Archive for ‘living standards’

21/04/2020

Xi Focus-Quotable Quotes: Xi Jinping on poverty alleviation

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to poverty alleviation. He has addressed the issue on many occasions. The following are some highlights of his quotes.

— It is an essential requirement of socialism to eradicate poverty, improve people’s living standards and achieve common prosperity among the people.

— No single poor area or individual shall be left behind.

— Genuinely poor people are to genuinely shake off poverty. Poverty must be truly eliminated.

— The measurement for moderate prosperity lies in rural areas.

— Cadres play a key role in helping people shake off poverty.

— Eradicating poverty is a common mission of human beings.

— It will be the first time in the millennia-old history of the Chinese nation that absolute poverty is comprehensively eliminated.

— Being lifted out of poverty is not an end in itself but the starting point of a new life and a new pursuit.

Source: Xinhua

20/04/2020

Educational situation in China’s Xinjiang much improved: scholar

KATHMANDU, April 19 (Xinhua) — A German scholar has recently found that the right to education for Uygurs and people of other ethnic groups is well protected in China’s Xinjiang region, as young people there enjoy increasingly better opportunities.

Michael Heinrich, who has been teaching German in Minzu University of China for more than five years, said in an article published on Online Khabar news website in March that he has “paid close attention to the development of Chinese education in recent years, especially the education situation in ethnic minority areas.”

Heinrich said he has taught a Xinjiang Uygur student, who often talks with him about the education situation in her hometown and appreciates government policies on education.

The Uygur student has told Heinrich that she lives in a place where she receives Islamic religious education and China’s nine-year compulsory education, and the Uygur students in Xinjiang can enjoy preferential policies, such as extra points in college entrance examination, special policies for college admissions, and employment policy support.

In recent years, the Chinese government has intensified policy support on education in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and increased investment in educational resources, especially those on vocational education, the article read.

“Through vocational education, more Uyghur Muslim students can enhance their survival skills and work harder by themselves and improve their living standards with these hands,” it said.

For some time, Xinjiang has been plagued by terrorism, religious extremism and separatism, according to the passage, and carrying out vocational education and training in Xinjiang is an effective measure to promote the rule of law and a practical action to protect the vital interests of people of all ethnic groups there.

It is also a just move in fighting extremism and terrorism to contribute to the stability in Xinjiang, it added.

Some Western media outlets as well as some U.S. politicians often slander the Chinese government under the guise of “human rights,” which does not only disregard the facts but also interferes with China’s sovereignty, Heinrich pointed out.

The situation in Xinjiang that they saw was completely different from the stories told by some Western politicians and media, Heinrich quoted some people who have visited Xinjiang and witnessed its development as saying.

The rights to life and development of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are protected to the largest extent, Heinrich added.

Source: Xinhua

04/06/2019

Tiananmen Square: What happened in the protests of 1989?

File photo of protestersImage copyright AFP
Image caption By early June 1989, huge numbers had gathered in Tiananmen Square

Thirty years ago, Beijing’s Tiananmen Square became the focus for large-scale protests, which were crushed by China’s Communist rulers.

The events produced one of the most iconic photos of the 20th Century – a lone protester standing in front of a line of army tanks.

What led up to the events?

In the 1980s, China was going through huge changes.

The ruling Communist Party began to allow some private companies and foreign investment.

Leader Deng Xiaoping hoped to boost the economy and raise living standards.

However, the move brought with it corruption, while at the same time raising hopes for greater political openness.

Protesters in Tiananmen SquareImage copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Protesters in Tiananmen Square, 1989

The Communist Party was divided between those urging more rapid change and hardliners wanting to maintain strict state control.

In the mid-1980s, student-led protests started.

Those taking part included people who had lived abroad and been exposed to new ideas and higher standards of living.

How did the protests grow?

In spring 1989, the protests grew, with demands for greater political freedom.

Protesters were spurred on by the death of a leading politician, Hu Yaobang, who had overseen some of the economic and political changes.

Archive picture of Deng and HuImage copyrigh AFP
Image caption Deng Xiaoping (left) with Hu Yaobang

He had been pushed out of a top position in the party by political opponents two years earlier.

Tens of thousands gathered on the day of Hu’s funeral, in April, calling for greater freedom of speech and less censorship.

In the following weeks, protesters gathered in Tiananmen Square, with numbers estimated to be up to one million at their largest.

The square is one of Beijing’s most famous landmarks.

It is near the tomb of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, and the Great Hall of the People, used for Communist Party meetings.

What was the government’s response?

At first, the government took no direct action against the protesters.

Party officials disagreed on how to respond, some backing concessions, others wanting to take a harder line.

The hardliners won the debate, and in the last two weeks of May, martial law was declared in Beijing.

On 3 to 4 June, troops began to move towards Tiananmen Square, opening fire, crushing and arresting protesters to regain control of the area.

Who was Tank Man?

On 5 June, a man faced down a line of tanks heading away from the square.

He was carrying two shopping bags and was filmed walking to block the tanks from moving past.

"Tank Man" in BeijingImage copyright GETTY IMAGES

He was pulled away by two men.

It’s not known what happened to him but he’s become the defining image of the protests.

How many people died in the protests?

No-one knows for sure how many people were killed.

At the end of June 1989, the Chinese government said 200 civilians and several dozen security personnel had died.

Other estimates have ranged from hundreds to many thousands.

In 2017, newly released UK documents revealed that a diplomatic cable from then British Ambassador to China, Sir Alan Donald, had said that 10,000 had died.

Do people in China know what happened?

Discussion of the events that took place in Tiananmen Square is highly sensitive in China.

View of Tiananmen SquareImage copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Tiananmen Square now – full of tourists and surveillance cameras

Posts relating to the massacres are regularly removed from the internet, tightly controlled by the government.

So, for a younger generation who didn’t live through the protests, there is little awareness about what happened.

Source: The BBC

Law of Unintended Consequences

continuously updated blog about China & India

ChiaHou's Book Reviews

continuously updated blog about China & India

What's wrong with the world; and its economy

continuously updated blog about China & India