According to People’s Daily, one out of every 13 Chinese (for a total of over 100 million people) suffers from mental illness. Less than 20% of them have received professional psychiatric treatment.
Based on its residential population, Shanghai has increased special funds for mental patients to 3 yuan per person per year, while in Beijing it is less than 1 yuan.
Source: People’s Daily, October 10, 2010
http://scitech.people.com.cn/GB/12909605.html
On October 12, Liu Junjun, an official from the China Ministry of Defense, remarked that the Chinese military established an emergency system, which consists of 50,000 people with national emergency response expertise and 45,000 with provincial emergency response expertise.
Liu identified special military task forces for flood disasters, earthquakes, nuclear biotech attacks, emergency airlifting, coastal searches, etc., totaling 50,000 national and 45,000 provincial personnel. Over 20 defense officials and military officers from ASEAN, China, Japan, and Korea attended the forum.
Source: Xinhua, October 12, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-10/12/c_12652167.htm
Cai Penghong, a research fellow at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, wrote that, due to continuous U.S. military presence and intervention, and because the U.S. encourages Vietnam’s and the Philippine’s claims over the Nanshan Islands, U.S. ships may mistakenly or purposely enter the territorial waters of the Nansha Islands.
“The possibility of a Sino-US diplomatic crisis in the Nansha region might then become reality.”
"While the U.S. tries to control the ASEAN, ASEAN has its own way to effectively deal with the situation," remarked Cai. “In this context, China should take the initiative, take a tougher stance to safeguard its territorial sovereignty, and speed up consultation with the respective countries to develop a ‘Nansha Code of Conduct.’"
He suggested that, at present, China is the only country that can bring about a resolution to deal with the risk of trouble around the Nansha Islands.”
Source: Huanqiu, October 12, 2010
http://mil.huanqiu.com/Exclusive/2010-10/1163533.html
On October 11, 2010, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, notified six banks that it will increase the required reserve ratio for them by 50 basis points. The six banks include the four major state-owned banks and 2 publicly traded banks, China Merchants Bank and China Minsheng Bank. “The market anticipates this action will only last for 2 months. The main purpose is to react to the high number of new loans that banks issued in September of this year.”
Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said that there hasn’t been enough evidence to show that the quantitative tools that the central bank adopts, including reserve ratio and open market operation to absorb liquidity, cannot meet the goal of controlling inflation.
Source: China Review News, October 12, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1014/7/1/6/101471619.html?coluid=10&kindid=253&docid=101471619&mdate=1011170343
Zhou Yongkang, a senior Communist official and one of the nine-member standing committee of the Politburo, led a Chinese delegation to attend North Korea’s 65th anniversary celebration of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. During his 3-day visit from October 9 to 11, Zhou met with Kim Jong-Il four times. Zhou also “had extensive contacts with the newly elected Workers’ Party leadership.” Zhou also watched a military parade and the evening celebration performance. Kim Jong-Il said that he and the central group leadership would like to visit China often.
[Ed: The newly elected leadership may refer to Kim Jong-Un, Kim Jong-Il’s selected heir].
Source: Xinhua, October 11, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-10/11/c_12648095.htm
The People’s Daily website published an article consisting of reports from the U.K., U.S., Russia, and Turkey on the military exchange that China held with Turkey from September 20 to October 4. It stated that “this military exchange is a ‘joint training’ but not a ‘joint exercise.’” China flew its Su-27 planes over Pakistan and Iran to land at Turkey’s air force base, a journey of over 4,000 miles, without aerial refueling.
Source: People’s Daily website, October 10, 2010
http://military.people.com.cn/GB/42969/58519/12910945.html
Hu Siyi, the Deputy Minister of Water Resources, recently announced that the situation regarding the lack of water in northern China is getting worse due to the double pressures of global climate change and large-scale economic development. For example, the Haihe River Basin surface water level dropped 41% during the past two to three decades. The urbanization of China is speeding up rapidly. Meanwhile, the acceleration of industrialization is resulting in a rapid increase in water usage. During the past four years, just the energy and heavy chemical industries alone consumed 10 billion cubic meters more water. Hu believes that water conservation faces unprecedented challenges.
Sources: Xinhua, October 7, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-10/07/c_12633704.htm