The Function of the Chamber of Commerce

Oriental Outlook
April 25

The cover story traces the history of China's chambers of commerce and illustrates the important roles they are playing, citing chambers of commerce in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces as examples.

Businesspeople from Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, have always been dubbed oriental Jews. At present, 600,000 Wenzhou businesspeople dispersed around 131 countries and regions in the world are starting up or building their business and 1.75 million are running business in different places of China. In order to facilitate their business, Wenzhou businesspeople have established chambers of commerce in 211 cities in China.

These chambers of commerce are important platforms for businesspeople to settle disputes. When Wenzhou businesspeople have disputes away from home, they resort to the chamber of commerce to solve the problem rather than appeal to the court.

Chambers of commerce also have the function of protecting businesspeople's rights. When disputes occur between Wenzhou businesspeople and those from the place they are doing business in, the chamber of commerce can urge the local government to fairly solve the problem.

In recent years, enterprises also raise capital with the help of the chamber of commerce. For example, in April 2012, immediately after the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, was founded, it signed cooperative contracts with local banks to facilitate loans for Zhejiang businesspeople in Xiamen.

Official Appointment

Legal Daily
April 26

On April 21, Han Han, a 25-year-old town mayor in Shandong Province, resigned from her newly appointed position due to her controversial and non-transparent promotion. On the same day, her father also quit office as a Party official of Shandong.

Han was recruited as a public servant by the local government in 2010. In a mere three years, she was promoted from staff member to town mayor. It is suspected that her promotion came at the hands of her father.

It is reasonable to give a promotion to excellent young people. But Han's promotion reveals a problem of nepotism. It would result in unfairness that some young officials with no accredited achievements are promoted and awarded while most other talented young people who work hard have no opportunity to develop.

The government should address these unequal promotions. More importantly, only under strict public supervision can the appointment and promotion of government officials be more transparent and fair, which also relates to necessary reforms of the current civil servant system.

Consumer Rights

People.com.cn
April 27

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is deliberating the draft amendment of the Law on Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers, which has become a hot topic recently.

The draft includes a number of changes, for instance, personal information will be protected, product warranty be extended and the punishment of fraud be enhanced. Law experts say the draft amendment is likely to improve the consumption environment in China significantly.

It is the biggest revision in the last two decades. Over past years, China's economy has undergone high-speed growth, but the consumer law issued in 1993 appears more and more incompetent to deal with new problems. Consumers urge a comprehensive and effective law to safeguard their rights and interests.

The revised clauses focus on emerging consumption patterns as well as long-existing habits. For example, online shopping is underlined. Chinese consumers conduct tremendous transactions online everyday. But it is usually difficult for consumers to make complaints and claim compensation when they encounter quality defects and malicious fraud due to loopholes in current laws. The draft endows consumers the revocation rights of online business.

However, the draft has not yet displayed enough operability on newly added clauses. It doesn't clarify the range and condition of application as well as claim procedure of revocation rights. Thus, consumers fear that the ambiguousness of new clauses would affect the implementation of the new clause. On other aspects, the draft amendment does not add more severe punitive compensation on fraudulent behavior.

The revamp of the consumer protection law should aim at better protecting the justified rights of consumers as well as strengthen responsibility and liability of merchants and enterprises.

Fill in the Class Gap

South Reviews
April 10

Ever since the mid-1990s, social mobility has been stagnant, as a result of which lower class have lost the chance to climb up the social ladder and realize their dreams. Compared with the wealth divide, social mobility is a better yardstick for social equality. Limited social mobility will render certain groups of people with plenty of despair in the future, which is disturbing.

Education, which used to be the traditional channel to upward social movement, is becoming increasingly unfair. High quality educational resources and opportunities have almost all been occupied by middle and upper class children. Lower class children have lost the game at the starting line. The unfair job market in which those from higher class backgrounds are favored has increased such inequality. Lower class people can do nothing about such reality but adapt to it.

Social equality is the first step toward the Chinese dream, and social mobility is the soul of an equal society. In the future, whether the hidden social conflicts can be dissolved will be determined by whether a powerful reform can be carried out to break the power of certain privileged groups and build an equal political system. The Chinese dream will start with the determination and courage of decision makers.