HARD ROUTE: A freight ship bound for the Republic of Korea breaks its way through the frozen Yellow Sea off Yingkou in Liaoning Province on January 24 (JIANG BING)

Compensation Guarantees

China's regulation on the management of state compensation funds became effective on January 20.

The regulation, promulgated by the State Council, is aimed to ensure eligible claimants receive state compensation on time and in full.

It says governments at all levels must budget for state compensation payouts each year, and, if the actual amount of state compensation payouts exceed what is budgeted for, additional funds must be used.

The regulation also standardizes the procedure of applying for state compensation.

State compensation refers to government pay outs to citizens for damages it has caused them through infringements of their rights.

The State Compensation Law of China took effect in 1995.

Fraud-Free Elections

China has pledged a tough crackdown on election irregularities before the upcoming elections of a new term of committees of the Communist Party of China (CPC), people's congresses, governments and committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party's discipline watchdog, and the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee jointly issued a notice on January 14 to guarantee an honest and orderly election.

It warns officials against favoring candidates who are family members or friends or disclosing election-related information that may alter the results of elections.

China holds local elections for Party committees, people's congresses, governments and committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference every five years.

More Water Input

China will invest 2 trillion yuan ($303 billion) in water conservancy projects in the next five years, said an official with the Ministry of Water Resources on January 20.

Half of the investment will come from central government coffers, said Zhou Xuewen, who is in charge of project planning with the ministry.

In the year 2011 alone, the Central Government will invest more than 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) in construction of major projects, Zhou said.

The investment will also go into projects to provide 60 million more people with access to safe drinking water in rural areas, he said.

As a result, 77 percent of rural people are expected to have access to safe drinking water by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the ministry will continue to fix old reservoirs and embankments with safety problems, Zhou said.

Macao Tourism

Macao's visitor arrivals in December 2010 reached 2.27 million, up 11.6 percent over the same month in 2009, according to figures released on January 24 by the Information from the Statistics and Census Service of Macao Special Administrative Region Government.

Of all arrivals last December, 51.3 percent were for one day, with about 612,147 arrivals coming from the Chinese mainland.

Analyzed by place of residence, visitors from the mainland increased by 18.8 percent year on year to 1.2 million, 52.8 percent of the total.

As for the whole year, total visitor arrivals reached 24.96 million, up 14.8 percent year on year, with the majority of visitors coming from the mainland.