Joyously Red

Lashings of red cover China at Spring Festival as demonstrated by the lanterns, knots and paper cuttings in a Turpan market, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Red is the color that symbolizes joy for the Chinese nation, and is

an important part of festive celebrations that captivate all Chinese communities worldwide around the Lunar New Year, which this year fell on February 18.

New Social Stratum

The Chinese Government has publicly praised the contribution of private entrepreneurs, small-business owners and managerial-level staff in private and foreign-funded enterprises to the country's economic development.

An estimated 50 million such professionals are considered members of a "new social stratum," who possess or manage capital totaling 10 trillion yuan.

"This new social stratum accounts for more than half of the country's technical patents, contributes nearly one third of the country's total tax revenues and provides jobs for more than half of the total number of jobseekers each year," said Chen Xiqing, deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The concept of a specific "social stratum" harks back to the 1960s and 70s when Chinese society was clearly divided into five strata-farmer, worker, intellectual, cadre and soldier.

Crackdown on Corruption