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SOCIETY
Weekly Watch> SOCIETY
UPDATED: June 10, 2014 NO. 24 JUNE 12, 2014
Society
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SWEET GUIDE: Friis Arne Petersen, Danish Ambassador to China, shows how to make dissert at the annual Open Denmark Day in Beijing on May 31, which showcases the country's culture, high-quality food and design works to more than 4,000 Chinese guests (COURTESY OF DANISH EMBASSY)

Chinese 'Green Cards'

China is considering relaxing its green card policy by lowering the application and approval threshold, in a move to attract more foreign professionals.

Authorities are debating revisions to regulations on permanent residence for foreigners, considering more flexible and pragmatic application standards, the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China revealed on June 2.

In China as a whole, around 5,000 foreigners from 91 countries and regions have been granted green cards since the scheme was launched in 2004.

The highest numbers of green card applicants have come from the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and Germany.

The benefits of holding a green card include that cardholders can enter and leave China without requiring a visa. They can purchase homes and have the same rights as Chinese nationals when dealing with financial services such as banking, insurance, securities and futures. Their children can attend local schools as well.

Serious Situation

China's environment is in critical condition, especially its water and air quality, Li Ganjie, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection, said on June 4.

Li told a press conference that although China's environment has improved in general, the water quality is "not optimistic" and air quality in cities is "critical."

In China's 10 most important river basins, about 9 percent of the water was class-V in 2013, the lowest level. Compared to 2012, the percentage of class-V water quality dropped by only 1.2 percentage points. Of 4,778 monitoring sites for groundwater, almost 60 percent reported their water to be poor or extremely poor.

Water quality offshore is not good either, with 18.6 percent of offshore water areas only reaching class IV. Water quality in the East China Sea and in four of China's nine biggest bays was reported to be extremely poor.

As for air quality in cities, only three of the 74 monitored cities met the national standard for good air in 2013.

Soil pollution and land degradation are also serious, according to Li, who added that agricultural acreage was reduced by 80,200 hectares in 2013, and a total of 295 million hectares, or 30.7 percent of China's land area, also suffered from soil erosion.

Flood Repairs

As much as 507 million yuan ($81 million) will be spent on repairing water projects that were damaged by recent floods, the Ministry of Finance announced on June 3.

The funds will be used to fix dams, locks, barrages, weirs and pumping stations damaged by heavy downpours in some regions in the south.

Flooding has threatened or damaged 61 small reservoirs in nine provincial divisions this year including Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangxi, with combined losses estimated at 3.58 billion yuan ($572 million), according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

As of June 3, some 9.93 million people in those regions had been affected by the flooding, with 64 people confirmed dead and another six still missing.

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