Independent Survey Needed

It was recently revealed that the results of a public opinion survey on local economic and social development in Qidong City, east China's Jiangsu Province, was manipulated.

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According to a report by national broadcaster China National Radio, local people were told to answer the telephone survey, which was conducted by the provincial bureau of statistics, in strict line with prepared answers. The government pledged to reward those who helped to distort the survey. Local residents are very unhappy with this practice.

It's a big scandal that officials encouraged people, including minors, to lie, in order to show off their so-called achievements. However, this is not the only case of lies that have official sanction in the country.

Opinion survey is a common method to take society's temperature on public issues in the modern age. In China, polls are always taken by upper-level governments on those under their jurisdiction. Why not get a nongovernment institution to conduct these polls? An independent agency can be more professional and must act fairly to ensure its reputation. This is one sure way to decrease the level of fraudulent activities propagated by local governments.

Huashang Daily

Holidays Don't Drive Consumption

As part of its efforts to boost consumption, south China's Guangdong Province recently launched a pilot travel and leisure promotion program. Companies covered by this program will encourage their employees to take a break before and after the May Day holiday. This means the official three-day holiday will be extended to a week or even longer.

However, it's really hard to say whether longer holidays really help to expand consumer spending. In fact, China is lacking in holidays in the real sense and holidays are always designed for economic purposes only. Where, then, are public interests placed?

Stimulating domestic demand is an important task. But it's unwise to place hopes on holidays only, because holidays are only one of the many factors that can contribute to the growth of consumption. Not all consumers prefer shopping or traveling during holidays. Instead, many may well want to have a rest. More importantly, robust consumption depends heavily on growing purchasing power and enhanced consumer confidence. Without enough money, no matter how many holidays they have, people will keep money in their pockets. After all, it is the public who spends, not so-called economists. Whether the holiday stimulus scheme will work is not a thing that can be decided by scholars and officials.

In the context of a financial crisis, the role of holidays in stimulating consumer spending may be limited. To strengthen consumers' purchasing power and updating consumption structure are more effective in the long term.

Zhujiang Evening News

Swindled Migrants Need Protection

The difficult employment situation is providing opportunities for unlicensed job agencies, which trade on migrant workers' eagerness for jobs to cheat them out of money. In south China's Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, an unlicensed job agency was recently exposed. Before the police broke it up, the operator had duped 358 migrant workers out of a large sum of money with fabricated job offers.