Lethargy in Environmental Protection

The government launched the country's first survey on public environmental awareness on January 15, which indicates that the Chinese public is paying keen attention to environmental issues but is not taking practical action.

According to the survey by the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association under the State Environmental Protection Administration, very few respondents have done volunteer work on environmental protection and less than 20 percent have heard about the national toll free hotline12369 to report a pollution scandal.

In this report, both public environmental awareness and environmental behavior are deemed incompetent. However, 86 percent of respondents believe pollution has exerted great harm on people's health and 39 percent report their health or that of their family members is a direct victim of pollution.

Key Economic Tasks

China will make efforts to promote a trade balance and encourage domestic consumption in 2007 to realize efficient and rapid economic growth, Vice Premier Wu Yi said at the national commerce work meeting on January 16.

In her instructions at the meeting in Beijing, Wu said the country would try to optimize its trade structure and address the trade imbalance this year.

China will endeavor to raise the efficiency of foreign capital utilization and encourage overseas investment and international business from domestic enterprises, she said.

Wu said China would promote multilateral and regional economic cooperation, and properly handle trade disputes.

Harsher Punishment for IPR Infringement

China's Supreme People's Court issued a notice on January 15 ordering stricter penalties for violations of intellectual property rights (IPR).

All illegal gains and manufacturing tools of IPR violators should be confiscated and their pirated products should be destroyed, according to the notice. Courts should also impose fines large enough to strip pirates of their ability to resume production of illegal copies, said the notice. Victims of piracy in China have long been complaining that punishments are not severe enough.

Criminal punishments for IPR violations were stipulated in a judicial interpretation at the end of 2004, which decrees that counterfeiters could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

Shortest Route to Arabian Sea

A Pakistani company, Pak-Caspian Trade Link, taking advantage of a 1995 quadrilateral transit agreement for the first time, brought a 40-foot container carrying rice, furniture, textiles, canned goods, marble and brass items through China to Kazakhstan in November.

Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and China signed the Quadrilateral Transit Trade Agreement in 1995 with a view to enhancing trade between the Central Asian republics and the rest of the world by using Pakistan as the corridor to the Arabian Sea.

The entire journey takes only nine days to complete. This is the shortest route from the Central Asian republics to the Arabian Sea. Chinese businessmen are also expected to use this agreement to enhance trade from China and the Central Asian republics to South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Population Forecast

China's population will peak at 1.5 billion in 2033, and the country will continue to feel the tensions caused by the conflict between a large population and limited resources, according to a recent report by the State Population and Family Planning Commission.

The report, based on a two-year survey, said the implementation of the family-planning policy since 1973 has greatly contributed to population control by putting off the birth of the world's 6 billionth person by four years.

According to the report, China will have an increasingly aging population. It estimates that by the late 2040s, one out of every three citizens will be over 60 years of age.

Another problem pointed out in the report is the gender imbalance in the population of marriageable age from now on. The report forecasts that by 2020, there will be 30 million more males than females in the 20-to-45-year-old age group.