed Emigration

Yangtze Evening News recently reported that 27 percent of Chinese company owners having over RMB 100 million yuan (around US$16 million) worth of private property have completed the processes of emigrating  to foreign countries. The statistics are based on a research report jointly issued by the Merchants Bank and Bain Consulting. Forty-seven percent of the same sample are considering the emigration option. The main reasons given for the decision to emigrate are the children’s education, retirement planning, and risk management for their wealth. The report expressed the concern that this new wave of emigration is coupled with a massive outflow of capital from China to the outside world, which may damage the effort to expand China’s domestic consumer market.

Source: Yangtze Evening News, November 30, 2012
http://epaper.yzwb.net/html_t/2012-11/30/content_41296.htm?div=-1

Briefings | | |   Social Stability