Spotlight (2015.12-2016.01)
Report suggests delaying retirement age starting in 2018
A green book on population and labor has advised authorities to postpone the statutory retirement age to 65 starting in 2018, Chinanews.com reported.
From:Ecns.cn
China to tackle issue of 13 mln non-registered population
China is mulling measures to assist the 13 million people who haven't been registered in its household system,also known as "hukou". The issue was one of the major topics at a meeting of the Ministry of Public Security held over the weekend.
From: Ecns.cn
1st China-Europe Human Rights Forum eyes child protection
The first China-Europe Human Rights Forum was held at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France on December 4, 2015.
Chinese and European experts, scholars and legal personnel attended the Forum and exchanged views on child protection.
From: chinahumanrights.org
China releases blueprint on fighting poverty
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council released a poverty alleviation instruction on Dec.7,2015.
The document followed a high-profile conference on the issue in Beijing late in November, during which the leadership pledged measures to help lift the country's remaining 70 million poor out of poverty by 2020.
From: Xinhua
US expert: China is making progress in human rights protection
“China has made great progress in protecting political rights and other human rights. In the long run, China is making progress in its human rights cause,” Stephen A. Orlins, President of the National Committee on US-China Relations (NCUSCR) said to CRI Online when he attended the Sixth Sino-American Dialogue on the Rule of Law and Human Rights .
The Sixth Sino-American Dialogue on the Rule of Law and Human Rights was held in Beijing on December 7 and 8, 2015. The theme of the dialogue is “building a country based on rule of law and promoting human rights protection”.
More than 40 law and human rights experts from China and the US attended the Dialogue and held extensive talks on human rights protection.
From: chinahumanrights.org
China, US law experts discuss human rights issues
Experts from China and the United States held talks on various human rights topics during the Sixth Sino-American Dialogue on Rule of Law and Human Rights in Beijing.
The two-day event, which started on Monday, brought together 40 experts, scholars, judges and lawyers from the two countries to discuss protecting the interests of people involved in legal cases, human rights protection in judicial reform and guiding lawyers to contribute to the judicial system.
From: Xinhua
China's new residence permits promise better public services
From next year, an interim regulation on China's residence permit system will ensure access to basic public services while encouraging local governments to provide better services.
From: Xinhua
Schools in poor areas getting help
The central government has launched a national campaign to evaluate basic school conditions and oversee billions of yuan in renovation projects in an effort to improve education in areas with high poverty.
From: China Daily
Draft law against domestic violence to include psychological harm, cover cohabitation
China's first counter domestic violence law may include emotional or psychological abuse and cover cohabitation in order to bring more traditionally silent abuse victims under protection, a new draft read.
From: Xinhua
Chinese bid farewell to one-child policy with law amended
Chinese lawmakers adopted an amended family planning law on Dec.27,2015, a historic move allowing all couples to have two children amid efforts of balancing the country's population structure.
From: Xinhua
Counter-terrorism law key for national security legislation: top legislator
Chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee Zhang Dejiang said China's first counter-terrorism law was key part of a law system to ensure national security.
From: Xinhua
China creates 64 mln new jobs in 2011-2015
China has created more than 64 million new jobs for urban residents since 2011, topping the government target of 45 million for the five-year period, an official said on Dec.28,2015.
From: Xinhua
China provides over 140 billion yuan to low-income groups
China has provided more than 140 billion yuan (21.6 billion U.S. dollars) to low-income residents over the past 11 months of 2015, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) on Dec.28,2015.
From: Xinhua
Old-age pension expected to rise 10% in 2016
China’s old-age pension for the retired is expected to rise by 10 percent this year according to the Economic Information Daily.
China has raised the old-age pension for 11 consecutive years with an annual increase of 10 percent. It is analyzed that the potential 12th rise will directly benefit 80 million retired people.
From: chinahumanrights.org
Beijing eliminates urban-rural subsistence allowances gap
A total of 50, 000 rural low-income residents in Beijing received the same allowances with urban recipients thanks to the integration of urban and rural subsistence allowance standards.
In recent years, Beijing has been reducing the subsidy gap between rural and urban recipients. From 2011 to 2015, the subsidy standard for each urban resident has risen from 480 yuan to 710 yuan per month and from 300 yuan to 710 yuan for rural residents.
From: chinahumanrights.org
Household registration reform key to urbanization
The household registration reform holds the key to China’s urbanization drive, said Ni Hong, Deputy Minister of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China (MOHURD) at a seminar on Jan.4,2016.
From: chinahumanrights.org
Senior official stresses improving ethnic minorities' lives in cities
Top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng has called for cities to be more receptive to ethnic minorities in a written instruction to a two-day conference on urban ethnic affairs, which ended on Jan.6,2016.
Yu, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, said urban ethnic affairs must be managed in accordance with the law and focus on protecting the legal interests of all and providing services to floating ethnic minority populations.
From: Xinhua
Over 60% Chinese ‘satisfied’ with anti-graft efforts: Report
86.9 percent of urban and rural residents in China have confidence in the ongoing anti-corruption campaign, according to a blue book released by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing on Jan.5,2016.
The book, China’s Combating Corruption and Building a Clean Government Report No.5, analyzed from six aspects China’s practice and achievements in combating corruption in 2015. It is the fifth blue book on this topic by the CASS.
From: chinahumanrights.org
Xinjiang lifts 1.74 million out of poverty
Around 1.74 million people in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have risen above the poverty line in the past five years, according to new official data.
From: Xinhua
Big data reveal China’s religious landscape in 2015
Buddhism contributes the most to charity among China’s five major religions, according to the China Religion Survey 2015(CRS) released by the Renmin University of China (RUC) in July 2015.
From: chinahumanrights.org
Two-child policy to create 30m more workers by 2050
China's two-child policy is expected to lead to more than 30 million people joining the work force by 2050 helping curb a looming shortage, according to a senior family planning official.
From:chinadaily.com.cn
Two plans merge into one health insurance program
Medical insurance programs for China's rural residents and urban unemployed will be merged into a single basic health insurance plan to improve equality and efficiency, according to a notice issued on Tuesday by the State Council, or China's cabinet.
From: China Daily
Xi urges confidence in overcoming corruption
China is gaining ground to overcome corruption, President Xi Jinping said at an anti-graft meeting on Jan.12,2016, urging confidence in the campaign.
From: Xinhua
China to ban inferior coal exploration
China will firmly ban the exploration of inferior coal and limit its production, sales and imports in order to control air pollution and protect the environment, said Lian Weiliang, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission (SDPC).
China’s coal industry will turn to clean and renewable use of energy, said Lian at the 2016 China Coal Trade Conference.
From: chinahumanrights.org
Expats take advantage of loosened visa policy
The Shanghai municipal government has handed out significantly more permanent residence permits to expats since loosening its visa policies in July.
A total of 715 residence permits were issued to expats in the city between July and December, up from 60 during the same period in 2014.
From: China Daily
Dalai group: genes prevent Han people from populating Tibet
“A total of 7 million Han Chinese have moved to Tibet since 1950. However, they are having a hard time reproducing in high-altitude regions due to gene reasons,” said an article issued on the website of the Dalai group on January 2, 2016.
With an intention of getting rid of Han people in Tibet, the Dalai group said Han people were impossible to reproduce in Tibet.
However, if all Han people were out of Tibet as Dalai said, it would be a catastrophe to a multinational country like ours, said Zhu Weiqun, Director of the Ethnic and Religious Committee of the CPPCC, China’s top political advisory body.
In fact, Tibetans and other ethnic groups have lived and thrived on the Qinghai—Tibet Plateau since ancient times.
From: chinahumanrights.org
Chinese people revealed as most optimistic in global survey
Chinese people are almost twice as optimistic about the world as those from other countries, while Britons are the fifth most pessimistic, according to a recent survey.
From: China Daily
Database launched to check identity of Living Buddhas
China launched an online database amid concerns about fake living Buddhas to help followers of Tibetan Buddhism to distinguish the real ones from the fake on January 18, 2016.
From: chinahumanrights.org
China’s income gap narrows in 2015
China's Gini coefficient, an index of income inequality, stood at 0.462 in 2015, the lowest level in 12 years since 2003, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
From:chinahumanrights.org
China to introduce real-name registration for migrant workers
China is set to introduce a real-name registration system for migrant workers to better protect their rights in cases of salary cuts or pay defaults, according to a document issued by the State Council.
From: chinadaily.com.cn
Dalai Lama gets little attention of the world
The 14th Dalai Lama strained to expand his influence in 2015. Taking advantage of his 80th birthday, he held a series of celebrations, catching the attention of the world.
He tried to pay visits to a number of countries, yet got refused by most of them. He kept flip-flopping on the reincarnation issue to draw global attention.
However, politicians in European countries and US have been busy dealing with terrorism and refugee crisis. Economists have been focusing on the world poverty alleviation. Nobody have time to hear what he tried to say, not even running a risk of offending China.
From: chinahumanrights.org
China’s judicial civilization report released
The Evaluation Report on China’s Judicial Civilization in 2015 was released by China University of Political Science and Law on Jan.20,2016.
Shanghai won the first place among twenty provinces, scoring 66.6 points out of 100 points, according to the report.
The average score is 64.5 points. Heilongjiang province was at the bottom with 62.8 points. Beijing ranked 13th with 64.3 points.
From: chinahumanrights.org
13.12 million urban jobs created in 2015
China’s overall employment situation remained stable last year, according to the data released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) on January 22, 2016.
A total of 13.12 million urban jobs were created last year and the registered unemployment rate for urban residents remained at 4.05 percent, the data showed.
From: chinahumanrights.org
Chinese Premier stresses human-centered urbanization
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged efforts to deepen human-centered urbanization as it can improve people's livelihoods and boost economy.
From: Xinhua
China to pilot “plea bargaining” system
China will learn from the “plea bargaining” mechanism to pilot the system of “showing leniency to those who plead guilty” in certain areas this year, according to a statement released at the central conference on political and legal work recently held in Beijing.
From: chinahumanrights.org
Migrant workers hit by wage defaults
A total of 4,815 complaints regarding the wages of migrant workers were referred to public security organs for further investigation in 2015, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
Most concerned the nonpayment of wages and enforced pay cuts.
However, the problem of wage defaults "has been contained" since refusing to pay employees was made a crime under a 2011 amendment to the Criminal Law, ministry spokesman Li Zhong said during a news conference on Jan.22,2016.
According to the latest figures, there are more than 274 million migrant workers in China and many have fallen victim to wage defaults due to the nature of their work.
From: China Daily
More than 31,000 prisoners granted early release
A total of 31,527 prisoners, most of whom were juveniles when they committed their crimes, have been released thanks to an amnesty deal, according to an official statement on Jan.25,2016.
From: Xinhua
Subsidy for low-income urban residents reaches 439 yuan
Chinese people’s basic livelihood kept improving last year, according to the data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) on Jan.25,2016.
The cash subsidy standard for each urban resident reached 439 yuan per month last year, and 255 yuan for rural residents, the data showed.
From: chinahumanrights.org
China issues first white paper on nuclear emergency preparedness
The Chinese government published its first nuclear white paper on Jan.27,2016, detailing policies and measures to boost nuclear emergency preparedness and highlighting "a rational, coordinated and balanced" nuclear security approach.
From:Xinhua
Top medical authority says appointment scalpers will be punished
China's top medical authority will investigate and punish the scalping of hospital bookings, a spokesperson announced on Jan.27,2016.
From: China Daily
Xi calls for "strictest" food safety measures
President Xi Jinping has underscored the need to implement the "strictest" measures to ensure food safety.
From: Xinhua
