Relaxation of recruitment rules of the PLA, the absorption of high-tech talent

解放军放宽招兵规则，吸收高技术人才。Students on the frontline of modernization, Zhao Shengnan and Li Xiaokun report in Beijing.
Li Yueyue's dream to become a solider seemed to be a mission impossible a few months ago. The biggest obstacle: He is nearsighted, failing to meet the newly amended Military Service Law that requires college recruits have uncorrected vision of at least 4.5, slightly less than the perfect 5.0.
Thanks to a deregulation, however, that obstacle was removed and the 21-year-old became a soldier of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Dec 8.
Li, a sophomore journalism major, is one of the 16 Tsinghua University students who applied and were accepted for military service. He said the group includes a somewhat chubby young man who also passed the physical.
"If not for the relaxed rules exclusively for college students, I would never become a soldier," Li said.
Today's military relies increasingly on technically sophisticated weaponry, so it is eager to attract better-educated recruits. Under the amendment approved on Nov 1, the PLA is providing preferential treatment and has eased restrictions on age and physical condition for all recruits in this winter's class.
Those with facial or neck tattoos will now qualify for service if the decorations are no wider than 2 centimeters. Prohibitions on ear piercings also have been eliminated, as long as the holes are not too obvious. Other body piercings are still not allowed.
New weight rules permit a recruit to be a little heavier or a little thinner than allowed in the past. Female soldiers can be 2 centimeters shorter than before.
Full-time college students may be as old as 24 when they enlist; high school graduates must be 21 or younger.
Courting collegians
Agence France-Presse reported last month that the relaxation in rules comes as the PLA targets young people - particularly educated graduates - and recognizes that many of China's youth have grown more fashion-conscious and trendy. A Beijing Recruitment Office representative confirmed to China Daily that the preferential treatment targets educated graduates, whose numbers in Beijing have soared.
According to a senior officer with the General Staff Department of PLA, who asked to be unidentified, college recruits tend to be quick learners and thus find it easier to be promoted than enlistees with just a high school education. About half of college graduates recruited in 2009 were made officers this year.
The high quality of college recruits greatly reduces the time needed to produce a good technician, which was nearly two years during the 1990s, said Liu Yi, a military scholar from the PLA Nanjing Institute of Politics. "Some recruits have already mastered skills . . . like driving, nursing and engineering" before they enlist, he said.
Jia Na, the first female college recruit from Tsinghua, believes that psychological maturity contributes more to performance than an academic degree. "High school recruits cannot get used to the stringent military rules as quickly as elder and experienced college ones," she said.

China market a variety of antiques

中国丰富多彩的古玩市场。A visitor studies work by Zhang Daqian (Chang Dai-chien), a master of Chinese painting, during a preview to Sotheby's auction on May 31 in Hong Kong. Children Playing Under a Pomegranate Tree (left), painted in 1948, sold for US$9.56 million. Lotus and Mandarin Ducks (right), 1947, set an auction record for the artist at $24.5 million.

中国丰富多彩的古玩市场。Falling sales after boom paint a new scene for dealers and galleries, Zhang Yuchen reports from Beijing.
The temperature remained below freezing even at noon, and the wind howled. Even so, a few people stood outside their shops in Panjiayuan just to have something to do.
The people trying to pass the time were gallery owners or assistants and this should be by tradition, despite the weather, a hot time of year for antiques and art.
"People used to flock into the shop at this time of year to select and buy jade objects for their collections or as presents for their friends," a shop assistant said. "But now I may sit here for a whole day without selling a single item."
The art market cooled this fall after several boom years. Both collectors and investors are buying less in retail stores and at auctions.
While some observers think the art bubble is about to burst, many experts consider it a normal correction to the market.
The autumn auction season brought in 40 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) to the 219 auction companies tracked by Beijing-based Art Market Monitor of Artron. That's a drop of 6.6 percent from the spring season's 42.84 billion yuan. However, some auction companies reported their business volume was down 30 percent.
Artron's general manager, Guan Yu, wasn't surprised, given the government's tightening of monetary policy. "We surveyed the market after the spring auction season finished and forecast that the market would shrink this fall."
Experts also figured that the spring results were pushed to new heights by big profits flowing from the real estate and stock markets, and that the autumn results reflect the slower economy.
Some auction companies acted to keep their business steady by holding back items they thought would not sell at the anticipated price. Then, on Dec 5, Poly Auction in Beijing sold a Xu Beihong (1893-1953) masterpiece, Cultivation on the Peaceful Land, for 266.8 million yuan ($42 million). That set a world record for works by the father of modern Chinese painting.
"Rationality is what I saw in this autumn's auction results," said Wu Yishen, a collector from Shanghai who also is the great-grandson of Wu Hufan (1894-1968), an important 20th century painter in China. "In the circumstances this fall, buyers still carefully chose some particularly good objects to invest in heavily, through which we can see the support for China's arts market."

A bigger circle
Public trading of art has a relatively short history in China. The first auction house, China Guardian Auctions Co. Ltd, was established in 1993 with government assistance.
"Before that, collectors and art lovers only traded privately. Art collection was an issue within a small circle," Kou Qin, director and vice president of China Guardian, said at a summit hosted by Zhilan Yaji, an art collectors and dealers club, on Dec 8 in Beijing. Soon the small circle expanded.

中国丰富多彩的古玩市场。The last night of the fall Poly Auction on Dec 9 in Beijing, which ended with a total hammer price of 4.95 billion yuan.

In 2005, China's leadership encouraged people to "increase their property income instead of their labor revenue," and people took the opportunity to manage and increase their money through investments, said Liu Shuangzhou, a professor in the law school at Central University of Finance and Economics.
With the economy booming, art joined stocks and real estate as a financial tool. Its market closely followed the capital markets starting in 2006.
In 2009, the prices paid for several art items opened what art auction people call the Era of a Hundred Million Yuan. Stockbroker Liu Yiqian bought a piece of Song Dynasty (960-1279) calligraphy for more than 170 million yuan, which approached the world record for Chinese painting and calligraphy at the time.
Last year, China became the No 1 arts market with one-third of the world market share, according to Artprice.com, a market monitor and analyst since 2000. The United States had held that rank.
Seeing, setting value
Dong Guoqiang, president of Beijing Council International Auction Co, explained how the market has changed: "Now we are facing not only the traditional collector, who sees the value of items in terms of art and culture, but also the investors with a huge amount of capital who have taken to art as a way of increasing their fortunes."
Chinese calligraphy or a painting worth more than 100 million yuan today might not have fetched 10 million just 10 years ago, said Hu Yanyan, director of the painting and calligraphy department at China Guardian Auction, but now the public recognizes its value.
"Though this year the whole market is not as good as expected, we are still impressed by the consumption capacity of our new customers," said Jiang Wei.
"They paid quickly for the collection items and inquire little about the investment value in the future."
Jiang works at Beijing A&F International Auction. He said these customers have huge buying power and the next step the auctioneers should take is to find ways to cultivate them in a new area, art as an investment. Maybe only 1 percent will come to truly appreciate the art, he said, but "what we really want is those who can truly consume the arts right now."
Individuals are not the only investors capable of boosting the market. Nearly 30 arts funds companies on China's mainland entered the market controlling a total of 5.8 billion yuan, according to a recent report on a one-year survey by Money Journal magazine and Xinhua Holdings. These funds buy art strictly as an investment, using pooled money, and usually do so anonymously.

Risky business
Big capital participation in the market means bigger potential for peril, too.
In the era before such large sums were invested, "we assessed the value of an art or antique item according to its quality, its historical price, its scarcity, etc," said Gong Jisui, an arts administration professor at Central Academy of Fine Arts. But now, he said, valuers have to anticipate how all that capital will influence an item's future price. "That is risky."
So is the possibility that a painting or other artwork may not immediately turn into cash. The transaction channels remain comparatively narrow.

Wu Yishen, the collector in Shanghai, mentioned a "long-term troubling problem - whether an art item or antique is genuine or fake."
The central government also has shown concern about artwork exchanges, which trade art similarly to stocks. It has limited some agents in their pooling of money.
No worries?
"I never hold the thought that we are facing a falling market," said Zhao Xu, executive director of Poly Auction in Beijing. "China's art market experienced several rounds of ups and downs as it was influenced by financial crisis or equilibrium in power between buyers and collectors. They are not at all big deals, since professionals ensure the market won't fall."

中国丰富多彩的古玩市场。A scene from the spring Poly Auction in Beijing in June. 

Wang Jie, managing director of Tiancheng International Auctioneer, sees the cooling down as a sign that the market is maturing and buyers are becoming rational. This means they will be more selective, she said, paying the highest prices only for art of the highest quality.
Wang, who joined the Shanghai office of Sotheby's in 1994, noted that sales in China's art market in 1999 totaled $199,000. Last year, they were $150 million.
"So it is just a transition period," she said. "We can make the most of it by doing some education work to cultivate a new generation of collectors."

The Greeks suffered the pain of economic contraction

希腊人遭受经济萎缩的伤痛。Cousins Kosta Makrhs and Angflo Drakos can earn the equivalent of a US quarter for each piece of bread they sell a block from Syntagma (Constitution) Square, which is a center for protests of Greece's austerity measures. Makrhs understands austerity. The reeling economy cost him his job as a waiter when the restaurant closed last year.

希腊人遭受经济萎缩的伤痛。Anger on the streets as crime, unemployment and suicide rates continue to climb. Fu Jing reports from Athens.
In afternoons, 35-year-old Markos walks his dog in the quiet woods on Mount Lycabettus, overlooking Athens. But he's not in the mood to enjoy the tranquility or the leisure.
All this free time belongs to retired people like his parents, he said. "The problem is that when you get up every day, you don't have something to do."
Markos, who didn't want to be fully identified, was laid off in March by the government-owned Olympic company, which has airline, tourism, real estate and other operations.
He now lives with his parents, and the government pays him 460 euros ($600) in unemployment allowance each month, although that will run out in March.
Because he speaks fluent English and has experience in tourism promotion, Markos had expected no problems in landing a new job. However, since the debt crisis erupted in May 2010, the government has cut public-sector jobs, as well as salary and social welfare payments.
Meanwhile, uncertainty, panic and pessimism have dominated the country, and investors are not willing to risk opening new businesses. "So finding a job is extremely hard," Markos said.
With the economy shrinking for a fourth consecutive year, the young continue to be the hardest hit. More than four of every 10 people ages 18-25 are out of work.
And their situation is likely to be even worse next year. Both the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have forecast that Greece's economic freefall won't end before 2013.
Not every Greek has responded to the tough times as quietly as Markos, who thinks the new coalition government led by Lucas Papademos will give Greece a new chance. Many others have joined streams of demonstrations.
General strikes in October shut down services across the country for two days, and the trade unions are planning a 24-hour general strike on Thursday to protest next year's austerity budget. It will be the first major walkout since the appointment of the interim coalition government in early November.
Over the past two years, Greeks have held dozens of strikes and demonstrations against the repeated rounds of salary cuts and tax increases. All the pain and hardship have also pushed them to heatedly debate whether to stay in the eurozone.

希腊人遭受经济萎缩的伤痛。Above: Students march in Athens as the debt crisis worsens in Greece. Nearly 44 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds have no jobs.

'Alarming worries'

"This is a decision our country should make soon," Kosta Makrhs said last week as students marched to the lower end of Syntagma Square, the plaza facing the Greek parliament.

Makrhs, who has daughters 16 and 9, and his cousin Angflo Drakos don't want to miss any protest, but they are not participants. With a shabby stall a block from the square, they sell bread to the protesters. "Not so many people come to buy, but demonstrations are walking fairs for us," says Makrhs, who can earn 25 cents for each piece of bread he sells at 50 cents.

Makrhs used to wait tables in a restaurant, but he lost his job last year when bleak business forced it to close. His wife still works in a furniture factory in Athens and earns about 1,100 euros a month. With his tiny income from selling bread, the family can barely make ends meet.

"There are many alarming worries in my country," Makrhs said. He is most concerned about the growing numbers of homeless and hungry people who roam the streets and the rising count of drug addicts and suicides.

According to official data cited by the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom, 5,000 suicides in Greece were reported in the first eight months this year, compared with 2,500 for all of last year. Idle people roam the streets of downtown Athens, and theft and robbery are rampant. Police and security guards are patrolling, but often are seen to continue their chatting and smoking after hearing a robbery call.

"These are alarming phenomena," Makrhs said.

Meanwhile, he said, the children have been severely affected by the austerity measures. For example, the salary of teachers at his daughters' school was reduced by half to 600 euros a month, and now the teachers don't show up sometimes. Textbooks used to be free; now there is a charge. And if his children get sick, he said, they must wait a month for treatment because the hospitals don't have enough hands.

"The government should correct these as quickly as possible," Makrhs said. Otherwise, he said, poor education will not prepare them to compete as adults in a world economy.

Time to move

Greece will strengthen the austerity measures required to meet the target of deficit reduction set by the EU, IMF and European Central Bank. They include additional wage cuts, pension cuts, layoffs for public sector employees and changes to collective bargaining rules to make it easier to hire and fire. Very soon, about 30,000 public servants will be laid off.

To avoid being further affected by the austerity that might last for years, many Greeks are choosing to return to rural areas, where they can maintain a better standard of living at less cost. And some people are fleeing to other countries where they can find jobs.

Malkit Singh, who moved to Greece from India 20 years ago, is one of them. Singh has driven a taxi in Athens for years, but he said business has dropped off markedly because others are out of work.

Fewer Greeks can afford to take taxis. And foreign investors and tourists hesitate to come to Athens because strikes and others protests often cause the cancellation of flights and ferry services and the closing of government offices and tourist sites. Because business is so poor, some taxi drivers take unnecessary detours to add distance, and thus money, to their fares.

Singh said he is honest. But his net income has dropped from 80-100 euros a day to 15-20 euros. And he has to work 11-13 hours every day. He says it is not true, as some people say, that Greeks are enjoying more leisure than other parts of the world.

"For us ordinary people, it is never the case," Singh said. "Now that survival has turned out to be too hard here, I cannot see any hope."

Singh said he wants to open a shop to sell Chinese goods in his home country, and is sounding out his relatives in India about the possibility.

希腊人遭受经济萎缩的伤痛。A cleaning lady works on Mount Lycabettus,overlooking Athens.

Dilemmas everywhere

Greece has long been accustomed to spending beyond its means. Officials have admitted thegovernment has cooked the books in the past, producing false fiscal statistics, and has turned ablind eye to tax evasion.

As a result, the country has now accumulated a debt load of 360 billion euros - five times thesize of Argentina's default in 2001.

And even if the austerity measures are fully implemented and half of the debt held by privatebanks is written off, Greek debt will still be 120 percent of its gross domestic product by 2020.The benchmark set by the EU is 60 percent of GDP.

Every recipe for the crisis has put the government in a difficult position. If Greece stays in theeurozone, its leaders must submit a written guarantee to the EU to pursue its austerity drive tomeet its fiscal targets and reduce the budget deficit to avoid bankruptcy. And it mustcontinuously take an axe to the public sector, chipping away at its 800,000 jobs.

However, these austerity measures will deepen the recession, result in less job creation andfurther worsen social unrest. There is no fiscal maneuver available to boost the economy.

This is why Greeks are debating whether Greece should retain EU membership. "It is a big issueand it is still uncertain," said Nikis Koutsiaras, a lecturer in EU economic and social policy at theUniversity of Athens.

Because of the worsening economic prospects and the social cost of the crisis, Koutsiaras isafraid the political situation may worsen. "I am not sure if the technocratic government, whichhas been appointed for an interim of three months, will survive for that time," he said. "There is ahigh risk it will fall before the three months, and this depends on whether or not Greece willremain in the eurozone."

Koutsiaras said the crisis has made most Greeks both fearful and ignorant. "They are notpanicking about the issue. If anything they are apathetic."

He said it is impossible to predict what will happen, as there are many technical aspects andpeople tend to display signs of apathy. Socially and economically, people are exhausted. "In turnI think this may lead to social upheaval," Koutsiaras said.

Seeking inspiration

Not all Greeks are pessimistic. Christos Vlachos, director of the Greece-China Business Council,based in Athens, said the country still has many historic, economic, cultural, social andgeographical assets.

Vlachos, who is in China for business talks, said the country urgently needs political unity andfor the leaders to show decisive courage and determination to lead the people out of the woods.

"Greeks need to be inspired with the leaders' short-term measures and long-term vision," hesaid. "For example, can Greece think about asking for China's investment to build a high-speedrailway to link Athens and Thessalonica? It is unthinkable what kind of miracle this 500-kilometerproject can bring for Greece, whose population is less than 11 million, just half of Beijing's.

"We have been waiting a long time for inspiring decisions from our leaders," Vlachos said. "Theyshould think beyond austerity and we should not be let down again and again."

Qingdao, China, the family's efforts to cooperate with the treatment of autistic children

中国青岛，家庭的努力，以配合治疗自闭症儿童。Teacher Liu Lini works on language with Le Le, a 3-year-old girl with autism, at Qingdao Shengzhiai Rehabilitation Center. Each Lesson last about 20 minutes.

中国青岛，家庭的努力，以配合治疗自闭症儿童。QINGDAO, Shandong - Lack of developed support network adds to parents' burden, He Na reports in Qingdao, Shandong province.

Most people would be upset if you thought they looked 10 years older than their real age. Wang Yonglin, 35, has learned to smile and say he's used to it.

Once an energetic, sports-minded man, Wang is thin and looks tired. He has a few gray hairs. The changes began in 2009.

"I found my daughter was different from other kids," said Wang, who lives in Qingdao, in East China's Shandong province.

"She was easily irritated or annoyed, often murmured to herself, didn't like talking and paying attention to others. She did not like watching cartoons, but was only interested in the weather forecast."

Realizing that her behavior was not just quirky, Wang and his wife, Li Ping, took their daughter to a nearby hospital for tests.

The results of a series of examinations, including an intelligence test, eventually showed that their daughter was autistic.

The term refers to people who appear withdrawn from the outside world, who are self-absorbed and do not communicate with others. It covers a wide range of behavior and severity.

"Autism? I hadn't heard of the word before. And the doctor said straight-out that we needed to be mentally ready to accept that fact, because children who have autism will have it all their lives and there is no cure at present," Wang said.

Though he held the test results in his hands that day, he still hoped the doctor had been wrong. When daughter Jia Jia gets older, he thought, the situation can be better. But it has been more than two years, and there's been no improvement.

"I sent her to primary school, and the teacher complained that my daughter was seldom listening during class and was always looking down and playing with the little gadget in her hands," he said. The day's gadget could be anything - a pencil, a watch, a scoop.

Last month, they took Jia Jia, who is now 6, to Qingdao Children's Hospital on the chance she had recovered or that the original diagnosis was wrong. The result tore his hope to shreds.

"I felt my world collapse," said Wang, a former nonsmoker who now goes through two packs a day.

Wang and Li often feel hopeless, he said. They cannot sleep through an entire night and have even thought of suicide. "We gave up the idea finally, for who will take care of her if my wife and I die?

"You know, the most difficult thing is you have tried your best, but still can't see any hope. And even without hope, you still have to smile to face an innocent daughter every day."

Doctors suggested that Jia Jia is still young enough that some improvement is possible, so Wang and Li have sent her to a specialized school for language and basic behavior training.

"I do not expect too much for her future," Wang said, "but do wish she will be able to take care of herself when we are too old to look after her."

Feeling marooned

The couple thought they were the unluckiest people, stranded alone in the world with such a problem, but there are millions like them. The World Health Organization estimates that China has at least 1 million children with autism.

And autism is ranked No 1 among mental disorders in China, according to a presentation on Nov 4 at the International Autism Research Collaboration Development Conference in Shanghai. The data include only diagnoses in hospitals and research centers, so the actual number may be much higher, experts warned.

"You can't tell that children are autistic just by looking at them," said Hu Qinbo, president of Qingdao Shengzhiai Rehabilitation Center. "But when you stay with them for a while, you will find their behavior to be abnormal."

The center opened in 2003, and has 31 autistic students ages 3 to 12. They arrive at 8 am and leave at 4:30 pm five days a week.

"The core symptoms of autistic children are impaired social interaction and communication, restricted and repetitive behavior, and language barrier," Hu said.

One of them is 3-year-old Le Le. The little girl from China's Northeast has a round face, big eyes and long lashes. Her hair is tied up in colored rubber bands, and she's as cute as can be in her red sweater and a yellow vest.

But Le Le never talks, never plays with others. She can make some sounds to express her mood, but cannot speak.

"Le Le, which one is yellow?" asked Li Chao, a teacher at the center who just began their one-to-one class. The little girl kept staring at the building blocks but did not respond. Li repeated the question several times, but Le Le appeared to not hear it.

中国青岛，家庭的努力，以配合治疗自闭症儿童。Can sea mammals help? The ultrasound emitted by dolphins is thought to stimulate dormant brain cells in autistic children, leading to improved language and commincation abilities. This boy had his encounter at a rehabilitation center in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, in April.

中国青岛，家庭的努力，以配合治疗自闭症儿童。Many parents blame themselves for the suffering of their children.

"Autism has a strong link to genetic abnormalities. That is generally accepted," said Kuang Guifang, director of the psychology department at Qingdao Children's Hospital. "Birth defects, environmental causes such as heavy metals and pesticides, and childhood vaccines also are blamed."

But experts say that the causes of autism are still unclear after more than 60 years' research worldwide. The results of researchers from various countries often differ.

Treatment

"Whenever I meet the parents of autistic children, I tell them the importance of early intervention," Kuang said. "For many children, early intervention makes a big, big difference."

"Most of the signs of autism begin before a child is 3 years old," said Liu Zhiyun, director of Tianjin Autism Rehabilitation Center. "Early behavioral or cognitive intervention can help autistic children gain self-care, social and communication skills."

Each child's problems are different, so one-on-one teaching and training are preferred, and that puts a high demand on the teachers' knowledge of autism and psychology.

"Autism is considered to be lifelong," said Sun Ling, director of adolescent psychology at Tianjin Mental Health Center. "Parents really need to have good psychological preparation themselves. Parents' active involvement and cooperation in training play a vital role.

"Although there is no known cure, there have been reported cases of children who recovered worldwide. Some of them even work and marry as normal people. Though they still have some defects in social communication, at least they can take care of themselves," she said.

Despite high functioning by some patients, "less than 5 percent of autistic people show unusual abilities, such as in drawing, music and numbers. The intelligence quotient of almost half of autistic people is lower than average level," according to Wu Bolin, professor at the Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, as quoted by Science and Technology Daily.

Those who are severely affected may exhibit extreme forms of self-injurious, repetitive, highly unusual and aggressive behaviors. In such cases, doctors suggest pharmaceutical treatment to control behavior.

Money problems

Zhang Hui from Daqing, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, is in Beijing to care for her autistic grandson and observe his training.

After two years, the 5-year-old boy has made big progress. Not only have his symptoms of hyperactivity disorder improved, but he can also utter some words.

But the progress is hard earned and well paid. The family has spent about 120,000 yuan ($18,900) during the past two years. To keep expenses down, the boy's grandparents' eat sprouted beans for their main meal. "His parents still work hard in Daqing and save every penny just so the boy can take care of himself one day," Zhang said.

China has only about 500 rehabilitation centers to meet the increasing demand, and most are privately owned. Fees range from 2,000 yuan a month for the smallest ones to 4,000-5,000 yuan for well equipped private centers.

Autistic children were added to the government's list of disabled people in 2006, which in some cities may make them eligible for a subsidy, but it lags the huge expense of rehabilitation.

"Many parents cannot make ends meet every month. How can they have extra money for the tuition?" said Tian Zhongmin, who was a lawyer before she founded a training center for autistic children in Beijing.

"Renting the schoolhouse, hiring teachers and daily expenses, all my savings have almost gone during the past three years. I really want to help them, but without other financial support, I can count the days until closing.

"We've already reduced the tuition fee to the lowest point," she said, "but our fund is really limited. I do hope society and the government could give this more attention and support."

Many private centers share Tian's worries. Kuang, the psychology department head at Qingdao Children's Hospital, said most charities like to donate money for children who can recover quickly, from something like surgery for congenital heart disease. But for autistic children, the "investment" cannot produce a quick result, and may show no yield whatsoever.

Call for support

"Autism is not a rare disease. It needs more support from society and the government," said Li Jing, an assistant researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who is involved in longtime research on autism. "Due to the lack of related knowledge, autistic children have not been paid enough attention and many children missed the best therapy period."

"At present China still has no authoritative data related to children with autism, and is without a practical method for preliminary screening and effective intervention measures," Kuang said.

There's a big shortage of professional medical staff and teachers as well, she said. "China's autistic research is still at the infant stage. The government also needs to increase input and investment in research and education."

Li Chao trained at Qingdao Shengzhiai Rehabilitation Center to work with autistic children. "We had 20 classmates when I was in school," she said, "but now only another woman and I still work as autistic teachers."

Autism is a difficult problem worldwide, but some countries have reported achievements.

Kuang said, "I stayed in Vienna, Austria, for three months, and visited many autistic centers. In Vienna, as long as parents can provide a record of the diagnosis, the children can be accepted at local autistic schools. Most of the schools are built in communities and local government covers all the tuition fees.

"Of course, China's actual condition is different from Austria's, but it can be an example that China learns from in some way. We can make some experimental centers in some cities to see whether they can be promoted nationwide," she said.

"Though China still doesn't have unified regulations on autistic rehabilitation centers," Li said, "the China Disabled Persons Federation has already begun exploring ways to strengthen the regulation in the field and aim at establishing some basic regulations and guides in service methods, facilities and donations."

Let us ponder the price collectors

价格收藏家让我们深思.How much for those? And these? The prices Chen Li collects at a Sichuan market, and those reported by her counterparts nationwide, will contribute to the calculation of China's consumer price index. 

价格收藏家让我们深思.Chen Li arrived at the market at 9 in the morning, the designated hour, to inquire about food prices. Pork, on that particular day, Oct 20, was 29 yuan ($4.56) a kilogram, butcher Sun Xun told Chen. It was the same price recorded in Chen's tally book on Oct 15, which, in turn, was 1 yuan lower than on Oct 10.
Chen, 45, works in the consumer price office, in Mianyang, Sichuan province, for the National Bureau of Statistics.
The prices she monitors are the statistics the bureau uses to calculate the monthly consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation. Once this is calculated the information is flashed around the world to be digested by the financial markets.
The bureau opened consumer price offices in 31 provinces, covering 500 cities and counties, in 1984. Provincial-level offices report the collected price data to headquarters in Beijing. About 4,000 monitors now gather the data.
Every five days, Chen goes to the same markets and records food prices during the same hour, between 9 and 10 am. "For each variety of food, I need to collect prices from three different sellers," Chen said.
To make sure the sample prices are as close as possible to real market prices, only the after-bargaining trading prices can be written down, according to bureau requirements. Chen said that very often, she must buy the food to know the exact prices.
"At first," Sun said, "I didn't like to tell Chen the meat prices when I saw her writing numbers down in her notebook. I thought she was a spy working for other butchers. But after she told me that the inquiring is for CPI calculation I like to give her the true prices."
He appreciated that the survey "has no influence on my business" and, as bureau staff had explained to him, that his information contributes to the country's macroeconomic policymaking

High-tech help
The consumer price survey in Mianyang covers 126 markets and shops and 791 kinds of products and services. For food, 25 kinds of vegetables, eight kinds of fruit and 23 kinds of meat and egg are chosen as samples, said Yang Bin, director of the Mianyang survey office.
"We report the collected prices to the Sichuan provincial office on the 25th of each month," along with a report analyzing the reasons for price fluctuations, Yang said. "The headquarters usually directly calls some shops randomly and rechecks the original data."
Guan Jun, Chen's colleague, said that no matter how bad the weather or whether it's a holiday, the survey staff members go out to ask prices on specific dates - even after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, when there was the danger of buildings collapsing. "It is worthwhile to do this, because we have the duty to ensure that the data are true," Guan said.
In 2010, the bureau initiated a digital data collection and management system. Using a handheld apparatus that resembles a mobile phone, staff members can input prices and upload the data directly. The system also has a GPS function that can show where the collectors are and, thus, where the prices come from.
Bureau commissioner Ma Jiantang said the bureau is trying to send the new tool to every price collector by the end of 2011. "With the help of high tech, it can reduce the heavy burden on the grassroots staff and improve the accuracy of the data," he said.
Decrease expected
In July, the bureau began releasing its CPI report on the ninth of the month, instead of the 11th, to prevent information leaks. The bureau receives data from the provincial statistical offices on the sixth of the month. CPI figures are published on the bureau's website within 24 hours after calculations are completed.
The September consumer price index, which was published on Oct 9, showed that China's inflation was on track to decline after it hit a three-year high of 6.5 percent in July. The CPI came in at 6.1 percent higher than the rate in September 2010; the August rate was 6.2 percent. October's CPI is due out Wednesday.
Stabilized pork prices have moderated food prices, which account for almost 30 percent of products in the CPI basket. And figures in the last quarter of this year are expected to continue to fall, thanks to lower prices for raw production materials and the prices of imported goods, said Wang Tao, an economist with UBS Securities.
The inflation gauge is one of the most important reference points for authorities to adjust economic policy, Wang said. If it continues to drop as she expects, China's tight monetary policy might be loosened in the first quarter of 2012, injecting liquidity to support infrastructure construction and boost economic growth.
A big basket
"I feel that inflation in my real life may be higher than the CPI," said Wei Ling, 27, who is a project manager assistant for a Japanese company in Beijing. "Clothing prices have almost doubled this year. Also, the rent keeps climbing every month, and I now have to pay about 20 percent more than that in January."
Pang Xiaolin, director-general of the bureau's Department of Urban Surveys, said the CPI is a comprehensive index that indicates the nationwide, year-on-year rate of change in consumer prices. "For individuals, because each person has special components in the consumption basket, the personal feeling could be far from the whole picture.
"Not all the consumer goods and services have been covered in the CPI basket," Pang said. "We choose the most popular products in people's daily consumption based on a sample survey of 140,000 urban and rural families, and the selected products can be changed according to seasonal or social influential factors."
China puts 262 basic categories of products and services in its CPI basket. The United States has 211, Canada 169 and Australia 87.
How much in, out
"Before doing the statistics work, I didn't understand what the CPI was. It seemed so far from my daily life," said Huang Bangzhi, 47, a rural bookkeeper for the bureau's urban and rural household survey office in Wanzhou district, Chongqing.
Huang was randomly selected for the job, and this is his second year recording his family's daily income and expenditures. According to the bureau, each rural bookkeeper needs to keep accounts for five consecutive years.
The statistical survey of daily income and expenditures is another basic component in setting the weights of different goods and services in the CPI basket as well as other indicators that can reflect the macroeconomic scenario.
Income data is the key reference to determine the minimum social security level, the income tax threshold and the nation's wage rates. The expenditure data is the basic source for analyzing people's consumption structure and customs - what they buy and how or how often.
Looking at Huang's account books, for January 2011 his family income was 3,880 yuan, including government subsidy and the revenue of his snack shop. On the expenditure pages, Huang wrote down payments for different products and services in terms of standard units. For example, on Jan 3, he bought 2 kilograms pork; cost 24 yuan.
"The most troublesome work is that I have to record each payment, even for one soap or one bottle of cola," Huang said.
In the first two months, Huang spent about two hours keeping these accounts every day. "At the beginning, I felt so impatient in this work and I always missed some expenditures. But after taking training from the Statistics Bureau, I can make clearer notes and it only takes me 10 minutes a day," he said.
"I am pleased to keep the accounts now because I know it is very important to know the country's true household consumption level. Now I pay close attention to the monthly CPI figures that I have contributed to."
For the five-year period that started this year, 140,000 families have been selected through a stratified random sampling method to keep the daily books. Of these, 74,000 are from rural areas in 896 counties, while the rest are urban families. It is one of the world's largest national statistical systems.
According to the China Statistics Law, keeping daily income and expenditure accounts is one of the residents' obligations. However, there are no coercive measures that force people to do the work. It is a part-time job for bookkeepers, and it pays 40 yuan ($6.30) a month.
Trustworthy?
In the first three quarters this year, per capita total income in urban areas was 17,886 yuan, an increase of 11.9 percent from a year earlier. Rural residents' cash income was 5,875 yuan, up 20.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the bureau. (For urban residents, income includes both cash and income from capital assets.)
Bureau spokesman Sheng Laiyun said at a news conference last month that many workers' wages could rise quickly because of increasing company profits and the 20 percent average growth in the nation's minimum wage threshold.
Tom Orlik, Beijing-based columnist for The Wall Street Journal, thinks that China's economic data can't be trusted for a couple of reasons.
Because of the sheer size and complexity of the world's second largest economy, statisticians can be defeated by many technical challenges, Orlik wrote in his book Understanding China's Economic Indicators. In addition, he said, some local governments may "decorate" the data they report to the central government to win political advantages.
However, Orlik noted that the bureau has conducted more surveys and scrutiny of the accuracy of data collected locally, and that more data is reported directly to bureau headquarters in Beijing, escaping the interference of local leaders.

Early pregnancy for young women a place to help

一个为年轻早孕女性提供帮助的地方.Failed contraception leads to having a baby: That's the gist of the young man's sign as university students promote spreading information about preventing pregnancy on World Contraceptive Day, Sept 26, in Qingdao, Shandong province.

一个为年轻早孕女性提供帮助的地方.Matron Feng Shuang arrives every morning at the Qingdao You&Me Adolescent Health Service Center about 9, half an hour ahead of opening.
No one waits at the door while she unlocks it, but as soon as it opens three or four young women hurry in to the waiting room.
"Our center provides services for young people, and the majority of customers are here for induced abortion. They often wait in nearby shops for fear they'll be recognized," Feng said.
The center is operated by Marie Stopes International China, a nongovernmental organization that is one of the largest global providers of information on family planning and sexual health.
Oct 20 was an ordinary Thursday. Just after 9 am, four patients were already sitting on the green sofa. Two looked like schoolgirls, with satchels over their shoulders.
"When will the doctors come?" asked one in a white sports suit.
"Soon," Feng said with smile as she asked them to sign in. The register was just a few days old, but it was already half-full.
Xu Jin, director of the center, said the staff doesn't ask for identity certificates for the sake of patients' privacy. Most customers provide real information, she said, but some tell lies.
"We meet girls wearing thick makeup and claiming they're in their early 20s," she said, "but from experience we can easily tell they are much younger."
The center provided services to 46,283 people from 2003 through 2010. Seventy percent of them were 15 to 24 years old.
"More and more younger faces are coming for induced abortions than in the first several years. And the proportion of students and migrant workers is on the rise," Xu said.
More students
"The youngest girl I did an operation on was only 15. A middle school student only one year older than my son," said Wang Lingwei, one of three doctors at the center.
The girl was wearing school clothes that day and blood had stained her pants, Wang said. They helped clean her up and asked her to return the next day, on an empty stomach. She was about two months' pregnant.
"The girl said she got drunk in a bar during a friend's birthday party and did not know what happened. She didn't know who the father was," Wang said.
"She came early the next morning, with her mother following closely. The mom yelled and wanted to slap her. The girl kept silent, without uttering a word, until the operation was finished," Wang said.
"She's really a child," Wang said. "How does a small girl like her without any sexual knowledge become a mother?"
"Most people take for granted that premarital pregnancy students must be bad students, but our experience says no," Xu said. "Many of our student customers are from key middle schools and well-known universities.
"They can be called good students for performing well in their studies, but they really lack even basic sexual knowledge."
More migrants, too
The center induced more than 900 abortions last year, and it wasn't the first time for half the patients. Dr Wang said she has quite a few repeat customers.
One woman, who is 22, has had eight abortions in five years.
"Her uterus has been seriously damaged. If she continues to have the operation, she may easily lose the ability to be a mother in the future," Wang said.
"But the woman told me both she and her boyfriend are migrant workers from Henan province and work in a shoe factory. The money they earn can't make both ends meet every month, let alone raise a baby."
As Wang was talking, a young woman came out to the waiting room after her operation. The color drained from her face.
"It's my second time to have an induced abortion," she said. "The first was in August."
She said she is 23, from Baishan in Northeast China's Jilin province, and she sells men's clothing in a mall near the health center.
"There are quite a few customers like her," said Xu, the center's director. "These girls came from afar to Qingdao and are working as waitresses, sellers, workers, and some even as prostitutes in places of entertainment. This poorly educated group has poor access to sexual knowledge."
That knowledge should include the use of contraceptives. (Actually using them appropriately is a separate, often difficult issue.) Birth-control pills, the rhythm method and condoms are the primary methods used in China.
Pills can be highly effective; rhythm is not. Condoms aren't much more successful, but they offer protection from disease.
Coastal Qingdao is not unique in its premarital pregnancies and abortion rate. A road in Daxing district, Beijing, is called Abortion Street because of its numerous illegal clinics. Many factories are situated nearby, and most of the workers are young women.
"We often cooperate with some migrant workers at factories to provide free physical checkups and to popularize sexual knowledge, and we receive a warm welcome. We found that they really have no access to sexual knowledge," Xu said.
"We also selected some girls from each factory to be health ambassadors. We provide regular free training and hope they will influence the people around them."
Wang Yu is such an ambassador. "I was once a worker in a shoe factory," she said, "and I saw a roommate give birth in the dormitory. The girl never behaved like she was pregnant and we did not know she was pregnant until the baby was born.
"It sounded like she did not know, either. We were all shocked. We don't know what happened to her next, for she left the factory without telling anyone."
As an ambassador of the clinic, Wang has expanded her knowledge and often makes speeches to factory workers, which has developed her leadership skills. She has moved up from an ordinary worker to deputy director of a department.
An uneasy feeling
Dr Wang has worked at the center for five years and has performed more than 3,000 abortions. Eight a day, on average.
The first two weeks after summer and winter holidays are high-incidence periods, with 20 to 30 percent more abortions. Apparently, young people have more time to spend together and more opportunities for sex during the holidays.
If these young people received some sex education and took the right measures before and after sexual relations, the doctor said, maybe they would not suffer the operation and the harm it does to physical and mental health.
"I am used to the work rhythm here," Wang said, "but the increasing number of young people coming in for abortions and the younger faces really make me uneasy."

There's little sex education in China, but it hasn't stopped young people from having sex. Therates of premarital sex, unwed pregnancy and abortion are testament to that.
A report released by the National Working Committee on Children and Women last yearshowed what China's 15- to 24-year-olds have been doing:
22.4 percent have had premarital sex. (Based on a population of 160 million, that means 35.8million unmarried young people have had sex.)
51.2 percent of them didn't use contraception the first time.
21.3 percent of those sexually active females have been pregnant.
90.9 percent of those pregnancies ended in abortions (6.9 million of them).
19 percent have had multiple abortions.
But the subject is considered too personal, too private to talk about.
"Some officials in education departments still hold conservative attitudes toward sex. Thereforesex education has remained on the lips rather than in action for a long time," said Chen Yijun,director of the China Sexology Association's adolescent sex education committee.
It's no different at home. In a recent survey of 1,500 families, the Beijing Women's Associationfound that 74 percent of parents deliberately avoid talking about sex-related topics with theirchildren. When the kids are curious, 85 percent of them consult the Internet.
Vulnerable longer
"If they are not well equipped with sexual knowledge, young women are vulnerable to premaritalpregnancy and induced abortion," said Xiao Yuanhong, program development director of MarieStopes International China. And they are susceptible for about five years longer than in thepast.
"With improvements in the standard of living and changes in environment, diet, diseases andother factors, the sexual maturity age (the start of menstruation) has become younger, from 14to 11," Xiao said.
Meanwhile, people are marrying about two years later than they did in the 1990s - at age 26,where it was 24. Reasons include increasing demand for vocational skills, job pressures, a sexratio imbalance and soaring property prices.
Long-term risks
Many young women don't draw lessons from induced abortion because medicine andtechnology have greatly reduced their pain. But experts said teen pregnancy and abortion -particularly when repeated - can contribute to such complications as uterine perforation andinfection, to miscarriage or low-birth-weight baby in a later pregnancy, and to gynecologicaldisease in middle age.
"If the operations are done in illegal clinics, the risk can be much higher," said Meng Fan, adoctor at Beijing Maternity Hospital. Among Chinese women who became infertile, more than 88percent previously had an induced abortion, a 2007 study found.
Unwed teen pregnancy also carries with it the social implications of unwanted babies, especiallygirls. And sex, particularly with multiple partners, is the leading means of transmitting AIDS andother diseases.
Teaching methods
Wang Bing, general manager of a Beijing-based medical technology company, highlyrecommends a TV program of kindergarten games that he saw when he lived in Japan. Thechildren were costumed as sperm and eggs to imitate the fertilization process.
"The kids were in high spirits in the games, and they learned about sex vividly without parentsand teachers feeling awkward," he said.
Xiao believes that sex education should be compulsory in schools and be carried out "step bystep from kindergarten to university". He also suggested that the education departmentencourage more social forces to work at popularizing information about sex, particularly formigrant workers.
"Family plays an important role in China's society," said the Sexology Association's Chen. "Wecan carry out sex education on parents first, and let them teach their children."
She also said adolescents should be given more opportunities to spend time together in publicto dispel some of their curiosity and the mystery of the opposite sex. "Group dancing is a goodway," she said.
"China does not have sex education in the strict sense," said Wan Shaoping, professor at theSichuan Institute of Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Prevention. Learning howto use a condom is not enough.
Chen believes the nature of sex education is to teach people how to convert their naturalimpulses to love and to learn how to love, cherish and protect their partners. "Successful sexeducation can make people better."

Always difficult to ban smoking

吸烟总是难以禁止.Smoking is not allowed at Guangzhou Railway Station and other government buildings, but it goes on anyway. Enforcement of the year-old regulation is spotty. 

吸烟总是难以禁止.Lack of legislation and huge profits make ban hard to enforce, report Qiu Quanlin in Guangzhou and Duan Yan and Cui Jia in Beijing.
The reaction by the elderly gentleman he caught smoking in Guangzhou's main bus station surprised Chen Weiguang, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress.
"Do you know that smoking is prohibited in public in Guangzhou?" Chen asked him.
The smoker, unprepared for the question let alone the bevy of inspectors and trailing journalists, reached into his pocket for a pack of cigarettes and handed one to Chen. "Have one?"
Chen laughed at the nervous offer but declined.
Chen was leading an inspection trip on Oct 13, part of a three-day enforcement review the congress had ordered following the introduction one year earlier of a smoking regulation that was once considered the strictest in China. The regulation was the first to ban smoking in government buildings.
However, for anti-smoking advocates, that smoker's reaction was a dismal and ironic moment in their efforts to cure the addiction to nicotine in a country with more than 356 million smokers. About half of China's 300-plus cities now limit smoking in public, but ineffective enforcement is typical.
The fundamental reason, these advocates say, is an absence of government resolve because tobacco taxes provide a sizable part of government revenue.
"I think these so-called surprise inspections are just another showcase," Li Ziliu, Guangzhou's former mayor, said on Oct 24 at a symposium about Guangzhou's regulations of smoking. "Tobacco control needs to start with government leaders."
During one surprise visit to the city government building, inspectors caught staff trying to sneak the ashtray out of an official's office.
China has no national law for smoking control, and it didn't meet the Jan 9 deadline to ban smoking in public indoor places, as it pledged to do under the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The global anti-tobacco treaty came into force in China five years ago.
Improvements have been seen in some cities where smoking regulations were implemented in time for international events, such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2010 Shanghai Expo and the Guangzhou Asia Games last November.
But when the events were over, the rules became loosely enforced, and loopholes have made these regulations ineffective in weaning China off tobacco. Smokers in public places continue to puff away with abandon.

吸烟总是难以禁止.If you're caught smoking against city regulation, what can you do? This man tried off ering a cigarette to a Guangzhou official, who said 'no thanks.' 

吸烟总是难以禁止.By the numbers
Thirteen months after Guangzhou implemented curbs on smoking in public, after more than 120,000 checks and 4,000 rectification notices, only one person and five companies have been punished for breaking the regulation. Fines totaled 26,550 yuan ($4,176).
Fifteen government departments - including traffic, tourism, health and education - and 2,673 of their staff members are responsible for enforcing the regulation. They are trying to manage an estimated 2.3 million smokers in the city, 21.7 percent of its population older than 15.
Enforcement starts with a warning and escalates to a rectification order, a written requirement to change behavior. If an individual or organization refuses to comply, law enforcement officers can fine individuals 50 yuan and organizations 3,000 to 5,000 yuan. The progression from warning to fine usually takes 40 to 60 days.
"These law enforcement departments are often reluctant to enforce tobacco control regulations, and there is buck-passing among these departments," said Jin Gensheng, a member of the Standing Committee who is in charge of the anti-tobacco enforcement inspections. "There is only one staff member from the city's Patriotic Public Health Campaign Office coordinating part-time with these departments."
That office was at odds with the government when the regulation was drafted last year because it advocates a 100 percent smoking ban in public and work areas. Chen Hanwei, a deputy director in the office, said that unlike the other departments, the office is not empowered to enforce the regulation.
Similarly, in the nearly three years since Beijing required restaurants and bars to provide nonsmoking sections, not a single person or company has been fined for breaking the rule.

Secondhand smoke
Even when current regulations are well enforced, a partial ban of smoking will not protect people from exposure to secondhand smoke, and it is not enough for China to meet its obligations under the tobacco control treaty. In many restaurants and bars, there is no barrier between smoking and nonsmoking areas.
Currently, 740 million people, including 182 million children, are exposed to secondhand smoke, according to China's Global Adult Tobacco Survey of 2010. Secondhand smoke can increase the risk of heart disease and cancer, and can cause sudden infant death syndrome in children who are exposed or whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy.
"What is the point of having a smoking and nonsmoking area when the whole place is filled with smoke?" Lin Kainan asked. A 32-year-old housewife, she was sitting in a cafe in Beijing's Chaoyang district, drinking her coffee beneath a thick cloud of smoke on a Saturday afternoon.
"When I was pregnant last year, I read in a book that secondhand smoke could induce miscarriage," she said, so she asked people smoking near her in restaurants to put out their cigarettes. "Many smokers would stop, but devoted smokers would pick up the ashtray on the table and tell me I was sitting in the smoking section."
Beijing's lawmakers have talked for years about banning smoking in indoor public spaces. In fact, when the measure requiring nonsmoking areas was implemented in 2008, health officials set the goal to ban smoking entirely by 2010.
Mao Yu, spokesman and deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, said at a news conference last December that Beijing would be 100 percent smoking-free in public indoor venues, offices and public transportation by the end of 2015. That announcement means the deadline for the goal was pushed back five years.
Cui Xiaobo, a professor at Capital Medical University, said it would be unrealistic for China to implement its part of the tobacco control treaty without national legislation, which wouldn't be easy in any case.
"I'm afraid that the root cause is still governments' lack of resolution," Cui said. "The introduction of tobacco-control law and regulations is bound to affect some of the benefits of some government departments, resulting in some changes."

Revenue source
Money is at the center of the problem when it comes to resolving to ban smoking in public. Governments are addicted to the economic gains generated by the tobacco industry. However, health experts and economists argue that the medical and social costs of smoking have already exceeded the tax revenues generated by the tobacco industry.
China is both the world's largest producer and the largest consumer of tobacco, in roughly equal measure. Production has been steadily growing, from 589.9 billion cigarettes in 1978 to about 2.38 trillion last year, according to data from the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration.
Tobacco tax and profits contributed 7.27 percent of the central government's total revenue last year, according to Professor Mao Zhengzhong, deputy chairman of the China Health Economics Association.
In China's largest tobacco-producing province, Yunnan, tobacco tax contributed 92.08 percent of local government's revenue in 2009 and 77.81 percent in 2010, Mao said. Actual tobacco tax revenue rose from 64.2 billion yuan to 67.8 billion yuan, but the government's overall revenue rose more significantly.
The tobacco industry has always said that declining tobacco consumption would lead to economic losses. "They claimed that China should not urge its people to stop smoking through price increases and legislation," said Yang Gonghuan, deputy head of the Chinese Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In 2005, more than 1.2 million Chinese died of smoking-related diseases. Health experts have predicted that, if left unchecked, smoking-related deaths will reach 3 million a year by 2050. That warning comes from "Tobacco Control and China's Future", a joint assessment prepared and reviewed by Yang and a group of public health experts and economists that was published in January.

Economic burden
Research from several Chinese economists has indicated that the world's largest tobacco industry is not contributing to China's economic growth but is hurting it.
Using 2005 figures as an example, Professor Li Lin of Peking University estimated that direct and indirect costs of smoking - including healthcare and lost work productivity - totaled nearly 300 billion yuan, while the tobacco industry generated 240 billion yuan in taxes and profits.
Professor Mao's research found that in 2008, China's economic burden of smoking was as high as 320.57 billion yuan.
Economists agree that increased taxation is one of the most effective ways to curb tobacco use, but only if it is reflected in the retail price of cigarettes.
China raised its tax on cigarettes in May 2009, resulting in increased government revenue. However, some cigarettes that had been taxed at a higher rate were downgraded to a lower rate, so their taxes declined under the adjustment.
"It looked like we had a big win in the battlefield, but the victory is not as sweet as we thought it would be," the CDC's Yang said. She thinks this approach, of minimizing the practical effects of the tobacco tax, might be wasting the anti-smoking efforts. "There is still a long way to go in the fight against tobacco."