An inside source has informed Boxun that in the last few days the authorities have begun forcing non-locals to leave Beijing, including those who hold temporary residence permits. The action was said to be needed in order to ensure the safety of Beijing Olympics. This has caused widespread complaints and anger from the non-locals being affected.
Source: Boxun, May 5, 2008
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2008/05/200805051207.shtml
On April 27 & 28, Monk Shi Qingming from Huang Long Temple of Yunnan Province sat in a two-day qualification test seeking to be enrolled into the Chinese Communist Party School of Yunnan Province. He learned about the party school enrollment notice in February and applied for the test in April. Monk Shi said that he intends to study the systematic teachings about the Party in order to accept the party leadership, follow the Party’s policies on religious practice and be part of the development to build a “Harmonious Society”.
Source: Yunnan Daily, April 28, 2008 http://search.yndaily.com/cgi-bin/detail.exe?133200+yndaily/news_99+59673+news_99+
@NEWSITEM+nobody+0+mark+%CA%CD%C7%E5%C3%F7,//%B5%B3%D0%A3%B5%
C4%BF%BC%CA%D4,////
On May 2, 2008, the opening ceremony of the first Confucius Institute of the National University of Mongolia was held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
According to the statistics by the office of Chinese Language Council International, as of March 2008, 238 Confucius Institutes have opened in 69 countries and regions. The number has nearly doubled in two years from 2006 when 120 Confucius Institutes were established in 50 countries and regions.
Source:
Xinhua, May 2, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-05/02/content_8092008.htm
The office of Chinese Language Council International http://www.hanban.org/cn_hanban/content.php?id=3258
According to Ministry of Education, in 1978 there were 860 Chinese students who departed China for education abroad. 30 years later, a total of 1,211,700 Chinese students went overseas for higher education, 319,700 of which have returned to China. 657,200 are currently in various bachelor, master or PhD programs abroad.
In 2007 alone, 144,000 left China for education abroad. 8,853 of them were sponsored by the State.
Source: Xinhua, April 30, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/overseas/2008-04/30/content_8078255.htm
As of April 29, 2008, Fuyang City in Anhui reported 1,884 cases of infections of Enterovirus 71, with 20 deaths, according to China Center of Disease Control. No new deaths reported in the past 5 days. Early March, People’s Hospital of Fuyang City admitted 5 infants with similar symptoms. Bewteen March 27 and 29, all 5 died. Panics among parents ensued. On April 15, local authorities issued a statement that several infants died of respiratory diseases and that none of these cases were related to each other. On April 23, EV71 was determined as the cause of deaths.
Source:
Xinhua, April 30, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-04/30/content_8080131.htm
Xinhua, April 30, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-04/30/content_8077180.htm
Nanfang Daily, April 30, 2008
http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/southnews/jwxy/200804300055.asp
National Bureau of Statistics issued its forecast alerts for the past 12 months on April 30, 2008. Consumer price index (CPI) has been yellow for the seventh consecutive month. CPI was 6.2% in September 2007 and hit 8.3% in March 2008. Consumer price index is now at 11-year high. Fiscal Income has been red for the 11th consecutive month.
Source:
National Bureau of Statistics of China, April 30, 2008
http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/jdsj/hgjjjqzs/t20080429_402477229.htm
Xinhua, April 30, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-04/30/content_8082313.htm
Fast rising food prices and continued expansion of capital investment and consumer spending are a real threat for serious inflation across-the-board in China’s economy, according to this article published in Outlook Weekly, a subsidiary of Xinhua News. In the first two months of 2008, the prices of meat related products have risen 43.3%, with 70.3% on pork meat alone, on top of the already high 31.6% and 53.9% increases in year 2007. Other products such as vegetable oils and oil-bearing crops have also seen 40-50% price increases over the same two month period. The grain price, in the mean time, has only risen 5.9% during the same period but is expected to catch up soon as pressure is mounting from the double digits monthly rise in the prices of agricultural materials since December 2007. Capital investment that has been growing at a fast pace of a 25% annual increase for the past five years, coupled with the recent rapid increase in consumer retail spending, 18% and 20.6% for two recent quarters respectively, means that all-out inflation has become a serious reality.
Source: Outlook Weekly, April 29, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2008-04/29/content_8068646.htm
China UniCom announced today that it would introduce a “Firewall” service for its Cellular Messaging users throughout China to combat the problem of “junk” messages. Through technological innovation, this automatic service allows incoming messages to be filtered based on pre-selected key words, according to one senior engineer of the state-owned company. The company also announced a platform for users to report “unhealthy” messages that can be analyzed and reported to the authorities automatically. According to China’s Internet Association for Anti-Junk Mails Working Committee, cellular phone users in China have received a total of 353.9 billions junk messages in 2007, a 92.7% increase from 2006.
Source: Xinhua, April 29, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-04/29/content_8075377.htm