China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

Oriental Outlook

December 11

By September, deals on the projects making up the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor had been inked between the two countries involved. The concept of the economic corridor was initially put forward by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang while visiting Pakistan in May last year.

China and Pakistan have formulated plans to build roads, railways, oil and gas pipelines, and optic cables running from Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Gwadar Port in Pakistan. The corridor incorporates 30 large projects with total investment of $32 billion.

The projects will be divided into three groups with the first group to be finished by 2017, the second to be finished by 2020 and the third between 2025 and 2030. Energy infrastructure projects will be accorded top priority because Pakistan is in severe shortage of electricity. The second most important task is the construction of transportation infrastructure.

Once completed, the corridor will not only become an important channel connecting China and Pakistan, but also benefit the approximately 3 billion people living in China, South Asia, Iran and the Gulf region. It will function as a channel for China to get oil and gas from the Gulf. Currently, China relies on the Strait of Malacca to transport energy supplies from the oil-rich region, a route that involves many security risks.

Rethinking Physical Checkups

China Newsweek

December 1

In China, clinics and hospitals offering physical checkups are thriving, along with the rising public awareness of the importance of receiving regular checkups. In Beijing alone, 204 medical institutions, both private and public, are authorized to carry out checkups and medical staff working in the industry have reached nearly 10,000.

In addition to private institutions, public hospitals have also set up their own health checkup centers. The profit level of the industry has reached 20 percent and checkups now constitute one of the main sources of a hospital's income.

For those diagnosed with chronic diseases, it is necessary to receive checkups regularly. For instance, those with high blood pressure should check it regularly and receive ECG and urine tests to see whether or not the disease has caused damage to the heart or kidneys. For healthy people, checkups may offer an opportunity to communicate with doctors and receive advice concerning diet, physical exercises and healthy lifestyles. Above all else, prevention is better than cure.

However, some experts warn that health checkups may not be useful as previously thought, and may even prove harmful. They have cautioned that physical checkups may have unintended side effects. For example, certain physical indexes of healthy people may be erroneously identified as abnormal during a checkup, causing unnecessary concern. Repeated checkup procedures such as X-rays and CT scans could potentially harm the body.

Suicide Prevention Measures Needed

China Youth Daily

December 9

On November 30, 19-year-old Zeng Pengyu from Luzhou, southwest China's Sichuan Province, broadcasted live the process of him committing suicide on his microblog. He posted photos of a stove with coal burning inside which he intended to use to suffocate himself alongside descriptions of the process.

His posts soon received massive attention in cyberspace, with some calling the police and trying to dissuade him from suicide, some suspecting that the whole exercise was a ploy to grab attention and others encouraging him to kill himself. Zeng finally died of overdose of sleeping pills combined with excess inhalation of carbon monoxide from the burning stove.

Many blamed the Internet users for having prompted the young man to kill himself. It's undeniable that the indifference shown by some toward the incident is extremely unpalatable. However, it would be unrealistic to expect microbloggers to be capable of effectively foiling a suicide attempt.

To prevent suicides from happening, it's necessary to detect the psychological and mental problems of those at risk of self-harm in real life and to intervene beforehand. A sound suicide intervention system should be established to provide those with psychological problems proper treatment so that they have places other than the Internet to turn for help when in dire straits.