CELEBRATING THE HARVEST Girls pour wine for guests on August 28 during the new grain tasting festival in a Miao ethnic group village in Duyu City, Guizhou Province (QIAO QIMING)

Cracking Down on Organized Crime

Chinese police have successfully broken up more than 400 organized criminal gangs in the construction, mining, transportation and wholesale sectors and confiscated illegal holdings worth more than 4 billion yuan ($585.6 million) since the launch of a campaign to curb the activity.

In the three-year-long campaign, Chinese police detained more than 89,000 suspects in connection with 1,267 cases and convicted 12,796 people, a senior official of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said on September 1.

Altogether 6,739 people involved in 723 cases have been sentenced. More than 3,100, or 46 percent of them, received prison terms of five years, life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

Food Safety Standards

China is now working on a new system of food safety standards that is expected to guarantee people's health and be more compatible with international norms, a senior health official said on August 29 in Beijing.

"The Ministry of Health is now working with other government agencies to formulate a new system of food safety standards, as required by the country's new food safety law that went into effect on June 1 of this year," said Vice Minister of Health Chen Xiaohong at the Food and Drug Safety Responsibility Forum.

According to Chen, the new system will integrate existing food safety standards, eliminate areas that overlap or contradict each other and establish new standards for areas that previously lacked regulations.

Calling Top Talents

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) launched an introduction and training program for professionals in Beijing on September 1.

The CAS plans to recruit 600 senior-level foreign specialists over the next five years.

Bai Chunli, Executive Vice President of CAS, said the project also plans to introduce and train 600 academic leaders, educate 600 promising managers, train 6,000 younger experts and finance 1,500 scholars and scientists from foreign countries to work at CAS in the next five years.

Merit-Based Salary

China's State Council, the country's cabinet, announced a plan to push forward a merit pay system in health units and other public-sector organizations on September 2 to stimulate workers' enthusiasm.

Attendees of a State Council executive meeting, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, agreed that performance-based salaries would be of great importance to increase the initiative of employees and improve service to the public. The change is a major part of the reform moving through the income distribution system in public-sector organizations.

The merit pay system first began in primary and high schools on January 1, 2009.

Starting on October 1, the system will be implemented at local and some public health institutions in specific fields, such as in blood collection, women's and children's healthcare stations and disease control and prevention centers.

Other public-sector organizations will implement the system starting January 1, 2010.