Price Alliances Have Hidden Agendas

Instant noodles weren't the only industry to launch a price increase campaign recently, but it is the first price-fixing deal uncovered by the National Development and Reform Commission.

If instant noodle producers find production costs too high and thus need to increase retail prices, it should be individual producers that take this action, instead of an alliance or association.

There is no lack of similar scandals and always an industry association behind the move. The excuse for such initiatives is always "to save the industry" or "to standardize the business practices." Originally, industry associations were set up to help communication within the industry and to help with development planning. Price increases are none of their business.

More importantly, the reason that prompts the instant noodle industry to raise prices is not that the production costs have risen, but that consumers had quietly accepted a price jump of instant noodles in April. This fact has motivated the producers to initiate a price increase in 95 percent of noodle products.

Exposed by the National Development and Reform Commission, instant noodle producers involved in the scandal have to publicly apologize to consumers. This can serve as a good lesson to other industries planning to dupe consumers through price fixing.

Beijing Daily

Let's Save Our Own Medical Science

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently separated traditional medicine, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) included, from the "complementary and alternative medicine" category and now lists TCM as a "whole medical system" equal to mainstream Western medicine, rather than as being complementary to the latter. This is a striking contrast to TCM's current plight in its country of origin.

TCM has a long history. However, it is struggling to survive for a variety of reasons. For example, for thousands of years, certain kinds of medical techniques or medicine were only allowed to be handed down within the family circle, resulting in the loss of many secret recipes. In addition, there is not enough financial support from the state for TCM in China and many medical workers, including medical officials, were practitioners of Western medicine. Moreover, due to the environmental deterioration, nowadays, it's difficult to find above-standard medicinal herbs and consequently fake and low-quality materials are used.

As a result, TCM is being marginalized. In order that this national treasure of China can sustain these hard times, people need to abandon bias against it and the government should pay more attention to the research, development and standardization of TCM, so that humanity can continue to benefit from this old and unique health care system.

People's Daily

Make Housing Affordable

July saw another peaking of housing prices and there is again evidence that the real estate sector in China is entering yet another round of price hikes.

Against the synchronous price jumps of housing and many other consumer commodities, it's important to accelerate the establishment of a multilevel housing supply system to help the poor, low- and middle-income families.

The government should offer poor families low-rent apartments, while low- and middle-income families, who make up 70 percent of the population, should be provided with government-subsidized affordable houses. To do this, a well-developed legal system to ensure real estate developers offer affordable houses is crucial. As for the high-income group, they can turn to the market to satisfy their needs.

The problem now is that there is still no effective housing security network. Official statistics indicate that 60 big and medium-sized cities in the country still have not established the low-rent housing system, while the current input in the construction of affordable houses only accounts for 5 percent of the total investment in house building. At the present stage of economic development, a multilevel housing security system is badly needed to ensure that the majority of the people have a roof over their heads.

Oriental Morning Post

It's Not About Money

In a recent debate on whether the Chinese Government should pay entirely for the public's health care, it emerged that to do so would cost a sum of 200 billion yuan (nearly $27 million) annually. Opponents declare that the state finance is unable to afford this.

Although 200 billion yuan looks astonishingly high, it actually accounts for only 1 percent of the country's gross domestic product of 2006, or 7 percent of the fiscal revenue or one third of current medical expenditures.

Today, many families slip into poverty because there is a sick member to be taken care of. If the government paid for medical expenses, people would feel free to spend money in other fields, instead of keeping the money in banks for health emergencies.

Obviously, therefore, whether the government should or should not pay all the medical expenses for the public is not only a question of money.

Huashang Daily