China is planning a national honors system with the purpose of boosting ethical morality. Two regulations on administrative rewards and national emblems will be implemented too, according to the Ministry of Personnel.

"Through a strict legal process, people who have made great contributions to the building of national morality will be awarded and honored in the name of the country," said a ministry official on December 19, 2007.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the government issued a series of regulations on awarding civil servants, common workers, scientists and others, but an official supreme honors system at the national level had not been set up until now.

The system, which is expected to be fully implemented in a few years, will consist of multiple levels and cover various fields. After the approval of the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee, the country's president would award recipients with emblems and honorary titles.

Hot dispute

The issue has raised disputes about how the government should construct the honors system. Tong Dahuan, an active freelance columnist, wrote an article on his blog to support the new system. "I hope the strong inspiration of the national honors system will make the elites more conscious of the responsibilities they should shoulder for society," he said. Analyzing the awards established since 1949, he said, "Those awards are really inspiring and set some great models for the people, but it is a pity that none of them is at a national level. National honor is very important to the cohesiveness of a country. It is necessary to build up the spirit of the nation."

His remarks were echoed by many netizens. One netizen, Mirror, took the decorations of the United Kingdom as an example. "Elites of different fields have been conferred the title of knight, including actor Anthony Hopkins and football coach Alex Ferguson. The titles conferred by the Queen of the UK are inspiring to the elite to make more contributions to the people and the country."

Some netizens believe the national honors system will help to put restrictions on the privileged classes. "Although there are so many titles of awards now, most of them have lost their original meaning, because quite a lot went to a small group of privileged people. That is unfair. The national honors system will help to regulate this and let the right people enjoy awards," wrote one netizen.

Others, however, show no interest in the national honors system. A netizen named Big Cat said, "The system will run counter to the trend of spreading the idea of equality. It will differentiate a few people from the rest, and give these few the feeling of superiority."

This opinion has its supporters. Netizen Grass said, "When the national honors system spreads, the privileged group will take more privileges, but the common people will get nothing."

Among all the discussions, the question, "who has the qualifications to win a national honor" has been the most popular. Some people said the candidates should be from every field of society. Most believe honors should be spread across the society to people in a wide variety of fields. Some experts have suggested that foreigners who make an extraordinary contribution to China should get an award.

Meanwhile, some said officials should be exempt from the honors system to prevent against corruption.

Netizens even made a list of candidates for the national award. The Olympic 110-meter hurdle race gold medalist Liu Xiang, the NBA basketball player Yao Ming and agronomist Yuan Longping, who is renowned as the "father of hybrid rice," are all on the list.