Social Stability - 157. page

Professor Chen Hongtai, expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. suggested that corruption is not today’s biggest problem in China’s universities. Excessive academic administration, bureaucratization and profit-chasing are the main threats. Chen called for safeguarding the domain of higher education as a “pure land,” where professors should take responsibility for exercising their conscience with regard to society’s future generations.

Source: Global Times, October 15, 2009.
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-10/604130.html 

By 1999, Chinese society had entered an aging era when people older than 60 years old made up 10% of the entire population. Ten years later, this figure increased to 12.79 % of the populion, which represents 169 million people.The Ministry of Civil Affairs stated a belief that “China is rushing into an aging society at a speed that is exceeding our imagination.” It was suggested that over the next 25 years, China should be getting ready to develop a strategy to deal with this issue. Development plans, laws and regulations, social and economic policy adjustments – all need to be prepared.

Source: Xinhua, October 26, 2009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-10/26/content_12328694.htm

Beijing has initiated a first-class patrol program which includes over 7000 policemen and more than 3000 auxiliary police mobilized into vehicle patrols, bike patrols, foot patrols, and dog patrols, according to Beijing Evening News on September 23rd, 2009.

Hundreds of Beijing entrances are strictly controlled. Suspicious persons, vehicles, and dangerous goods are all checked, one by one. Beijing police require residents to carry their IDs with them and to cooperate with police inquiries and checks.

Source: Beijing Evening News, September 23, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2009-09/23/content_12102341.htm

According to Xinhua, Shanxi Province has made the decision that any unexpected incidents must be reported to the Provincial Party Committee within two hours. If it is a big incident, the reporting time must not exceed one hour.

At the same time, Taiyuan Municipality has made a clear requirement that the heads of on-duty departments at all levels must have their telephones on 24 hours a day so as to prevent any incident caused by an illegal organization, a cult organization, or by ethnic and religious sensitive issues.

Source: Xinhua, September 22, 2009
http://www.sx.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-09/22/content_17765689.htm

Xinhua reported that, to be in sync with the communist regime’s national day celebration security plan, Beijing initiated full-scale police monitoring of the public transportation system, including commuter buses, commuter trains, long-distance buses between Beijing and other provinces, taxies, and rental buses. Uniformed police rode along buses and took up each and every train station. Companies and organizations also provided 15,000 volunteers to prevent any unexpected and objectionable incident as well as to maintain control over the public transportation system.

During the last week, 7.3 million people and 7 million bags and other items were searched.

Source: Xinhua, September 24, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-09/24/content_12107824.htm

In order to prevent theft and other crimes from happening, the Xi’an Party Committee and the government decided to install these monitoring systems on more than 4,400 public transportation vehicles. Meanwhile, it is also considered a measure to ensure social stability during the 60th Anniversary celebrations. This is part of a larger Public Transportation Technological Safeguard System. The system is a required element to protect public safety.

Source: China Economy Net, September 23, 2009.
http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/200909/23/t20090923_20081637.shtml

During the period of September 23 to 29, non-local residents living in the “Celebration Control Area” will be given temporary passes to go in and out. Local residents will be required to present their identification cards. This measure impacts around ten thousand families living near the Tiananmen Square area.

Source: Xinhua, September 25, 2009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2009-09/25/content_12109108.htm

An assessment report published by the Ministry of Civil Affairs indicates China faces increasingly severe natural disasters. According to the Response Assessment Analysis for 2008 Natural Disasters, disasters in 2008 were high in frequency, of different varieties, spanned vast geographical ranges, were of high magnitude and caused heavy losses. “The overall situation remains grim.” Statistics show that in 2008, 470 million people were affected, 88,928 killed or missing, 26.822 million evacuated, 39.99 million hectares of crops damaged, and 10.977 million houses collapsed. The disasters caused direct economic losses of 117.524 billion Yuan.

Source: Ministry of Civil Affairs, September 23, 2009 http://www.mca.gov.cn/article/zwgk/mzyw/200909/20090900038648.shtml