Letters and Blogs

Difficult decision

Comment on "New measures unveiled to spur growth" (China Daily, Nov 13)

In Europe it was a decrease in demand and in production, due to banking failures and thereby credit restrictions as a result by the US banks.

China also suffered export decrease. China should consider selling such US dollar holdings and increase investment in Euro, which might help the domestic economy.

Anyway it's a difficult decision. Good luck, China.

Solomon

On China Daily website

Stop developing by selling land

Like many other countries in the world, China is making great efforts to escape from the jaws of global financial meltdown.

We welcome the Chinese central government's new infrastructure projects, which can refuel economy and benefit the people at the same time.

However, many local governments still ignore the central government's call for scientific development and insist on their old ways to finance themselves. For example, some provincial capital cities such as Chengdu and Xi'an continue to embark on selling people's land to property developers even with unfair means.

The United States has been a good example of how serious an impact housing bubbles could bring to the national economy.

Driven by greed, local officials remain zealous to persuade developers to build more, which is really dangerous given the large acreage of unsold houses.

We the common residents really hope the central government can realize how risky the local practices will be.

Panfu

via e-mail

Behind hush money

Several days ago, I read a piece of news about hush money in China Daily.

Dozens of self-proclaimed journalists asking for hush money from Huobaoganhe coal mine in Shanxi province, which failed to report the death on Sept 20 to the government.

In my view, life is more valuable than anything else for us humans. Besides, the supervision of safety is part the duty of the related governmental department. The accident that happened meant that the related department did not really do its job. It should be punished instead of gaining money in the form of "fines", especially when the amount of fines is much higher than the compensation for the dead.

Some may say it is a method to warn other enterprises. But I just have a different view - why not give all the fines to the family of the dead. In this way, we can get the same effect. And I worry that such practices may hinder local authorities' sense of responsibility if they make it a way to earn money.

Hanhuo

via e-mail

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(China Daily 11/14/2008 page9)