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Chengdu, a city in southwest China's Sichuan Province known for its "hot and spicy" cuisine, wants to go global' with its delicious spicy flavors,' especially after becoming a member of the "Creative Cities Network," a UNESCO project that provides a platform for its member cities to share and promote local heritage.

A press conference held on Sunday in Beijing with the participation of UNESCO officials and the Vice Mayor of Chengdu reported the city's nomination into the "Creative Cities Network" in the gastronomy category.

Vice mayor of Chengdu, Wang Zhonglin, compares the city's inclusion into the network to being part of an international club for top-grade players of the creative industry, which will bring about positive elements to the city's development.

"The network provides a platform for Chengdu to conduct exchanges and cooperation with the world's first-class creative cities, study advanced international creative concepts, and explore the potential for the city's development in the food culture on the international market. Meanwhile, the network will help Chengdu attract the world's outstanding enterprises and talents in the field of creative design of gastronomy."

The Chengdu Commerce Bureau has drafted a work plan from 2010 to 2012 to mold the city into a "City of Gastronomy," with the responsibilities that a member country of the network is obligated to fulfill.

Under the plan, Chengdu will speed up the process of bringing local cuisine up to international standards and to work as a professional industry in order to go global. Meanwhile, the internationalization is expected to help the local catering industry achieve an annual growth of 19 percent of its revenue.

Chengdu is one of only two cities in the world that have been recognized as a "City of Gastronomy". The other is Popayan in Colombia.

Chengdu's success in being included in the "Creative Cities Network" has not only inspired local residents, but also many of those who came from Chengdu to open restaurants in Beijing.

Twenty-nine-year-old Xiong Chunmei is one of them. Xiong runs a Chengdu Snack Bar, located near Babaoshan Subway Station in western Beijing. She's pleased to find her bar gets crowded each day.

When asked about how she feels about her hometown being recognized as a "City of Gastronomy," Xiong said she believes her hometown deserves the title for three reasons: unique flavor, everyone loves the taste and it's affordable.

"I think Sichuan snacks are unparalleled in their novel setup. The paprika and pepper used in making the dishes are all brought from my hometown to make it authentically home-style. My snack bar is quite popular among local diners."

She said in excitement that her snack bar receives 300 diners at best on a daily basis since she began its operation in 2006.

In fact, Xiong is among many others who have brought delicious spiciness to Beijing from their hometown of Sichuan, making "Chengdu Snack Bar" a prominent feature in the capital city.

But Beijing is surely not the destination of their ambition. To enable the delicious spiciness to go even further, Chengdu city has now joined the "Creative Cities Network."

Founded in 2004, the "Creative Cities Network" aims to find and enrich a member city's cultural identity in the midst of a growing trend towards internationalism. Meanwhile, member cities of the alliance will share their experiences.

Xiong Chunmei said, through a study on the experience of the western-style snackery, a lot of progress has been made in the sanitation of their food.

"We've learnt from the western-style fast food restaurants to remedy our disadvantage in the area of sanitation. In the past, we used to pursue a high number of food varieties we could offer to diners in a small restaurant. But now we've improved to make our dishes 'few but good'."

According to Xiong, the snack bar is the third restaurant specializing in Chengdu cuisine that she has launched so far in Beijing. Actually, it's not only Xiong Chunmei's own wish, but also a wish shared by all Chengdu-cuisine restaurant operators who want their snack food to reach people globally.

Chengdu residents believe the "Creative Cities Network" will help their dream come true.    ... Read More

Beijing - The Chinese automotive industry achieved remarkable growth in 2009 and the momentum hasn't slowed as we enter 2010, despite tightening of purchase tax incentives.

New vehicle sales reached a record-high 1.6 million units in January, an increase of 117 percent over a year ago. Passenger vehicle demand rose sharply, some 122 percent, to 1.1 million units while light commercial vehicle sales increased 105 percent to 480,000 units.

The January figures translate into a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 18.5 million vehicles - up 20 percent from December's rate of 15.3 million.

Automotive sales in January carried over momentum from 2009, especially in the run-up to the Chinese New Year. [China Daily]

Though purchases in the run up to the Chinese New Year likely distorted the annualized sales rate, it seems the industry is still in good shape.

But wholesale numbers do not always reflect actual demand. Supply struggled to meet demand in the last few months of last year, resulting in most inventories running below normal.

Early boost to 2010

It is also thought that some companies might have pushed part of their December sales figures into January after exceeding 2009 targets to provide an early boost to sentiment and bookkeeping in 2010.

Both domestic-made and imported vehicle prices are reported to have climbed around 2 percent in January over December in major cities. Insufficient supply was thought to be the key factor, with surging purchases before the Chinese New Year in February giving dealers the confidence to limit discounting.

Almost every brand recorded double-digit or triple-digit growth in January. Sentiment across the industry is very different today from what it was a year ago, when most companies were expecting a sluggish market in 2009.

Optimism is now rife. Sales targets for 2010 for most automakers are above 10 percent growth, with some as high as 80 percent.
Second-tier cities

There are good reasons to believe the Chinese automotive industry will maintain strong momentum this year, including in second-tier cities and rural areas, due to continuing incentives and new development plans, improving road conditions, recovering export demand and expanding capacity.

But not all is positive in the market, with quality issues now garnering even more attention than usual.

In addition to Toyota's recent travails, Honda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Kia, Volkswagen and Geely have all issued recalls in one form or another so far this year. We believe this is merely the tip of the iceberg.

It has been five years since the government drew up its regulations on vehicle recalls. In 2009 a total of 1.3 million vehicles were recalled, accounting for 10 percent of new vehicle sales.

The number of vehicles recalled in the US in 2008 was higher than new vehicles delivered that year. It seems improbable that vehicle quality in China is much better than in the US, so the situation in China has the potential to turn much grimmer.

Afraid of negatively impacting their brand image, carmakers in China typically try to address vehicle quality problems during regular maintenance checks, shielding problems from publicity and governmental awareness.    ... Read More

Central government also faces a dilemma in deciding on its interest rate policies.

As inflation rises - it was 1.9 percent in December and 1.5 percent in January - the market has expected an interest rate hike to come sooner or later.

While the real interest rate risks falling into negative territory due to rising inflation, any hasty adjustment of it could hurt enterprises, especially job-creating private companies, and could even shake the newly recovered economy. It could also stoke inflows of speculative capital from overseas.

"While we expect the central bank to deliver 81 base points of rate hikes this year to avoid real rates turning negative, we do not expect aggressive credit tightening to last long," said Nomura Securities economist Sun Mingchun in a recent report.

Most economists forecast that inflation could reach 3 percent in February, when consumption was active thanks to the traditional Spring Festival, which started Feb 14. And they said there was a possibility of inflation rising further in the coming months, partly due to the relatively low base a year ago.

"If inflation rises fast and GDP growth remains solid (so that an interest rate hike would not hurt it too much), it is more likely that the central bank would raise the rate," said Lian Ping, chief economist of the Bank of Communications.

But interest rate hikes are not the only tools that the authorities could use to tighten the economy, analysts said.

"The authorities can also resort to 'window guidance', or 'moral suasion' (direct order), to curb lending growth and liquidity-incurred inflation," said Lian.

Any hike would come only when the economic growth trends become clear after the release first-quarter data, said Zhang Xiaojing. Therefore, it is more likely to come in the second quarter, if the US Federal Reserve does not raise interest rates unexpectedly, he said.

Yuan appreciation

Thanks to the strong rebound in exports in the past two months and China's ever-expanding foreign exchange reserves, the nation is facing unprecedented pressure to revalue the yuan, although its value has risen by more than 20 percent since the currency system was reformed five years ago.

China's foreign exchange reserves amounted to $2.4 trillion by the end of 2009. The trade frictions between the US and China have also led to mounting pressure for yuan appreciation.

Premier Wen Jiabao has vowed that the yuan's exchange rate is a matter for China's sovereign decision and said he would not bow to outside pressure. But analysts said the country could allow the yuan to be more flexible this year.

"Outside pressure should not be the factor pushing us to reform, but yuan appreciation will help us restructure our economy, helping it to become more high-tech-oriented and energy-efficient," said Zhang.

Revaluing the yuan could also be part of the fiscal stimulus exit strategy because it would increase the cost of exports. However, it would not help narrow the China-US trade gap, analysts said.

James Riedel, William L. Clayton Professor of International Economics at Johns Hopkins University, pointed out that the US trade deficit with China in essence has little to do with the yuan's value. "China will always have a surplus with the US, as do most Asian countries," he said. The US's overall deficit is in effect due to the various factors that influence the level of expenditure relative to income in the US.

"The US deficit is due to the fact that the US spends more than it earns. When you spend more than you earn, you naturally go into debt," said Riedel.    ... Read More

During Tiger Year’s spring festival, Guo Yimin didn’t have a family reunion at home. The veteran of Counterattack against Vietnam in Self-Defense stayed alone at the border line between China and Vietnam in Guangxi Aidian County to fulfill a 30 years long promise to his deceased comrade-in-arms in 1979: ‘Whoever survives must bring the other’s bones back to homeland’.

The condition of Guo’s battle companion is not the worst, at least somebody still remembers him and rushes for him. In the Korean War thousands of Chinese soldiers were even namelessly buried abroad, which casts endless grievance on their families and survived companions. And this is not the only problem of China veterans.

The dead have long gone, while the survival must face more difficulties. For one thing, among Chinese veterans the certain group of people, poverty is a universal phenomenon. For Korean War veterans, the monthly pension from government is about 400 yuan, while Sino-Vietnamese War veterans have less than 200 yuan pension. It’s below the minimum standard of living, much lower than average retirement allowance of a normal worker in a similar age.

For another, what’s more miserable is that veterans have to sustain disrespect and despise of the society. As People.com.cn reported, Veteran Fu Xiqing, who lost a leg in the War of Resistance against Japan, spent his last years in Tianjin as a street cleaner; Yang Yunfeng, the warrior who was killing invaders on Lugou Bridge with broadsword, ironically became the most unwelcomed beggar at the gate of Memorial Museum of Chinese People's Anti-Japanese War.

On the other hand, Japanese veterans can get more than a hundred thousand Yen (RMB7600 yuan) monthly as "bestow". Taiwan veterans have 15,000 TWD’s pension (RMB3200 yuan) every month. And the date ’11.11’, which was called Bachelor’s Day in China, is a formal holiday specially for ex-service soldiers in United States — Veteran’s Day — a day to demonstrate the great patriotism and cohesive force of the nation.

Solider used to be an honorable title in China, "the loveliest people". But nowadays most of them are not treated well. Society should not be so ungrateful when we are declaring once and once again that we’ll never forget the history. Veterans of the anti-Japanese War are some 90 years old, with veterans in the Korean War at about 80 and those in Sino-Vietnamese War at 60. To give them a decent life with dignity in their later years, we have not much time.

Veteran’s Day as a motion had been proposed in the National People’s Congress before, but it’s not resolved yet. A new session of NPC is going to start next week. China should have such a day for elder warriors, at one moment of which day we can say ‘thankful for ever’ and hear them reply ‘never regret’. If we let the moment slip, we may lose the last chance.   ... Read More

WASHINGTON: The US government now says that China did not lose its place in December as the largest foreign holder of US Treasury debt.

The Treasury Department said that under annual benchmark revisions released Friday, China's holdings of US Treasury securities stood at $894.8 billion at the end of December, keeping it in first place ahead of Japan.

On Feb 16, the government reported data that showed China had been surpassed by Japan. However, the government said in the new report that those figures did not account for purchases by Chinese investors in such places as Britain.

When those purchases are taken into account, the government said that China's holdings in December grew by $139.4 billion above what was reported on Feb 16.

That increase put China back into first place as the top foreign holder of US Treasury securities at $894.8 billion followed by Japan, now back in second place, at $768.8 billion.

The revised figures represent the annual revisions Treasury makes based on a more detailed report of the actual foreign holdings of the Treasury debt. That survey revised the figures through June 2009, and those more accurate figures were used to update the monthly reports through December 2009.

The revised figures did show that China reduced its holdings in December compared with November, a drop of $34.2 billion. However, with the more accurate assessment of the actual ownership of the securities, the levels of China's holdings were much higher than expressed in the report two weeks ago.

The replacement of China by Japan as the largest foreign holder of Treasury securities when it was reported two weeks ago had raised worries that China was carrying through on comments it made about diversifying its holdings based on rising concerns about America's soaring federal budget deficits.

Some economists had seen the change in China's position as a warning signal that the biggest holders of US debt were starting to dump those holdings. Such a development could dramatically increase the interest bill the federal government must pay to finance its deficits and also drive up the cost of borrowing for US businesses and consumers.

On Feb 1, the US President Barack Obama released a budget plan that projects the deficit for this year will total a record $1.56 trillion. That would surpass last year's record of $1.4 trillion deficit, reflecting a severe recession that has cut into government revenues and increased spending to stabilize the banking system and jump-start the economy.

The administration has pledged to address the soaring deficits once the economy gets back on track. The president by executive order last week created an 18-member deficit panel that is charged with issuing a report by December on how to reduce the annual budget deficits to 3 percent of the national economy by 2015.

Obama named four members of the panel on Friday. However, the commission is considered a weak substitute for what Obama really wanted - a commission created by Congress that could force lawmakers to vote on remedies to reduce the debt.    ... Read More

Home sales exceeded 6 trillion yuan last year, one-fifth of total gross domestic product

China seems to be caught in a dilemma - while soaring property prices have left millions of people out in the cold and fueled growing concern over an asset bubble, the property sector remains a key economic driver.

To some extent, China's economy has been "kidnapped" by the property industry. It is estimated that the country's property sales, including both pre-owned homes and new apartments, may have exceeded 6 trillion yuan ($879 million) last year, accounting for one fifth of gross domestic product (GDP) during the same period. Property investment may have reached 3.6 trillion yuan, or 19 percent of the country's fixed assets investment.

Gu Yunchang, vice-president of China Real Estate Research Association, said at a recent forum that whether in terms of stimulating investment and consumption, the real estate sector plays a decisive role in the economic recovery and boom.

Moreover, land sales are the biggest revenue contributor. According to statistics from the Ministry of Land and Resources, the government netted 1.6 trillion yuan from land sales last year, equal to 40 percent of the nation's two-year stimulus package and 4.7 percent of GDP last year. The sector's sales revenue climbed 63 percent from 2008.

Local governments were the largest beneficiary of this land sales boom, with Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing being the top three, according to China Real Estate Index.

This fact also makes the central government's policy to cool down the feverish property sector hard to implement at a local level as it is equal to killing their biggest money-spinner, an even greater problem in a country where GDP is still a leading indicator of the performance of local officials.

For Fan Gang,an economist and member of the monetary policy committee of the central bank, the assets bubble has been one of the most daunting challenges for China. Property prices in China's key cities climbed more than 50 percent last year, making 85 percent of people currently not owning a home unable to afford to buy an apartment, according to a survey by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Therefore, said Fan, the property market needs more institutions and strategies, such as the introduction of a property tax to curb speculative buying.

Meanwhile, the risk of people overstretching themselves financially also rose along with soaring property prices. Wang Zhaoxing, vice-chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said borrowing to buy property accounts for about 20 percent of new lending in China. In 2009, Chinese banks loaned a record 9.59 trillion yuan. Although Wang said banks' non-performing loans remained at a stable level and even saw a dip at the end of the third quarter of 2009, concern is mounting over the growth of bad loans.   ... Read More

BEIJING: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday he was confident in China's economic development in 2010, although it was "the most complicated year" for the country's economy.

"Last year was the most difficult year for China's economic development in the 21st century, while this year will be the most complicated," Wen said during an online chat with Internet users.

"We will consolidate the economic recovery while addressing new challenges," he said.

"The top priority is balancing stable and comparatively fast economic growth with the adjustment of the economic structure and the transformation of the development pattern, while keeping inflation in check," Wen said.

"I have confidence in China's economic development," he added.

China's massive stimulus plan proved effective

China's massive stimulus plan has been proved to be effective and China's economy has bottomed out and witnessed a sound recovery, said Premier Wen during the online chat.

The stimulus package brought confidence and courage, and improvements have been gradually made during its implementation, Wen said while chatting online with Netizens at www.gov.cn and www.xinhuanet.com.

Boosted by a raft of stimulus measures, China's economy expanded 8.7 percent in 2009, staging a speedy recovery after being hit by the worst global financial crisis in eight decades.

The stimulus package included fiscal spending; tax cuts; adjustment and support policies for key industries; support systems for scientific development; and improvements in the social security system.

The package has contributed to the nation's development and people's livelihood with both economic and social achievements, he added.

Fair distribution of social wealth stressed

Premier Wen compared a fair distribution of social wealth to the government's social conscience in the on-line chat.

Wen said, "It must be unfair when a society's wealth is in hands of a few people, and in that case, the society must be unstable."

He said it is the government responsibility to "make the cake of social wealth as big as possible" and the government conscience to "distribute the cake in a fair way."

The fair distribution of social wealth concerns social justice, Wen said, adding it actually involves distribution of national income.

However, "the proportion of residents' income is relatively low in the distribution of national income," he said.

To "make the social wealth cake bigger," efforts should be made to concentrate on enhancing production capacity and take economic construction as a central task, he said.

Wen said special attention should be paid to changing the development mode and "make our economic development really focus on the advancement of science and technology and the quality of labor force."

China still faces serious employment pressure

China is still facing serious challenges in employment, though labor shortage has been found in booming cities in China's coastal areas recently, said Premier Wen Jiabao.

Wen attributed the labor shortage in coastal areas to three possible factors. "First, it may be the result of economic recovery, which enables the enterprises to improve production, get more orders and thus need more workers," he said.

"Secondly, it may be that the enterprises are looking for workers for certain professions while the unemployed are looking for other jobs," he said. "Some enterprises need skilled workers, which the society is widely short of."

"The labor shortage is also a result of the growing awareness among the workers of their own rights and interests," Wen said, adding workers would weigh different choices for better salaries.

The labor shortage in certain areas signals a stabilized and recovering economy, but the serious employment situation has not changed in general, Wen said.

"Every year 150 million migrant workers leave their rural homes to look for jobs in cities, 24 million urban unemployed are waiting for jobs, and the number of university graduates will hit a record high of 6.3 million this year, all adding up to our employment pressure," Wen said.

He also mentioned a report saying the number of farmers who go to hunt jobs in cities this year dropped 6 percent from last year.

"It is what we hope to see if they stay home because the economic situation in rural areas is getting better and their living conditions have improved," he said.

"We shall not only encourage migrant workers to be absorbed into the city life, but also work for a better life for those live in the vast countryside," he said.

"I hope the employment situation is better than last year," he said.

University graduates encouraged to start own businesses

Wen said the government encourages university graduates to start their own businesses, as the country is facing serious challenges in employment.

He said the government can usually create job opportunities for 9 million people a year. However, more than 6 million people graduate from universities annually and need jobs.

Statistics show that the number of Chinese university graduates will reach an all-time high of 6.3 million this year, posing a grave challenge for the country's employment.

"It is a very important task for us to create job opportunities for them," Wen said.

He said the government has called on university graduates to work in relatively underdeveloped central and western regions, border regions and rural areas.

"We particularly hope they can start their own businesses, and we have stipulated many favorable policies in this regard," he said, citing a series of favorable loans.

"The government has always attached great importance to the employment of university students," he added.   ... Read More

BEIJING: Legislators in the Chinese capital plan to draft a regulation on garbage disposal, which is expected to enforce garbage sorting system while regulating controversial garbage incineration plants.

Saturday's Beijing News quoted a document of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress as saying that the regulation would be drafted this year and submitted for review next year.

The planned legislation would likely make garbage sorting an obligation of waste treatment departments and residents, said Zhao Yi, director of the city legislature's environmental protection office.

It is estimated that Beijing's 17.55 million residents produce almost 18,400 tonnes of household garbage every day, 90 percent of which are landfilled, mainly because it is difficult to recycle unsorted garbage.

The city government has been working to have daily garbage sorted into three categories -- recyclable garbage, kitchen garbage and others. But most of the garbage stations and landfills have not conducted the sorting work.

In 2009, garbage sorting was only carried out among 10 percent of Beijing residents, according to the government statistics.

The government plans to realize garbage sorting in all schools and government departments this year, said a government statement in mid February.

The regulation will also stipulate on garbage incineration plants, with a plan to enforce the monitoring and daily reporting of emissions from the plants, Zhao told the newspaper.

As the capital city is running short of landfills, the government resorts to more garbage incineration plants.

The city planned to increase the incineration percentage from current 5 percent to 20 percent by 2012. But many residents have voiced concerns out of fears of potential health risks caused by emissions from the plants.

Zhao said the legislation should be able to help ease the public concerns as the law would ensure transparent management of the incineration plants.    ... Read More

When company executive Zhang Lan read the property news on Friday in Jiangsu province, he could not believe what was reported.

Property prices in 70 major cities nationwide climbed 1.5 percent year-on-year, with the price of new apartments rising by 1.3 percent and those of resale ones increasing 2.4 percent, latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

"Only a 1.5 percent increase? Shouldn't it be 15 percent?" Zhang asked in disbelief.

"An increase of 20 percent from last year for property prices in a common, small town in my province is quite ordinary, let alone major cities like Beijing and Shanghai where the price could have soared by at least 50 percent," he said.

Zhang is one of many people, including industry analysts, who say the latest figures on property price increases are understated.

"Property prices may differ greatly from city to city for such a large country and it is natural that people in various areas may have different views of the sector," said Qin Xiaomei, chief researcher with property firm Jones Lang LaSalle Beijing.

"But based on the latest figures, which make the industry look pretty healthy, the government will then not find it necessary to issue such intensive measures to cool down the sector," Qin said.

Since the end of last year, the central government launched a slew of policies to curb the excessive increase in property prices, amid fears that an asset bubble was building up.

The growth rate of property prices in 70 major Chinese cities was positive in June last year and peaked at 7.8 percent in December, the highest level since April 2008.

But on Jan 19, a report from the NBS showed that the country's average contracted home price last year was 4,695 yuan per sq m, up 24 percent from the previous year. Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing recorded the top three growth rates, standing at 27.56 percent, 18.32 percent and 16.38 percent, respectively.

"As the accuracy of such statistics is key to policy making, the NBS could publish the pricing details of each city and how calculations are made, to convince people," said Carlby Xie, associate director at property firm Colliers' North China division.

Besides property figures, expert opinion on the trend for property prices this year was also divided.

"Sale prices are likely to fall from mid-2010 as slower demand, higher supply and various government initiatives could dampen market sentiment. However, we do not expect developers to find 2010 as severe as the downturn in 2008 or as volatile as 2009," said Bei Fu, associate director of corporate ratings at S&P.

For Eric Chan, general manager of Synergis Asset Management Services Limited, property prices may pick up in the second half of the year, as mounting inflation pressure will make real estate an ideal channel to hedge risks.    ... Read More

As part of China Daily's aggressive strategy to boost its presence at home and abroad, METRO Beijing has just been relaunched with significantly more pages and reporting.

At a time when the news about papers is all doom and gloom half a world way, readers may be a little bewildered by the robust local media scene. With a resident foreign population of about 110,000, the city already publishes half a dozen English newspapers and magazines. There is a general consensus that in the West, newspapers' heyday is already over as they enter the decline phase of their product life cycle. But will newspapers in China be immune from the laws of media economics?

No, they won't. Some Chinese pundits have already forecast that due to an Internet-enabled freefall in readership and ad revenues, by 2025 market-driven newspapers will become an endangered species in China and only a very small number of "quality" newspapers will survive.

The capital used to be a battleground for cut-throat competition among a dozen Chinese-language metropolitan dailies.

But now the local market is dominated by about four morning or evening newspapers that are fighting for a declining readership eroded by Internet.

To make their life even more difficult, newspapers in China generally allow their nemesis news portals to scoop their content at dirt cheap prices or for free.

In China, newspaper alliances that target news portals have been formed and collapsed over and over again, because there are always some newspapers that want the aggregators to help them capture larger shares of the market.

The English media will be no exception. Each will need to provide essential coverage that differentiates itself from the pack. Even without the Internet, no traditional media would be able to survive, if they don't produce differentiated content that makes their product unique and sustainable.

At the same time, local English news media will need to integrate themselves with Web technologies. METRO will try to increase the "stickiness" of its website by encouraging its dynamic journalists, including those print-hardened ones, to become Internet-savvy and interactive.

There will be also be other major challenges for any State media when attempting to develop viable content and business models for sustained development.

As State media, we will probably always meet skepticism from foreign readers, because the independent press is a central feature of the dominant value system in the West. We're aware that if communication goes against one's aspirations, values and motivations, it is likely not to be received at all or at best, to be resisted, as management guru Peter Drucker once said.

METRO will uphold universal professional journalism standards as we strive to be timely, accurate, complete, objective, balanced and fair.

When dishing up local news and views, we don't avoid reporting sensitive issues in our extensive coverage of the city. Readers will also find a diversity of opinions as we encourage debate on a combination of print and Web platforms.

It may sound an arduous task. But we're following the official guidelines for effective reporting. That is, news must be close to readers, reality and life.

It's hard to know whether and when the Internet will kill off newspapers.

But it's obvious a newspaper will die sooner rather than later, if it provides mundane content and refuses to embrace new communication technology.

And we believe a newspaper that practices good journalism will have better chances to survive, as it might have more time to tap into the potential of the Web and experiment with new print mode.

The writer is METRO's Editor. Contact him by e-mail at yuanzhou@chinadaily.com.cn.    ... Read More