On November 5, Premier Wen Jiabao chaired a State Council meeting and discussed the measures to expand the domestic consumption to ensure smooth economy growth.

It was agreed that it is necessary to adopt a macro economic policy in light of the world economic crisis which will contain the execution of proactive fiscal policies and loose monetary policy; speed up the projects to improve people’s living standard as well as infrastructure, bio-environment and natural disaster recovery. The measure will also include the effort to improve the living standard of the low income group.

Source: Xinhua, November 11, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-11/09/content_10331258_1.htm

In little over two weeks from October 11 to October 27, 1.2 million people boarded the train from Guangzhou Train Station. The number is 130,000 higher than the same period last year. Most of them are migrant workers who were affected by factory shutdown and chose to return back to their hometown. Experts predicted that the trend of factory closing is currently moving from the south towards the east part of China.

Source: Mingpo, November 9, 2008
http://www.mingpaonews.com/20081109/gba1.htm

Privatization of land will not solve China’s problems, said Huang, an Agriculture official, at a press event on November 4, 2008.  Huang stated that China agriculture sector cannot compete with that of the United States because of low land per capita (1.38 mu per person) and its small scale of economy.  The right way, according to Huang, is to increase the efficiency of land use and the scale of economy through transfer of  land use right. 
  
Source: Xinhua, November 7, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2008-11/07/content_10319517.htm

Chinese Customs authorities released export statistics for the first three quarters of 2008 showing an 11.8% net growth of export, totaling $1,074 billion.  It is a reduction of 8.1 percentage point comparing to the same period last year. The reduction was mostly caused by the decrease in the traditional and bulk products. A China Customs official warned that China cannot ignore the impact on its import and export trade of the U.S. financial crisis.

Source: Xinhua, November 6, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-11/06/content_10317019.htm

Minister of Human Resources and Social Security alerts local authorities to “closely monitor the impact of changing economy that may have on employment.” His directive was made during his visit to Guangdong, one of the fastest growing regions in China. According to Shenzhen job market statistics, the number of employers hiring started to decrease in the 2nd quarter 2008. It was down 30% in 3rd quarter comparing to the 2nd quarter. On the other hand, job seeker increased close to 40 percent in the past 4 months.

Earlier release from National Development and Reform Commission shows that over 67,000 enterprises of small and medium sizes closed down in the first 6 months of 2008.

Source: China Federation of Trade Unions, November 6, 2008
http://acftu.people.com.cn/GB/67561/8291394.html
Xinhua, September 8, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/house/2008-09/08/content_9848744.htm