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Four-yuan Scheme What can a part-time Chinese employee of McDonald's afford by his hourly pay? Only two small ice creams, which are valued at four yuan (US50cents). A McDonald's outlet. [File]American fast-food giants McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) are being bombarded for their work contracts which offer their part-time Chinese employees just four yuan per hour, well under the state requirement, state media reported. An employee is entitled to no less than 4.3 yuan per work hour, said a rule released by the Guangzhou city government last November. The hourly pay averages 7.5 yuan in the city. An unnamed source in Guangzhou told the New Express newspaper that the contract violated the legal rights of employees. "Once administrative departments discover acts of violations, officials will order these enterprises to revamp and compensate the employers for their losses," the source told the Guangzhou-based paper. "If the problem is so grave that a punishment will be handed out," the source said without giving details. The source also cast doubts on the probation system implemented by the fast-food giants. "Part-time employees don't need to undergo a one-month probation period." McDonald's and KFC have nearly 3,000 outlets all over China and a work force of nearly 200,000, according to a state media report. Zhu Yongping, a Guangzhou lawyer, has begun to move for the rights of employees. He told the paper that the work contracts have 'seriously violated' the legal rights of employees. A Lin, a McDonald's employee in Guangzhou, regarded McDonald's as a respectable foreign-funded enterprise before starting to work there. But the working experience has changed her mind. "I don't have enough rest. It seems that I was overly exploited." Cui Minghuan, Manager of KFC'S Guangdong market, refuted the claims of rights violations, saying the current rule of the minimum hourly rates of pay for the non-full-time employees implemented in the province is not applicable to the part-time employees working for KFC. "KFC does not breach relevant laws in China." Cui said these part-time employees are neither full-time workers nor non-full-time workers. "Their hourly rates of pay cannot be measured by the rule. An unnamed offical with the Provincial Department of Labor and Social Security said Cui's words are ridiculous. "So what kinds of workers they are on earth? " The official said the rule is applied to these part-time employees. Mcdonald said in a written statement that "it is always committed to relevant laws and regulations in China." Central Government Actions The report came just days after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in his work report to the congress in early March, called for more efforts to implement the minimum hourly wage system in a bid to protect the workers' rights. The minimum wage system aims to protect the rights of Chinese employees. For example, Bejing has set a minimum wage about 550 yuan per month, while the economic hub Shanghai has a minimum wage about 650 yuan. The central government has beefed up efforts to protect the rights of its huge crowd of employees to quell any likelihood of unrest and maintain social stability. China is planning to adopt an unemployment law that aims to build an unemployment benefit system. The draft law is aiming at promoting employment around the country. The law states that the government will implement new policies, such as boosting professional training and increasing financial investment in employment promotion. As discrimination turns rife in China, the draft law contains a clause on anti-discrimination in an effort to provide employment equality in the country. The clause states that discrimination against job seekers with respect to their background, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, age, or physical disability, will be prohibited. The government is also taking actions to set up trade unions in foreign-funded enterprises in China. Up to date, about 26 percent of China's 150,000 overseas-funded enterprises have established trade unions, with a total membership of 4.29 million, previous media report said. However, McDonald's and KFC have not set up unions so far.

BEIJING - Chinese central government offices suffered a day without air-conditioning as they warmed to a campaign to cut energy consumption and improve energy efficiency, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. Tuesday's campaign, dubbed "experiencing energy shortage", targeted offices and government departments under the State Council, the nation's cabinet. "Beijing was not as sun-burning as previous days on Tuesday, but the overcast weather still made people sweat in the afternoon," Xinhua said. China's capital has unleashed "energy police" to enforce limits on air-conditioner use as the government pushes to save power and clean polluted skies, state media said this week. China last year vowed to cut energy consumption for every unit of economic activity by 20 percent by the end of 2010. But feverish economic growth has so far defied the target. The government's latest weapon is 22 officials who will check whether offices, hotels, malls and other big buildings in Beijing are observing a demand to set air conditioning no cooler than 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit), the Beijing News reported. Worried that the nation cannot sustain resource-sapping growth, the central government has repeatedly ordered officials and companies to save energy. Efforts to clear the capital of pollution have taken on a new urgency with the 2008 Beijing Olympics just over a year away. Chinese President Hu Jintao and other officials have said the country is committed to emission reduction, but refused mandatory caps. Beijing has held up its voluntary energy saving measures as an important contribution to fighting global warming, and called for more technological help for clean energy.

 BEIJING -- China's economy in 2008 will maintain a robust and stable momentum despite uncertainties ahead, according to signs revealed during the country's top legislative and political advisory sessions. Liu Shucheng, a political adviser and director of the Economic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), believes it is almost out of question for China to score 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year."China's economy has maintained a long period of continued and stable growth, which is unprecedented since the founding of New China (in 1949)," he said.Justin Yifu Lin, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and the World Bank's chief economist, holds a similar view, saying China's economy would be affected little by the U.S. subprime crisis."The demand by the United States, China's second largest trade partner, would not decrease by a large margin as most of Chinese exports to it were low- and middle-end," Lin said.Despite the sound economic expansion on the whole, Zhang Quan, an NPC deputy and head of Shanghai environmental protection administration, held that China should be fully prepared for the uncertainties ahead."Risk prevention capability should be further strengthened. Just as an old Chinese saying goes: be prepared for danger in times of safety," he said.In his government work report at the NPC session, Premier Wen Jiabao said, "There are quite a few uncertainties in the current economic situation home and abroad, so we need to keep close track of new developments and problems, properly size up situations and take prompt and flexible measures to respond to them while keeping our feet firmly rooted in reality."China's GDP in 2007 reached 24.66 trillion yuan, an increase of 65.5 percent over 2002 and average annual increase of 10.6 percent. However, the consumer price index (CPI) in 2007 rose 4.8 percent year-on-year, the highest since 1997 and well above the 3 percent target, mainly due to rises in food and housing costs. In January this year, monthly CPI rose 7.1 percent, the highest monthly surge in the past 11 years.Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rate six times in seven months. The European Central Bank (ECB) held key interest rate steady for fears of further inflation in the eurozone as inflation remained a record high of 3.2 percent since the beginning of the year.In general, the impact from U.S. subprime crisis on global economy is not clear. And there is no consensus on how international oil price and price hikes would impact on inflation.Under such circumstances, Premier Wen called for the appropriate pace, focus and intensity of macroeconomic regulation to sustain steady and fast economic development and avoid drastic economic fluctuations.The premier said China would strive to keep this year's CPI increase at around 4.8 percent while following a prudent fiscal policy and a tight monetary policy.As the U.S. newspaper International Herald Tribune observed from the premier's report, the price hike has become the top concern of Chinese government. The main task is to rein in growing inflation and prevent the economy from being overheated.China's top economic planner, central bank governor and financial minister gathered at a press conference on Thursday to explain government measures to regulate macro-economic growth and contain rising inflation.To prevent fast economic growth from becoming overheated growth and keep structural price increases from turning into significant inflation, the People's Bank of China raised the reserve requirement ratio by half of a percentage point to 15 percent on January 25, the highest since 1984. In 2007, the central bank had raised the ratio ten times and benchmark interest rate six times.Economists believe the measures is to ensure sound economic growth and stabilize market anticipation of inflation. The central government has regarded curbing price hikes as the "rigid lever" for this year's macroeconomic regulation while saving room for economic structure adjustment.For low-income earners, who are affected most by growing inflation, a protective umbrella will be provided by the government that advocates "putting people first"."I believe the government will make greater efforts to solve social issues and improve people's livelihood through increasing fiscal revenue and making use of other resources," said Jia Kang, a political advisor and director of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the Ministry of Finance.Indeed, Premier Wen's report showed unusual concern on the issue of prices, and came up with nine measures, short- and long-time, to increase effective supply and curb unreasonable demand.These measures include expanding production, especially the production of the basic necessities of life such as grain, vegetable oil and meat as well as other commodities in short supply, speeding up improvement of the reserve system, promptly improving and implementing measures to aid the low-income sector of the population and to make sure that the prices of the means of production, particularly agricultural supplies, do not rise rapidly.

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SHENZHEN: Efforts to explain and publicize the new Labor Contract Law have thwarted many attempts to dodge the provisions included in it, but violations still occur, an official of a worker's union said Wednesday."We have been keeping an eye out for any abnormal redundancies and it appears the situation is improving," Xie Liangmin, sub-chief of the legal affairs department of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, said during a visit to this southern city.However, a company in Guangdong Province was recently found to have fired a group of contract workers and then rehired them through a manpower services company, Xie said."All attempts by companies to evade their responsibility to take care of their employees will be punished after the detailed regulations of the Labor Contract Law are issued," he said.The federation is working closely with the authorities to draw up detailed regulations, the release of which is likely to be postponed until the first quarter of next year, Xie said.Although the federation has publicly criticized two companies - IT equipment manufacturer Huawei Technology and retail giant Wal-Mart - for attempting to dodge some parts of the law before it takes effect on January 1, no punishments have been handed down.Dong Ping, an official with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, called on companies to come to terms with the legislation."The law provides an opportunity for companies to develop harmonious and stable working relationships with their employees within a more competitive environment. A successful company always respects its employees and abides by the law," Dong told a forum on promoting the new law.Terry Guo, CEO of Foxconn Technology, a leading IT manufacturer with operations in Shenzhen, said it would give its full support to the Labor Contract Law."The new law will prod companies into becoming more efficient and upgrading their technology. It should help them accelerate their strategic repositioning and restructuring," Guo said.He said Foxconn will work to improve the quality of its staff, save energy and encourage innovation to offset expected rises in its operational costs.The company has also revised its human resources policy and internal regulations to bring them in line with the Labor Contract Law.

NANJING - The legislature of the eastern province of  Jiangsu has amended the law to clearly define sexual harassment and allow complainants to sue.The Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress on Thursday passed the revised Jiangsu Provincial Measures for Implementing China's Law on Protection of Women's Rights, saying "sexual harassment of women in the form of spoken and written language, images, electronic information and bodily gestures is prohibited." The measures allow those who claim that they have been harassed to report such cases to employers, authorities and the police, which must prevent or stop such behavior. Women can also sue those they contend harassed them.Although sexual harassment was included in an amendment of the national law in 2005, the legislation didn't clearly define harassment, which made it difficult to prove in court, said Wang Lasheng, vice chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress."A clear definition of the forms of sexual harassment will definitely help law enforcement and improve victims' awareness of self-protection," said Wang.Defining sexual harassment at the local level was a welcome attempt to supplement the national law, said Wang, adding that similar statutes have been passed in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shaanxi and Anhui provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. These laws allow complainants to file claims or sue.

BEIJING - The Silk Street market in Beijing, popular among tourists for cheap goods, tarnished its reputation as authorities seized fake name-brand sneakers and sports wear in the latest raid at the market. Law enforcement workers on Saturday confiscated 553 shoes of pirated Nike, 408 counterfeit Adidas shoes and 160 fake sports suits of the two famous brands after inspecting 11 booths at the market. An official with the Chaoyang branch of the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce said they had dealt with dozens of cases of fake products in the shopping mall so far this year. But the selling of fake goods still exists, especially at weekends, according to the official. The official said they are keeping tight inspection on fake goods. The Silk Street market, or Xiushui market in the Chaoyang District, has been popular with overseas tourists who have flocked to buy counterfeit and knock-off luxury clothes and accessories since 1985. In March 2005, the outdoor market moved to a multi-story building next to the Xiushui Street.

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BEIJING - The number of commercial bribe cases dealt with by Chinese courts rose to 4,406 in the first seven months, an increase of 8.2 percent over the same period of last year, according to the Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Saturday.Xiong Xuanguo, vice-president of the SPC, said the number of cases featuring corporate wrong-doings rose 37.3 percent and cases relating to individual employees of companies jumped by 52.1 percent.Of the 3,748 commercial bribery cases that have been closed this year, 94.1 percent involved civil servants, Xiong said.A total of 31,119 commercial bribery cases were dealt with in China in the past two years before August 2007, with 7.079 billion yuan (US2.51 million) involved, said Li Yufu, deputy director of the leading group on anti-commercial bribery under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

National authorities Thursday urged local governments to deal more firmly with cases of illegal land acquisitions. The move comes at a time when such cases are becoming increasingly common. A joint statement released by the Ministry of Supervision (MOS) and Ministry of Land and Resources said local government leaders should take the lead in protecting arable land. "The work to crack down on illegal land acquisition cases should be put at the top of the agenda," the statement said. The fast pace of economic development and the burgeoning property market have made land deals a lucrative prospect. The soaring land prices are filling local coffers and spurring further cases of illegal land acquisition. Land and Resources Minister Xu Shaoshi said yesterday that China must do everything it can to ensure that its arable land bank remains above the 120 million hectares red line. "Like a high voltage line, it should never be touched," he said. "Anyone encroaching upon arable land illegally will be dealt with harshly." The statement ordered local leaders to "waste no time" in "firmly supporting" the work of local supervision and land and resources officials. It also asked them to "bravely" shoulder the main responsibility in "actively" addressing such problems at the local level. Local supervision and land and resources officials have been ordered to "review" the cases found before last October and to "concentrate strength" to ferret out more, it said. Evidence of concealed deals of ineffective work will trigger an accountability mechanism, under which local leaders will be held accountable for malfeasance. Local supervision and land and resources departments will file monthly reports on the issue.

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BEIJING - Zhang Bing grew up in remote Inner Mongolia, where his family herded sheep and raised chickens. Today he's a manager in a glittering karaoke club 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away in a booming eastern Chinese city. Zhang, 26, is part of a huge wave of rural workers streaming into China's cities in search of work and opportunity. A UN report released Wednesday said more than half of China's population - now 1.3 billion people - will be living in urban areas within 10 years. Government officials say an estimated 150 million people moved to China's cities between 1999 and 2005, providing labor to fuel the country's breakneck economic growth. "From 1980 to 2030, the population of China will go from being 20 percent urban to almost two-thirds urban. We're in the middle of that transformation. Within the next 10 years we'll cross that halfway mark," said William Ryan, the United Nations Population Fund's information adviser for Asia and the Pacific region. The agency's State of World Population 2007 report says more than half the world's population will live in cities and towns in 2008, with the number expected to grow to 60 percent, or 5 billion people, by 2030. Asia is at the forefront of this demographic shift, expected to nearly double its urban population between 2000 and 2030, from 1.4 billion to 2.6 billion. Zhang moved to Tianjin after high school and earns about US0 (euro370) a month at the Oriental Pearl karaoke club. He saves two-thirds, and is thinking of opening a store to sell knockoff purses. He said he expects to have a wife, house and car - "an Audi, definitely" - within 10 years. Like 80 percent of migrant workers in China, Zhang is under 35 and works in the service industry, which along with construction and manufacturing employs most migrant workers. But his story, told in the UNFPA's youth supplement, is atypical. Although most workers have only a middle school education, Zhang finished high school and attended business school in Tianjin. His salary is much higher than the average worker's 500 to 800 yuan (US to 5; euro48 to euro78) a month, according to Duan Chengrong, a demographics professor at Renmin University. In comparison, a typical Beijing urbanite makes about 2,000 yuan (US0; euro193) a month. Migrant workers generally cram themselves into rented housing on the outskirts of town, with an average of five square meters (50 square feet) of living space per person and no heat, running water or sanitation facilities, Duan said. At many construction sites, the workers lodge in ramshackle dormitories, or even in tents pitched on a nearby sidewalk. China's government has taken measures to "avoid the emergence of urban slums and the transformation of rural poor to urban poor," said Hou Yan, deputy director of the social development department in China's Development and Reform Commission. She mentioned programs such as establishing a minimum living standard, providing medical and educational assistance, and supplying affordable housing and basic public services. Hou did not give details of the programs. China's urbanization is unique in that it stems largely from migration instead of natural population growth. The Communist government that took control in 1949 imposed residency rules as part of strict controls on where people could live, work or even whom they could marry. It was not until recent years that rising wealth and greater personal freedoms eroded the system, allowing farmers to move to cities. The UNFPA estimates that, in less than a decade, China will have 83 cities of more than 750,000 people. Zhang, who spoke at the news conference where the UNFPA report was released, believes cities are the future of China. Before taking the job at the karaoke club, he made money teaching Chinese to foreign students, selling phone cards and running a copy shop. "In order to get employed, what is most important is to be diligent," he said. "Only when you work hard can you get good results."

Blogging, a form of citizen journalism, has caught on so much in China that even some government officials are getting into it.The highest-ranking official or former official to write a blog is Zhao Qizheng, former director of the State Council Information Office, now president of the Journalism School of Renmin University in Beijing.He launched the blog "Zhao Qizheng and his books" (http://blog.sina.com.cn/zhaoqizheng) on August 3 and uploaded several chapters of his latest work In the One World - 101 Tips on How to Communicate with Foreigners. One of them, about the importance of smiling, has been read by nearly 40,000 netizens since it was posted a week ago.In a letter of August 14, Zhao thanked netizens for reading and commenting on his blog and apologized that he could not respond to each comment or question because he could only surf the Internet for limited time every day, and that he was a slow typist.Some netizens have used his blog to speak directly with the former top news official.One of them, called "Peach", a journalism student complained of a perceived lack of jobs in the industry and asked for his advice.The direct interaction between bloggers is one of the most appealing elements about this form of communication.Arguably the most popular blog run by an official is that of Liao Xinbo, deputy director of the provincial health bureau of South China's Guangdong Province.Liao calls himself "Doctor Brother Bozi" and his blog (http://blog.sina.com.cn/liaoxinbo) has been read more than 650,000 times since it was launched last April. At present it ranks the sixth most popular blog in Guangdong.The health official is known for being outspoken. On Monday, he posted an article by an anonymous doctor which blamed China's apparent failure on medical reform over the last 30 years on the lack of fair pay for doctors."If the situation continues, the next medical reform is doomed to fail again," the post warned.Liao also argued in his blog that health services were not a commodity that should be "bought" by patients, a key point that health providers need to serve the public, instead of trying to rake in money.Netizens who agreed with Liao proposed the official lobby his allies at the provincial people's congress - the legislative body - to draft a law especially for medical contracts.Netizens even went as far as drafting their own medical contract law, which Liao posted on August 24 commenting: "I have never studied laws and cannot give any comments. I wish my friends who are interested to give their ideas".Dozens of lawyers responded.According to one of them, legal tangles in the medical sector were difficult to settle because there were already too many laws, but not one powerful or specific enough to tackle problems with malpractice disputes.The netizen proposed that it was with some urgency that a law was drafted that covered the entire sector, instead of one that specifically dealt with contracts.Whether or not the fact the netizens' law proposals were right or wrong, their interaction with this sort of blogging demonstrates how ordinary people can debate the merits of such proposals.Liao's blog, with its inspiring discussions, provides a prime example of a form of "direct democracy".There are no figures available as to how many officials have blogs in China.However, in Suqian, a mid-sized city in East China's Jiangsu Province, 81 middle and high-ranking officials in the municipal government have opened blogs on the government website (http://blog.suqian.gov.cn/).Their Communist Party secretary, Zhang Xinshi, took the lead."Zhang hopes that those who are in charge at the different government organs can also have blogs so that they can express their ideas, attract people's discussions and build an efficient channel of communication between officials and ordinary citizens," said a Suqian Daily report about a working conference this April.Zhang has updated his blog almost every day and written long articles on weekends about a wide range of topics from global climate change to professional education.An article on "civilized behavior" prompted the local Suqian Daily to open a column about the topic, and more than 100,000 pupils and high school students distributed pamphlets on civilized behavior in the streets of his city.Almost each of Zhang's online articles was read more than 400 times, but there have been few posted responses from the public.When a comment was made, it often turned out to be a pledge of a subordinate to implement the Party secretary's ideas, not public feedback.A report in the People's Daily last month said officials in Suqian had published more than 1,700 articles on their blogs and these articles were read by more than 760,000 netizens."It is a good thing that officials opened blogs and strengthen their communication with the ordinary citizens," Xie Chuntao, professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, said.As part of China's e-governance construction, 12,000 government websites have been built in the past decade, according a report by Xinhua News Agency last December.More than 96 percent of the central government organs, 90 percent of provincial governments, 96 percent of municipal governments and 77 percent of county governments have their own websites."By further exploring the communication possibilities of blogs, officials may better win the citizens' trust if there is successful communication between the two sides," said Mao Shoulong, political science professor at Renmin University of China in a commentary in the People's Daily last year.But he also feared that some officials may have their opinion influenced by the "small club in cyberspace"."Actually, if we want the government to get nearer to the ordinary citizens, we can make more efforts on improving our democratic system instead of using the highly personalized blogs," he said."At the current stage, we can improve the government websites that widely exist, and make them work better in publicizing policies and communicating with netizens. This is a more constructive choice."