Social Stability - 137. page

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) stated that it supports proposed rules on AIDS treatment and prevention that will require the use of real names in HIV testing. Guangxi Autonomous Region is considering a regulation to promote the use of real names in HIV testing. Wang Yu, the Director of China CDC stated that, in order to prevent discrimination against AIDS patients, the current HIV testing is voluntary and anonymous; this protects the privacy of those who take the test. However, as a result of the anonymity, medical workers cannot locate and provide the test results to those who take the test, let alone offer them effective medical advice and treatment. “The prevention and control of AIDS will be adversely impacted unless we have a real-name system.”

Source: Nanfang Daily, February 9, 2012
http://nf.nfdaily.cn/nfdsb/content/2012-02/09/content_37548333.htm

The Party leaders in Tibet met on February 7 to discuss stability issues. Qizala, the secretary of the Lhasa municipal committee of the Communist Party of China, and the top Communist Party official in Lhasa, warned that departments at all levels in the city must not relax their vigilance and must attach paramount importance to their readiness to fight. “The situation of maintaining stability remains grim with unpredictable variables. (We) should be vigilant and ready to fight. Keep in mind that Lhasa must not have any incidents and that we cannot afford to have any incidents in Lhasa. Be mentally prepared for a protracted battle; (we must) resolutely align our thinking and action with the deployment and requirements of the Stability Command of the Autonomous Region. (We must) mobilize all resources, do a solid, good job of maintaining stability during this sensitive period of time, and actively create a festive, peaceful, and celebratory Tibetan New Year to ensure no incidents occur in Lhasa.”

Source: China Tibet News reprinted by Guangming Daily, February 8, 2012.
http://politics.gmw.cn/2012-02/08/content_3522343.htm

Xinhua’s Economic Information Daily reported that the third wave of Chinese emigrating overseas has been gaining momentum, with the United States and Canada as the top destination choices. An October 2011 survey indicated that 60% of those whose net worth exceeds 100 million RMB are either applying for or planning to apply for emigration to other countries. The first wave of emigration occurred in the early stage of the China’s open-door policy, when people left China primarily to look for work. The second wave was in the 1990s. It featured high tech emigrants. The third wave started in 2002 when the U.S. implemented a new immigration policy. It gathered momentum in 2008, particularly after the international financial crisis. Most from China have been investor emigrants. The report notes that, along with investment emigration, a large amount of funds has been transferred overseas. “The desire of investor emigrants to seek refuge [overseas] is strong.”

Source: Xinhua, February 1, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2012-02/01/c_111475232.htm

According to Legal Evening News, residents in Beijing cannot buy kitchen knives at supermarkets and department stores without providing their government issued ID cards. The customers must register their names by filling out ID cards at the stores and must provide an explanation of the intended use for the kitchen knives. A local resident, Ms. Zhang, just moved into a new home and went to the store to purchase several kitchen knives. She was not allowed to purchase the knives because she did not bring her ID with her. Notices have been posted at the stores stating that, according to an order from the Public Security authorities, those who purchase knives in stores must produce IDs for registration at the stores. Wal-Mart and Happy Go stores now require customers to show IDs when purchasing knives. However, customers can still purchase knives at hardware stores without IDs.

Source: Legal Evening News reprinted at sina.com, January 28, 2012
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2012-01-28/150723848923.shtml?c=spr_sw_bd_maxthon_news

Nanfang Daily published a commentary on migrant workers whose wages had not been paid due to local governments’ drive to increase GDP. The commentary reported that the Ministry of Railways recently obtained 250 billion RMB to use before the 2012 Chinese New Year (January 23, 2012) to pay off the unpaid wages owed to migrant workers for the work they had done on railroad construction. “The reason why migrant workers are not paid on time for their work is because the government [rather than the contractors that directly employ the migrant workers] fails to make payments. A number of local governments have no budget. Nevertheless, driven by their political need to show that their performance contributes to a rising GDP, they have blindly ordered new starts on projects. They are thus, at the outset, inevitably short of funds to pay migrant workers’ wages.” The article cited examples. One was of a migrant worker in Xinjiang. It took that worker 27 years before he was able to collect unpaid wages of 5,000 RMB from a local government. Another example was migrant workers on the government’s landscape project in Guangdong. They had been working for over a year without receiving any wages at all.

Source: Nanfang Daily, January 21, 2012
http://opinion.nfdaily.cn/content/2012-01/21/content_36772533.htm

Radio Free Asia (RFA) recently reported that, for the first time in ten years, China’s National Bureau of Statistics mentioned in a formally released report that China’s Gini Coefficient for the year 2010 was “a little higher than it was for the year 2000.” A Gini Coefficient is a number between 0 and 1 that reflects the level of differences in social income. The United Nations usually draws the line for alarm at 0.4. Above that number indicates a high potential for social instability. China’s National Bureau of Statistics released the number 0.375 for the year 1996. It reached 0.412 in year 2000. After that, the Bureau stopped releasing the number. The report released last month only mentioned that it was a “little higher.” When questioned by a reporter, an official from the Bureau responded that “numbers like this are intended for researchers only, not for the general public.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 9, 2012
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jp-01092012101659.html

China Review News (CRN) recently republished an article that Professor Hu Yong from the Peking University School of Journalism and Communication wrote discussing the change in topics among Chinese netizens. Hu identified three major changes that represent important shifts in public opinion: (1) The focus has shifted from nationalism to issues faced in daily living, such as food safety and air pollution. (2) An Internet-based social structure is getting more and more mature. Large groups of people are using the Internet to ask for and defend their social rights. Public freedom of speech on the Internet is influencing the political landscape. (3) The Internet-based society lacks Internet-ready administration. The current administration is not aligned with the Internet-oriented values that encourage innovation, freedom of speech, mutual trust, and reduced government interference. Hu suggested that the approach the government takes at present is heading in the opposite direction. The article concluded by calling for recognition of netizens’ basic rights.

Source: China Review News, January 8, 2012
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1019/7/0/1/101970166.html?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=101970166&mdate=0108092059

Xinhua announced that the period of “Spring Festival Transportation” started on January 8, 2011. The annual massive usage of transportation related to the Spring Festival will take place for 40 days this year, from January 8 to February 16. Estimates are that the traffic volume will be 3.158 billion person-trips (a unit to measure the number of one way trips per person). This represents an annual increase of 9.1% over 2011. The railway system alone is expected to carry 235 million people. Meanwhile, the demand for cargo transportation is also on the rise. The joint government coordination committee expressed the belief that the situation is “not optimistic.” The primary concern for the 40-day window is safety. Another variable in the equation is bad weather. The steady supply of critical resources such as coal, gas, food, and fertilizer is also in question. 

Source: Xinhua, January 8, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/society/2012-01/08/c_111392564.htm