Fees Won't Stop Pollution

The National Development and Reform Commission announced in early April that by the end of this year, all Chinese cities would have begun to charge fees for sewage and garbage disposal. These fees will be steadily raised.

Currently, sewage disposal fees in Chinese cities are quite low. For example, it is only 0.67 yuan per ton on average, less than 70 percent of the actual cost. The extremely low rate fails to reflect the serious water scarcity and the real cost of pollution disposal. In order to reverse the situation, the "polluter pays" principle has been adopted. This policy, however, seems to have sent a wrong message that people are free to pollute the environment as long as they are economically strong enough.

Actually, overemphasis of the economic compensation in this regard will cover up the importance of other responsibilities that polluters have.

Worse still, in some areas, relevant government departments only charge fees, but seldom spend the money collected on environment improvement. If fee charging is the ultimate goal, then the "polluter pays" principle will have little benefit to the environment.

Shanghai Securities News

Falling Engel's Coefficient--What's It Mean?

Latest statistics from Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics show that the local Engel Coefficient had dropped from 58.7 percent in 1978 to 30.8 percent in 2006.

Engel's Coefficient indicates the proportion of food spending to the total household consumption. As the drop of this coefficient shows the rise of expenses on things other than food, generally speaking, a falling Engel's coefficient is a reflection of people's rising living standard. However, in the case of Beijing and China as a whole, before we get too excited, we must not forget some important factors.

First, with the widening gap between the rich and poor, a small number of wealthy people have begun to increase their spending on non-food items, resulting in the rising average expenses on non-food commodities, concealing the fact that the majority of the population actually has not spent so much on these products.

Second, it is because housing, education and medical care cost so much that the proportion of food spending has to decline.

The drop of Engel's Coefficient can be either active or passive. In the first case, people will naturally increase their spending on enjoyment when they are no longer pressed by daily life and economic burdens. In the second case, however, although non-food spending is increasing, people are forced to pay high prices on these items. In this case, even with a falling Engel's Coefficient, instead of feeling satisfied, consumers will feel pressurized with the expenses of life.

The Beijing News

Why No World-class Chinese Universities?

According to a university ranking compiled by the Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation, no Chinese universities' R&D capabilities are strong enough to rank them among the world's top 100, despite the fact that many of them are ambitious to become world class. The highest-ranking Chinese tertiary institution on the list is Peking University, in position 192, followed by Tsinghua University, in 196th position.

Among the many reasons for this failure, one is the utilitarianism-based education model. China now has a handful of hardware-excellent universities. Some higher learning institutions even spend multimillion yuan on their front gates and 300 Chinese universities are planning to expand their campuses to over 300 hectares.

Guided by the principle of utilitarianism, China's higher education institutions are diverting from their fundamental task of imparting knowledge and educating people. While many universities are arbitrarily charging high fees, the quality of education they are offering is dropping, meaning students are not getting what they pay for and what they need.

The improvement of education requires years of hard work away from commercial influence. Only when Chinese tertiary institutions have realized this and become devoted to education, will we see China produce world-class universities.

Guangzhou Daily

Hukou Needs Deeper Reform

Recent years have seen the Chinese Government accelerate its reform on the household registration system (commonly known as hukou) by canceling the division between rural and non-rural statuses, to demonstrate equal citizenship. Latest statistics from the Ministry of Public Security show that 12 provinces have to date set up a uniform hukou system for people living in both rural and urban areas.

Just to cancel the division between rural and urban residential statuses is not enough. What really matters are the interests and benefits attached to the existing hukou system. Under the current circumstances, even if they are granted the urban hukou, migrant workers from rural areas still can't enjoy the same education, health and social security services as urban dwellers. In some places, as a result of the abolishment of the residential division, rural residents are rushing into cities, leading to new challenges.

To improve the situation, there must be a social security system that also covers people living in rural areas. There should be no superior benefits attached to hukou and its reform should not stop just because residential division has been canceled.

Yanzhao Metropolis Daily