PRICING POSER: Are drug producers repackaging old products and selling them at current prices? (CUI YING)

Playing a Dangerous Game

A 50-percent increase in credit-related disputes in the first five months of this year is the storm blowing through banks in central China's Jiangxi Province. The reason is that some housing developers tricked banks into loaning them money through mortgage fraud.

As a result, on one hand, the housing market seemed very prosperous, while on the other hand, the developers actually made use of bank loans to overcome capital shortages.

Mortgage fraud is undoubtedly a dangerous game. It produces a false impression that the housing market is thriving and pushes housing prices ever higher, while actually the situation is deteriorating. The current global financial crisis was triggered by the credit crunch in the U.S. housing market. Even now, the whole world is struggling to fight against this turmoil. In order to prevent similar tragic results in China, rampant mortgage fraud must be kept under control.

Qilu Evening News

Taking Culture Seriously

Authorities in central China's Hubei Province have submitted an application on behalf of China to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), nominating the Dragon-Boat Festival for the "Intangible Cultural Heritage" tag.

Four years ago, South Korea's Gangneung Danoje Festival (Dragon-Boat Festival) made the prestigious UNESCO list of intangible heritage, which sparked a heated debate, with China claiming and South Korea acknowledging that the festival originated in China.

Applying for intangible cultural heritage status is not wrong, but we should think about what we actually want from the application. Today, how many people will think about the cultural meaning of the centuries-old Dragon-Boat Festival? In fact, most are only interested in shopping, eating and traveling.

According to media reports, the heritage status application for the Dragon-Boat Festival started last October, but this year's festival is no different from past years'. Culture is still the most important aspect of the festival, and today we need to do some tangible things to carry forward culture instead of focusing so much on other trivial activities like shopping. Once we have placed a deeper cultural importance on the festival, the application for intangible cultural heritage status will win broad support.

Guangzhou Daily

Hard to Swallow

Local pricing authorities in Jiangxi Province recently announced that they would impose a price ceiling on the 183 most-used drugs.

Exorbitantly high drug prices are one of the major reasons of expensive health care. What Jiangxi is trying to do is great. But in order to maximize profits, drug producers and retailers will certainly take some countermeasures.

In the past, after a drug became subject to price limits, hospitals and retailers would soon stop selling it, and producers would repackage a cheaper drug into a "new" product and put it on the market at higher prices. In 2004 alone, the State Food and Drug Administration licensed 10,009 new drugs, while during the same period the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved only 148 new drugs.

Supervision alone is not enough. To stop this fraud, the government must address this situation from the very start of drug registration. Before new drugs are licensed, their applications should be published online and in newspapers for public feedback. Drug producers found committing fraud should be severely punished. It is also necessary to deal with all the fake "new drugs." The consumers' interests are by far the most important and the main reason for putting the pricing policy into practice.

Workers' Daily

Kids Movies Lack Energy

During this year's Children's Day, it was found that both the quantity and quality of domestically produced children's movies are declining.

The plight of Chinese children's movies is not without reasons: While foreign movies focus on inspiration and imagination, which means to broaden the audience's mind, Chinese products are always designed to teach and even impart certain ideas. To some extent, such education-oriented movies are restricting children's imagination and moviegoers find almost no joy in them.

China has a juvenile movie audience of 200 million. If domestic children's movies are unable to increase their entertainment value, Chinese children will have no option but to choose foreign movies. It's time for Chinese moviemakers to cast off their outdated concepts in movie production.

Yangzi Evening News