Migrant Workers Get a Voice

Hu Xiaoyan, a deputy to the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), is the first person to ever represent China's 150 million migrant workers in the top legislative body.

During the NPC session, the 34-year-old Hu felt the heat when she had to be adapted to the system and meanwhile being the voice of her constituents. She proposed to increase salaries of migrant workers and improve the education resources available in rural areas. She also suggested more social benefits for low-income groups, such as cheaper train tickets for migrant workers and their children.

As a native of southwestern Sichuan Province, Hu left home at 24, and has been working at a ceramics company in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, for five years. She was elected to the national legislature on January 21, winning 740 of the 773 votes of Guangdong Provincial People's Congress.

A resolution on legislative elections adopted by the 10th NPC in March 2007 stipulates that provinces and municipalities with a large population of rural migrant workers should have an NPC deputy quota. The other two lawmakers in the 11th NPC who represent the migrant population are from Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities, respectively.

Stretching His Winning Streak

Chinese ace hurdler Liu Xiang has added another gold medal to his ever increasing haul, when he took the honors at the 12th World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain, on March 10. He won the 60-meter hurdles in 7.46 seconds, claiming a career first indoor athletics gold medal. From the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 to the Valencia Championships, indoors or outdoors, Liu continues to run faster and mature as an athlete.

He impressed the audience with his sportsmanship, when he said of his main opponent in Valencia, Dayron Robles of Cuba, who was eliminated in the heats due to a false start, "There is a 90-percent probability I would have lost to him, if he had been in the final race."

The 25-year-old Liu is feeling the pressure as the Beijing Olympics approach. Being one of China's richest and the most visible athletes, he is the main gold medal hope on the track-and-field scene for 1.3 billion Chinese people this August.

Private University for Poor Students

President of Beijing-based New Oriental School, Yu Minhong, or Michael Yu, is planning to construct a university for poor students, according to his proposal at this year's full session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing, China's political advisory body.

Yu, Chairman of the New York-listed New Oriental Education & Technology Group, said he would establish a fund worth at least 2 billion yuan ($281.4 million) to finance daily costs of the school.

According to Yu, his school, scheduled to be completed in four or five years, will be located in suburban Beijing with at least 1,000 students recruited each year. "I am proposing a university of traditional Chinese style like the prestigious Peking University. It will be affordable to poor students, and will grow into one of China's best."

Yu, 46, is a successful businessman as the founder of the New Oriental School, which sends thousands of Chinese students to foreign universities via intensive language training.

"The proposed government reshuffle, the sixth in 30 years, is not of the biggest scale, but has the farthest-reaching effects in building China's socialist political culture."

Professor Wang Yukai at China's National School of Administration, after the Chinese Government proposed a self-reshuffle plan on March 11, which involves the establishment of five "super ministries" and a ministerial-level energy commission

"On the issue of terrorism, the international community should speak in one voice and form synergy to firmly strike terrorism."

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang, calling on the international community to unify their position and pool efforts in striking out against terrorism at a regular press briefing in Beijing on March 11. He made the remarks when responding to a question quoting some human rights organizations' comments as saying China was exaggerating terrorism threats in its Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

"We feel that the country is on the verge of making history. This was also the desire of Benazir Bhutto and we also intend to stick to the road of democracy; we are aware of the problems that the country is facing."

Asif Ali Zardari, widower of assassinated ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and de facto leader of opposition Pakistan People's Party, after he and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif signed an agreement on March 9 to form a coalition government

"You're gonna miss me, the way you used to quiz me."

U.S. President George W. Bush, singing an early farewell to reporters at a March 8 dinner at the Gridiron Club, the oldest organization for Washington journalists