It has been decided by the Ministry of Education that students in China should participate in compulsory long-distance running this winter. The program will take place from October 26 to April 30 next year and requires primary students to run 1,000 meters, high school students 1,500 meters and college students 2,000 meters every day.

Given that students around the country are lacking in physical exercises, to add long-distance running to their daily activity list is necessary. However, for a number of students from impoverished families, good nutrition remains a problem. Long-distance running is very likely to be harmful in this case.

Another two problems may also undercut the effect of the long-distance running program. Physical education is not a required examination subject in many places. How will students maintain their enthusiasm for this long-distance running program if it takes away study time? In recent years, many schools have lost their playgrounds to businesses. How can they ensure that students have enough space to exercise?

Sports activities are helpful if they are properly organized, and education authorities are right in stressing their importance. But before the long-distance running program begins, it's really necessary for schools to do good preparation, so that students can really benefit from it.

Qilu Evening News

Seeing Difficulties Resolves Difficulties

In south China's Guangzhou City, local urban residents are invited to work together with urban management officers for one day, inspecting downtown markets and finding out the hardship of this work for themselves.

By offering ordinary residents this opportunity, Guangzhou's urban management authorities mean to convey a message that their officers are working hard and that the public will understand the difficulties involved.

However, even if the residents need to understand urban management work better, it will do little to solve problems in the enforcement of urban management laws. The targets of urban management are peddlers and vendors. Isn't it more realistic to invite them to serve as law enforcers temporarily? If vendors can be invited to experience what the officers go through daily, then they will get to understand the difficulty in carrying out the job, meaning they will become more cooperative in future.

Conversely, if urban management officers have opportunities to experience the hardships of street vendors, maybe the ongoing conflict between these two parties can be resolved.

The Beijing News

Banking Monopolies Illegal

On October 8, the Pudong Development Bank's debit card, the Orient Card, which was China's last bank card to offer free services, began to charge service fees.

When issuing cards, banks sign contracts with users. If banks unilaterally change the contracts, users have the right to ask banks to take accountability. It's not that banks cannot charge card service fees, but they must go through necessary procedures, such as public hearings on the standards of new charges. In no way should they take this sudden change unilaterally.

China now has four state-owned commercial banks, as well as several joint-stock national banks and dozens of local city banks that lag far behind the Big Four in terms of capital strength and the number of outlets. The four big banks, which have a dominant share of the market, have managed to transfer operational costs that they should actually bear to clients through a variety of fees. The reason is that they have a more advantageous place in the market than their clients. The smaller banks, which offered free services early on, now find it increasingly difficult to maintain the business operation if services continue to be free. They have decided to join the Big Four to charge various service fees, creating a monopoly.

In a fully developed banking system, when one bank is charging too much for its services, clients can turn to other banks. But when all banks follow uniform pricing standards, clients have zero alternative.

China's Anti-Monopoly Law took effect on August 1. As the era of free bank card services comes to an end, the state's pricing regulator needs to refer to the Anti-Monopoly Law in a bid to protect the rights and interests of cardholders.

Yangzi Evening News

Abolishing Inspection Exemptions

After contaminated milk powder sickened more than 13,000 children around the country, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China's quality watchdog, said that it intended to totally abolish a decade-old system that exempts some famous brands from product quality inspections.

To grant the inspection exemption to famous brands, the state meant to encourage businesses to build up the awareness of brand value. During the early years, this system did play a positive role. However, some enterprises have taken advantage of the quality inspection exemption system to produce substandard products.

The removal of the quality inspection exemption system in the food industry is a big step in the right direction after the tainted milk powder scandal. But that's not enough. Apart from the food industry, we need to find problems lurking in other industries, so as to eliminate public health risks elsewhere.

The abolishment of the inspection exemption system will force enterprises to pay more in operational costs. But if the exemption continues and similar scandals occur, the whole of society will lose untold resources and wealth.

The Beijing News