The government has adjusted the consumer price index and its national survey of property prices. These two figures have become monthly sources of anxiety to worried consumers.

Now there is a complaint that, in effect, China tweaked the key inflation gauges; analysts said the revisions were necessary and not a bid to mislead the public.

They said the revisions reflect the evolution of the Chinese economy and consumer buying power, and are a step towards improving statistical accuracy in the world’s second-largest economy.

Andy Rothman, a Shanghai-based economist with CLSA,  said, “If you’re pursuing the story that there’s something to this adjustment other than a routine adjustment based on changing consumption patterns, I don’t see any evidence to support that.”

The International News (Karachi) reported economists as saying the consumer price revision is in line with “Engel’s Law” of 19th-century economist Ernst Engel, who said that as incomes rise, the proportion spent on food falls.

Competition for labor is intensifying in China’s rapidly urbanizing interior.

Chongqing, in southwestern Sichuan province and one of China’s biggest cities, has launched a “Spring Breeze Action” campaign to recruit workers from the coast.

It has raised monthly blue-collar wages to around RMB1,200 (US$183). The wage in Chongqing compares with RMB2,000 in southern China’s manufacturing belt but the cost of living is, at the moment, much lower.

Fuyang, in eastern Anhui province – a quarter of whose 9.5 million residents are migrant workers – has recently added perks such as housing subsidies, TV-equipped dormitory rooms and health insurance.

Sify News reports that in response, authorities in some coastal regions have hiked minimum wages, raising expectations for further pay rises this year.

China Telecom chairman and chief executive Wang Xiaochu said his company will procure 60 million units of consumer-premise telecom equipment from Taiwan this year, a 33% increase from last year’s 45 million units.

China Telecom is currently the No.1 fixed-line and No. 3 mobile telecom carrier in mainland China, offering fixed-line service to 175 million subscribers and mobile service to 90.52 million subscribers throughout the mainland.

Wang said major products on the company’s procurement list include mobile phones and tablet PCs.

People familiar with the cooperation deals pointed out that China Mobile has to rely on Taiwan’s manufacturers to help it achieve the goal of increasing its CDMA mobile subscribers to over 100 million by the end of this year by supplying CDMA-2000 mobile phones, chips and LAN equipment.

Cens.com reported Wang as saying the mainland’s telecom market is very large and his company is pushing to promote 3.5G service in the mainland.

Chinese consumer confidence fell in the last quarter of 2010 amid increasing concern about inflation.

The consumer confidence index was at 100, down from 104 three months before and 109 in the second quarter of last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics’ China Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center and the Nielsen Company, which compile the index.

People in rural areas were more confident with a reading of 107, but residents in urban areas showed less confidence with a reading of as low 95 in first-tier cities.

Pan Jiancheng, deputy director general at the center, said, “Domestic consumption did not slow in recent months. Robust spending during the Spring Festival holiday indicated people’s confidence fell due mostly to worries for the future, and has not affected their spending behavior.”

The English People’s Daily Online reported that China’s retail sales, a yardstick measuring people’s demand and expenditure, grew 18.4% in 2010, faster than 15.5% pace recorded in 2009.

China’s education department has called for more games to be developed that are good for children’s intellectual growth.

This comes after an official online poll found that 87% of respondents said they often see primary or middle school students playing board games, and 60% knew children who were obsessed by such games.

Many of the games that are popular are loosely based on historic events such as the card game Sanguosha which is a reinterpretation of the history of the Three Kingdoms.

The survey showed that more than half of the respondents did not think such games were beneficial to children as many were designed for adults, included sexual or violent content.

PressTV reported sociologists as saying the board games trend underscores the increasing alienation of China’s one child generation who often lack social interaction skills and highlights their desire to develop friendship through face-to-face communications.