Mainland moms banned from giving birth in HK

Expectant mothers from the Chinese mainland will no longer be able to give birth in public hospitals in Hong Kong, the xinmin.cn reported yesterday. The Hospital Authority of Hong Kong (HAHK) has announced that from…

Economy threatened by aging demographic

BEIJING – China’s population is getting older, and that could have a major effect on the nation’s economic prosperity. The emergence of negative growth in the total working-age population, which some demographers predict will happen…

Zhu Rongji resurfaces to criticise education reforms

Former premier Zhu Rongji made a rare public appearance yesterday, delivering a scathing criticism of the mainland’s education system and other policies during a visit to his alma mater, Tsinghua University. Zhu (pictured) lashed out…

A Worry for Beijing That Goes Beyond Cities

The fertile fields of this corner of eastern China are an unlikely microcosm of the national economy. There is not a power plant or factory in sight. Yet the area encapsulates as well as any…

A tangled Web of social networking

The battle between two major Chinese social networking sites, Renren.com and Kaixin001.com, will soon spread to the US stock market. That’s because the two companies are planning IPOs in the United States in the coming…

Students get lessons in love from authorities

They may not have written the book of love, but Beijing’s education authorities have come close, updating the capital’s university curriculum with a chapter on how to handle romantic relationships. The new teaching guidelines on…

Drivers to sign organ donation form with license

Drivers obtaining their license will have to fill out an organ-donation form to state whether they will be organ donors in the event of a fatal accident, Chongqing Evening News reported Monday. Huang Jiefu, vice-minister…

Micro blogs popular among officials

BEIJING – At least 2,428 Chinese governmental agencies and officials have been posting short messages online using domestic micro-blogging services that are similar to Twitter, according to a research report published by the Fudan University…

China: World’s driving force for luxury cars

China is the global driving force for premium luxury cars as consumer enthusiasm fuels sales, industry experts said. On Tuesday, the first day of the Shanghai auto show, luxury carmakers encountered revved-up interest as their…