Guangming Daily: Pediatric Medicine in Severe Short Supply
Guangming Daily carried an article stating that, based on the statistics that the China Pharmaceutical Industry Association released, out of 6,000 pharmaceutical manufacturers in China, only 10 companies produce pediatric medicine. Over 90 percent of the adult medicine in China lacks a pediatric version. The delegates during the Lianghui (the annual plenary sessions of the national or local People’s Congress and the national or local committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) that is current being held in Beijing raised this issue. The statistics that the Center for Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring released show that 10.5 percent of the reported cases in 2014 were related to children 14 years or younger. Parents often complaint that there is a severe shortage of the pediatric version of the medicine on the market and it has forced the parents to use adult medicine and estimate the dosage to give their children. The article quoted statements that a few delegates made. They attributed the cause of the shortage to higher research costs, a lack of economic return and parents being unwilling to put their children through clinical trials. The article said that the delegates feel that it has become an urgent matter to resolve the pediatric medicine shortage issue for the 200 million children in China. They proposed that the State institute special drug and tax incentive policies on pediatric medicine in order to motivate the Pharmaceutical companies to produce more pediatric medicine.
Source: Guangming Daily, March 7, 2016
http://health.gmw.cn/2016-03/07/content_19183780.htm
During the Current Lianghui, Deputy of Chinese Society of Education Raised Two Education Issues
Guangming Daily reported that during the current Lianghui [the "Lianghui" consists of two parts: the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference (CPPCC)], Zhu Yongxing, deputy director of Chinese Society of Education raised two areas that demand education reform: the increase in Chinese youth studying abroad and the lack of education for migrant workers. Zhu commented that the current education system in China is ineffective and can’t meet the demand of its people.
According to Zhu, in 2014, Chinese oversea students spent close to 200 billion yuan (USD$31 billion) on higher education overseas. From July 2014 to February 2015, the number of Chinese high school students studying in the U.S. grew 50 percent. Zhu called for renovation in the Chinese education system to improve its quality in order to make it more diverse and advanced so as to keep the Chinese youth from studying abroad.
Zhu also said that, based on the statistics from the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security, there are 150 million technical workers in China, accounting for 19 percent of total employed population. Among them 37 million are workers with advanced skills. Zhu claimed that vocational education can solve the issue of the technical labor shortage and lack of quality workers. However the current vocational schools lack flexibility; they are unable to provide evening and weekend classes and a curriculum that will attract migrant workers. Their admission rate continues to drop while their resources remain underutilized. Zhu suggested that the funding from the central administration and local government can help the vocational schools to provide professional training classes and redesign the courses so that they provide flexibility to enable the migrant workers to gain technical skills.
Source: Guangming Daily, March 3, 2016
http://edu.gmw.cn/2016-03/04/content_19160882.htm
VOA-: China to Increase 2016 Financial Deficit
VOA published an article which stated that, based on the financial data that China disclosed, the growth rate of its 2016 GDP will remain between 6.5 and 7 percent and its finance deficit will grow from 1.62 trillion (US$0.25 trillion) in 2015 to 2.18 trillion (US$0.33 trillion) in 2016; its local treasury bonds are expected to be 400 billion yuan (US$61 billion). The article said that the Chinese government admits that its economy will face a bottleneck which it must break through to succeed. It also said that, according to the statistics, the Chinese government plans to allocate 16 billion yuan (US$2.45 billion) to urban medical assistance funds, an increase of 10 percent from 2015. It also claimed that it will increase the low income supplement fund by 5 percent for urban and 8 percent for the rural region.
Source: VOA, March 6, 2016
http://www.voachinese.com/content/china-economy-20160306/3221705.html
The CCTV 2016 Chinese New Year’s Gala Propaganda Disaster
[Editor’s Note: China Central Television (CCTV) started broadcasting a special Chinese New Year celebration program in 1983. This Chinese New Year’s Gala, also called the Spring Festival Gala and commonly abbreviated in Chinese as chunwan (春晚), consists of songs, dances, talk show segments, acrobatics, martial arts performances, and other forms of entertainment.
While there is always some of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) propaganda embedded in the performances, the public generally finds the show entertaining. Many Chinese watch it on Chinese New Year’s eve, from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., to welcome in the New Year.
This year, the Chinese people felt that the CCTV 2016 Chinese New Year’s Gala on February 7, 2016, carried an unbearable amount of propaganda. Netizens flooded the Internet with so much criticism that the CCP’s Internet guards remained frantically busy deleting them. Of course, the Chinese media praised the show as a great success.
Many overseas Chinese media reported this propaganda disaster. Reports from a number of different sources follow.]
Expert: U.S. Can Monitor Nearly Half of China if “THAAD” Enters Korea
How much harm can the "THAAD" Missile System do to China if it enters Korea? CCTV interviewed Chinese military expert Du Wenlong, who said that, if the THAAD system is deployed in Korea, the United States will further improve its capability of reconnaissance and surveillance activity in China. Previously, U.S. ships and planes had to come close to China’s territory to conduct surveillance, covering the surface above the water, under the water, the air, and any other range. If the "THAAD" enters Korea, the U.S. military will increase its reconnaissance capabilities deep into China’s hinterland and will have a combination of fixed and mobile reconnaissance and surveillance. It can do real-time monitoring and continuous surveillance of different launch activities in China. This will have a serious impact on China’s national security.
Huanqiu: Hong Kong Independence Backed by International Anti-China Forces and Financiers
China Will Cut 1.8 Million Jobs in the Steel and Coal Industries
Yin Weimin, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, stated in a press conference on February 29, that China will cut 1.3 million jobs in the coal industry and a half million jobs in the steel industry, to solve the over capacity problem in these two industries.
According to Radio Free Asia, the State Council proposed, in January, to reduce crude steel production by 100 to 150 million tons, on top of the already planned elimination of 90 million tons of steel produced from old technology, over the next few years.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recommended that 4,300 coal mines be closed and 700 million tons of coal production be cut over the next three years.
"Experts anticipate that, over the next two to three years, if such industries as steel, coal mining, cement, ship building, aluminum, and plate glass, which are severely over-capacity, cut their production by 30 percent, China will lose at least 3 million jobs."
Source: Radio Free Asia, March 1, 2016
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ql2-03012016105153.html