Foreign Food Brands Lower Standards for Chinese Consumers
By Zhang Bangsong (张邦松)
From Economic Observer
Original article:[Chinese]
International companies are always proud of how popular they are in China. They seldom notice that they’re disappointing the world’s best consumers.
The most recent example is Coca-Cola’s chlorine-softened-water. The Chinese people are also consuming Nestle milk powder with iodine added, excess oil in Kentucky Fried Chicken’s potato fries and Lipton tea with traces of pesticide. While the unlucky consumers are joking over the “additional chemistry education” courtesy of the international brands, they are in fact infuriated by the latter’s indifference and double-standards within and outside of China.
It’s widely known that it would be scandalous if similar products were found in the brands home markets. These international companies’ lowering of their standards for Chinese consumers can be seen as their “localization,” following Chinese companies, who have a notorious quality record. 
The only victim is the ordinary consumers.

Time for State-owned Enterprises to Repay Public Shareholders
By Kang Yi (康怡)
From Economic Observer Online
Original article:[Chinese]
The central government has promised that in the near future it will raise the proportion of profit that state-owned enterprises pay to the Ministry of Finance. However, we have to be cautious about this policy.
Firstly, we have to make sure those state-owned giants won’t use this as an excuse to raise prices. That’s what have often done in the past.
Secondly, we have to watch where those profits will flow. During the past, profits handed over by state-owned enterprises have mostly gone back to those business giants to finance “deepened reforms”. Only a small part of them would be credited to the public accounts. Now that those state-owned giants have already turned into most profitable enterprises in the world, it’s time for their owner, the Chinese public, to get the benefits.

Our Attention to Zhao Pu Shows Concern for the Truth
The Crystal
On April 9th, famous CCTV anchor Zhao Pu warned on his microblog: "don't eat (solid) yogurt and fruit jellies, especially kids, the inside story is terrible, I will not elaborate." That directed public attention towards gelatin and food safety. A week later, CCTV reported the poisoned capsule scandal. Zhao disappeared from his show afterwards and his micro blog hasn’t been updated since April 11.
Recently Zhao appeared for CCTV at a painting and calligraphy exhibition. Internet users judged that his appearance was to refute rumors that he had left the broadcaster.
Given the lack of official information, it would be unwise to speculate on Zhao's situation.
The public pay attention to Zhao Pu because they see him as a media person who dares to speak the truth. To some degree, this attention represents people's hope of the media as a check on wrongdoing. Providing readers with information and the truth requires more than one or two journalists.

Dissolve the doctor-patient Disputes
People’s Daily
Abuse and violence against medical staff is becoming more common.
The ministries of Health and Public Security have jointly issued an Announcement on Maintaining the Order of the Medical Institutions to tackle this trend and maintain the medical staff’s safety and dignity.
The causes of medical disputes are complicated, and it costs a great deal of time, money and procedure to solve them through lawsuits. Normally, people can get more compensation by making trouble in hospital than by filing lawsuits. This makes people think that "making trouble is better than suing" and has even given rise to organizations that make trouble on behalf of disgruntled patients.
We should broaden the channels for appeal, improve supervision over hospitals and establish an arbitration system enabling doctors and patients to solve their problems in a more reasonable way. More importantly, we need further reform of the health system to solve the problem of expensive medical bills and the difficultly of access to care.