CRACKED REPUTATION: After the melamine-contaminated milk powder scandal, consumers find it hard to choose a credible dairy brand

Fresh Juice Fantasy

So-called fresh fruit juice has been found to be nothing more than watered down juice with various additives. Before proof of this was recently found by the media in many restaurants and hotels in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, it has long been a known fact in the catering business.

It's acceptable for big restaurants and hotels to sell alcohol and beverages more expensively, since they provide better services.

But why do the sellers add so many things to fresh fruit juice? In its original state, fresh fruit juice needs no additives.

Restaurants sell sweet water in the name of fresh fruit juice and make a gross profit of 93 percent. Even if sellers want to make more profits by diluting the juice, how dare they still call it fresh fruit juice? Besides, of the dozens of additives, who can guarantee they are all safe for consumers?

Not only in Wuhan, but restaurants and hotels in cities all over the country are making huge profits in this way. Is it because consumers are too numb to the continuous corruption in all walks of life, or is it because of the quality watchdog's dereliction of duty?

Changjiang Times

An Unseen Social Problem

Thanks to the strict implementation of the Compulsory Education Law, the number of students who quit school before finishing compulsory education has been greatly reduced. However, the number of "invisible dropouts" is not yet known.

Invisible dropouts are those who stay at school but have their minds elsewhere. Some of them idle away their days on campus while others have jobs even though their names are still on the school roll. Students of this kind are big in number in rural areas, where many students are left behind by their parents working as migrant workers in cities.

There are many reasons for the phenomenon. On the part of the students, they have no passion for study; as for schools, they prefer to pay more attention to outstanding students because the number of students entering higher-level schools is the most important criterion for assessing the performance of school managers and teachers. As a result, neglected students become increasingly bored with their studies.

Invisible dropouts are widely found defective in many aspects, such as personality, sense of responsibility, morality and so on. Worse still, since they have not learnt basic knowledge and skills during compulsory education, they appear much less competitive in society and especially in the employment market.

It's time to make this invisible problem visible and properly tackle it for the nation's sake.

Workers' Daily

Ineffective Watchdog Needs Bite

According to results of the 2008 Beijing Social Survey, the real estate industry emerged as the most distrusted sector in China and the food industry was the last but one.

On the first day of 2009, the China Dairy Industry Association, on behalf of the 22 enterprises involved in the melamine-contaminated milk powder scandal, apologized to the public and pledged to compensate all victims of tainted dairy products. The move showed these enterprises' strong commitment. But how far can this industry go if the safety of dairy products still depends solely on enterprises' self-discipline?

The melamine contamination scandal is a hard proof that corruption within the food industry is still not being adequately addressed.

The low credibility of property and food industries is not only shameful to these two industries, but also to regulatory agencies. People are keen to know why they fail to reveal malpractices in the industries before they harm public interests.

Self-discipline alone is not enough to rebuild an industry's credibility among the people. The key is strict regulation by the government. If relevant government agencies remain slow in responding to quality risks and only take action after the media's exposure, rebuilding the credibility of the two industries is almost impossible.

Qilu Evening News

Why Are Leaks Untraceable?

Since 2000, the drinking water networks in Heyang County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, have reported more than 2,000 pipe bursts. The incidence was as high as 238 in 2008 alone.

Heyang County began to see frequent incidents of pipe leakage and burst after 2005. In accordance with the after-sales service contract, the manufacturer of the tubes should guarantee the repair, replacement and refund of its products for 30 years. More importantly, the frequent incidents are also reported to relevant government departments again and again. However, the problem remains unresolved to date.

Why doesn't Heyang County take legal action against the manufacturer since there is a contract? Are there any under-the-counter deals behind the incidents? In the first place, the whole project must have been carefully discussed and was accepted after strict examination. Is it that the problems are covered up so well that even after so many checking procedures, they were still untraceable? When this situation is examined, it seems unfair to blame all the ills of jerry-built projects on a steel pipe factory.

Making these public projects transparent is the priority. If not, we are sure to see many more disruptive incidents in other projects.

Yangzi Evening News