Blind advisor makes proposals online
Fuzhou, Jan.10 - Xia Rongqiang, the first blind member of the advisory body to east China’s Fujian Province, submitted a proposal via the Internet urging more budget for blind people’s education.
Xia is a member of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
For the first time online submission of proposals to the committee’s upcoming annual session was allowed, and Xia’s bill marked the first of such submission.
Xia said his election to the committee showed that disabled people in China enjoyed equal rights on discussing political affairs.
Xia is principal of a blind school in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, which is affiliated to the Hadley School for the Blind, an institute aiming to help educate the blind internationally.
The Hadley School has branches in more than 100 countries and regions all over the world, but Xia’s school is the only one in China and Asia. (From the People’s Daily)
Schoolchildren to learn more about law
Shenyang, Jan, 7ÑThe government has launched a campaign to teach primary and high school students more about legal affairs.
The campaign was initiated in Shenyang, capital of the northeastern Liaoning province, and has been followed by many other cities.
In these cities, each primary or high school has invited a law expert from local judicial departments to work as deputy headmaster in charge of legal affairs.
Law education has been included in the school curricula, and the special deputy headmaster is responsible for holding teaching activities such as lectures on legal affairs and simulated court hearings.
Meanwhile, the deputy headmaster also helps improve security around the school to ensure the safety of students.
In Shenyang, special textbooks have been published to standardize the teaching of legal affairs in primary and high schools.
The campaign has resulted in a drop in juvenile crimes in these cities, the sources said. (From xinhuanet) Unions active for grassroots democracy
Guangzhou, Jan. 27ÑAfter negotiations with the directors of Hucais Group Co., Ltd., the company’s trade union achieved its first success just after the New Year’s DayÑemployees began to work a five-day week, half a day less than before.
The trade union also signed a collective agreement with the company management, established an aid fund for employees and negotiated salaries.
“I must be responsible for the people who elected me,” said He Jinsong, chairman of the trade union of Hucais, a Hong Kong-invested company in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province.
Under the trade union rules, every member with at least one year of employment at Hucais can be a candidate for chairman.
On the election day, hundreds of staff, including the general manager, listened to the speeches given by the two finalist candidates, He and another young man. Then the candidates answered questions from the audience. More than 500 union membersÑ80% of the company’s staffÑeventually voted by ballot.
Meanwhile in the coastal city of Xiamen, the chairman of the trade union of American Goodrich TAECO Aeronautical Systems (Xiamen) Co., Ltd. was just ousted by the members, and a new chairman was produced through direct election.
“Appointing a trade union chairman through direct elections is a meaningful step towards building grassroots democracy after the grassroots elections were carried out in rural China,” said Chinese sociologist Lu Xueyi.
“It shows that grassroots democracy is being extended from rural China to urban areas, from farmers to the working class,” Lu said.
To date, a number of directly-elected union chairmen have come up in foreign-invested enterprises in the coastal provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Shandong, according to Guo Wencai, head of the department of grassroots organization construction of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
The direct election of trade union chairman in enterprises showed the direction of future trade union development, said Guo, and it would spread to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Some bosses were worried that direct elections might bring about “competitors,” while others welcomed the change, he said. “I believe it will boost democratic management in the enterprise and arouse the enthusiasm of employees, which will profit the company,” said Chan Chengwan, general manager of Hucais Group Co., Ltd.
The working class is regarded as the cornerstone of China’s society, and the trade union is the most powerful organization of the working class.
In 2002, China became the world’s primary investment target, attracting over US$50 billion in foreign investment. More and more people have found jobs in foreign-invested companies, but the labor-management relations have also become a controversial and sensitive issu.
China now has 83,900 private and foreign-invested enterprises which have workers congresses. In 9,500 foreign-funded companies, trade union chairmen attend meetings of the board of directors as nonvoting participants.
At the same time, most Chinese enterprises elect trade union chairmen through indirect methods. (From xinhuanet) Migrant workers help increase rural income
Beijing, Jan.13ÑSalaries paid by urban industries to rural migrant workers are becoming a major source of income for Chinese farmers, according to the latest government statistics.
The statistics show that in 2001, per capita net income for rural residents across China had reached 2,366.4 yuan (US$285), 2.9 times the 1989 figure.
However, the surge in rural income should be attributed to the increase in the salaries of the large force of rural migrant workers rather than to increased profits from traditional agricultural activities, such as cultivation and livestock breeding.
During the period from 1989 to 2001, profits from agricultural activities expressed as a percentage of farmers’ total per capita net income had dropped 10.5 percentage points, to 61.7%, while migrant workers’ salary earnings expressed as a percentage of farmers’ total income had risen by nearly 10 percentage points to 32.6%. According to government statistics, China currently has a migrant population of over 100 million, most of whom are surplus rural laborers flocking to towns and cities in search of a better life. Unofficial estimates put the figure much higher.
Statistics indicate that rural workers now account for some 30% of the urban industrial workforce. (From xinhuanet) Chinese officials visit the needy
Beijing, Jan. 7ÑChinese officials are visiting the needy rather frequently these days, not just to show solicitude but also their determination to build a sound system able to provide timely regular aid to those in need.
Wang Zhenyao, director of the Disaster and Social Relief Department of the Civil Affairs Ministry, said, “The purpose of visiting families hit by disasters or plagued by poverty is not to dole out quilts and rice but to inspect the work of local governments and detect their failings.
He said institutional development had become a primary task in China’s social and economic progress.
“Since a number of policies related to social assistance were mapped out in 2002, our top priority is to regulate and standardize their implementation,” he added.
In 2002, some 19.98 million urban needy were covered by China’s basic benefit system, equivalent to the combined populations of Austria, Switzerland and Norway.
Meanwhile, medical, education and housing assistance projects targeting the urban poor have started up in many cities.
In Shanghai, a medical assistance program initiated by a local trade union has allocated relief funds of 300 million yuan (about US$36.14 million) to more than 500,000 people.
In Jinan, capital of east China’s Shandong Province, a help center was established through which some 88 laid-off workers found jobs in the first two months.
China also sent relief materials and cash worth 900 million yuan (about US$108.4 million) all up to the three million rural poor who have no source of income due to physical handicaps or inability to work.
However, Wang said, the country’s social assistance system still faced many difficulties such as capital shortage and uneven management. “Visiting the needy before the Spring Festival is not only a tradition of Chinese governments but also a must around the most important holiday of the year,” he said.
Before the New China was founded in 1949, people struggling through wars and poverty usually viewed the festival which marks the start of China’s lunar new year as “a most difficult time” as they had to pay off debts, buy children new clothes and cook delicacies for the family. “Although Chinese living standards have improved a lot on the whole, some people’s quality of life is still below the average,” he said. In late December, the Ministry of Civil Affairs dispatched seven teams nationwide to Qinghai, Fujian, Hebei, Gansu, Yunnan, Shandong, Guangxi and Tianjin to inspect the distribution of disaster-relief funds and materials and the basic living subsidy for the urban poor.
Based on the survey, the Ministry issued a circular on January 3, urging the eight provincial governments that had not transferred relief funds allocated by the central government to people in need, to do so immediately so the needy could enjoy a happy warm Spring Festival on February 1. (From xinhuanet) 9.5 million new jobs for 2003
Beijing, Dec. 31, 2002ÑSources from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MOLSS) say that in 2003 the country will go all out to act in the spirit of the national re-employment working conference held in Beijing in September 2001 and try every possible means to expand employment, endeavoring to create 9.5 million more jobs and control the registered urban unemployment rate around 4.5%.
Then how these numbers (9.5 mn) are figured out?
Director-general Yu Faming with the training & employment department under the MOLSS explained that there are three main considerations concerning fulfillment of the 9.5million new posts next year.
First, the present sound macroeconomic climate in China as well as the rapid and steady growth of the national economy has laid a solid foundation for the creation of new jobs. China’s GDP is expected to grow by 8% in 2002, the economic growth rate in 2003 is estimated to stand at 7%. According to the current elasticity ratio of employment, with the national economy growing by 1 percentage point, it can help provide some 700,000 posts. Then next year’s economic growth will make it possible to offer 5-6 million new jobs.
Second, the intensified economic restructuring in 2003 will also create batches of job opportunities accordingly. The number of employees in SOEs nationwide has dropped to 50 million from 71 million in the last five years. Large numbers of these workers have shifted to non-public sectors or to the tertiary industry from the secondary industry. Thereby, the employment structure has been further improved, coupled with a steady rise of proportion of workers in the tertiary industry from 18.5% in 1990 to 27.7% in 2001. The way and concept of employment have changed markedly, while forms of employment become increasingly flexible and diversified, with part-time, temporary, seasonal and elastic work springing up. Besides, from a perspective of ownership structure, recent years have witnessed a rapid development of non-public ownership such as individual and private businesses, which is set to become the main realms for employment expansion.
And lastly, the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to labor and social security, which gives policy guarantees. After the national working conference on re-employment in September 2001, departments and regions concerned at all levels successively published a series of policy-measures encouraging and supporting laid-off workers to be re-employed. The year 2003 is the first year when these measures take effect, which will surely bring about the laid-off a relaxed employment environment. An analysis report made by departments concerned shows that another 13 million posts will be created by these favorable measures within three years. (From peopledaily.com) Tibet steps up local legislation
Lhasa, Jan. 25ÑAuthorities in west China’s Tibet Autonomous Region have made great strides in legislation in recent years, boosting a range of development undertakings in the region.
Over the past five years, the Standing Committee of the Seventh People’s Congress of the region has formulated 57 laws and regulations as well as related resolutions and decisions.
The regional legislature drew up and amended a batch of local laws and regulations to suit local conditions in the five-year period. They include measures to implement land regulations, and mineral resources and tourism regulations, largely aimed at environmental protection.
To standardize the market and safeguard the legitimate interests of traders and consumers, the local legislature also hammered out measures to implement the law on consumer rights, a statistics law, road transport regulations and revised commodity market regulations.
A group of rules concerning democratic reform and the People’s Congress system were also worked out, including legislative regulations for the autonomous region.
The agenda in the same period also covered border regulations, village committee elections and detailed measures on occupational training, laws concerning scientific and technological progress and health care for mothers and infants, as well as earthquake and disaster prevention.
To carry out China’s strategy of developing its west and conserve local cultures, the regional legislature also decided to amend proposed regulations on the study, use and growth of the Tibetan language. (From Xinhua News Agency) 2.4 billion yuan for agricultural and pastoral areas
The government of Tibet Autonomous Region will invest 2.4 billion yuan in construction of the agricultural and pastoral areas. The investment will be implemented in introducing the electricity to villages, constructing roads, installing telephone lines, solving the problem of drinking water and building schools.
Moreover, the work will also involve technical training, health care, hospital building, broadcasting and TV settlement. The infrastructure construction of agricultural and pastoral areas will be emphasized. (From www.tibetinfor.com) Education for handicapped children in Tibet
The Lhasa Special Education School was established on December 1, 2000. It is the first school of its kind in Tibet Autonomous Region, which has since improved the conditions for handicapped children in Tibet to get school education with other children.
To date there are 15 teachers and 67 students from the seven prefectures of Tibet Autonomous Region. The students are also taught Tibetan language. (From www.tibetinfor.com)