Nearly a third of China’s 130 million 13- to 18-year-olds have tried smoking and 15 million of these have become addicted, state media reported, citing the 2008 China Tobacco Control Report. The number of addicts equates to nearly four times the total population of New Zealand. Between 66% and 68% of those that have tried […]
Category: Politics & Society
The director of China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) will take over as the head of the State Council’s research office, the Wall Street Journal reported. Xie Fuzhan will take the place of Wei Liqun in his new job, where he will be responsible for the premier’s annual work report, which outlines plans and suggestions […]
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A wail of mourning
Three minutes’ silence in Shanghai, May 19: At 2:28pm, traffic came to a stop at the usually bustling corner of Jinling Lu and Xizang Lu. The crowd fell silent as car horns, and police, fire and air raid sirens sounded out across the city. I admit that as I stood there, I wondered whether drivers […]
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Tragedy in Sichuan
At 2:28pm on May 12, an earthquake centered in Wenchuan, Sichuan province shook buildings as far away as Beijing. Measured as a magnitude 8.0 quake by Chinese sources – 7.9 by the US Geological Survey – it killed more than 40,000 people, injured more than 247,000 and left over 32,000 missing. An estimated 5.3 million […]
Since the Olympic torch came home in May, the swarms of people thronging to catch a glimpse of the “sacred flame” have borne testament to the patriotic fervor successfully drummed up by Beijing in support of this summer’s games. But the most remarkable aspect of the Olympic warm-up has not been mainlanders’ love of their […]