LANGUAGE OBSTACLE: Students at the Hubei Business Institute participate in the national English proficiency test in June (XINHUA)

Unworthy Inputs

Chinese parents nowadays often receive calls and text messages about native speakers teaching English, advising them to train their children in English starting in childhood. The fees are always high. Even so, most parents want their children to pick up English books at an early age.

Today, Chinese students are working crazily to pass all kinds of English language proficiency tests. While many European countries, such as Germany and France, are making efforts to protect their own languages and improve the teaching of their mother tongues, China may be the only country on Earth that stresses English more than its native language.

The Chinese people's passion for English shows their thirst to know about the outside world. This trend is strengthened by various compulsory English tests. The English training industry in China generates about 15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) every year, and the country has over 50,000 training institutions. The craze for English among Chinese people should be partly blamed on rigid regulations of education authorities such as the connection between college diplomas and English proficiency. It also shows the nation's low confidence in its own culture.

It is necessary for those who are engaged in foreign communications and those who are interested in this language to improve their English, but it goes too far to force the whole nation to learn English. Most Chinese seldom use English in their whole lifetime.

Worse still, driven by economic interests, even kindergartens have begun to force children to pick up English, when they can't even speak fluent Chinese. But business people will happily declare: "Parents are always ready to pay for their children's future opportunities."

China Youth Daily

Medical Solution

A survey in Beijing shows that the city's downtown areas and townships accommodate more than 1,200 unlicensed clinics.

Why are unlicensed clinics flourishing? It is the serious shortage in public medical services that makes it more possible for unlicensed clinics to grow and expand.

Big hospitals control most public medical resources, but most of them are still unable to provide quality services, with an increasing number of malpractice cases undermining their recognition among the public. Since both big hospitals and unlicensed clinics have questionable credibility, a lot of low-income earners would rather risk their health and life to see unlicensed doctors than seek treatment in big hospitals, in hopes of reducing medical bills.

If big hospitals can provide first-class services for reasonable prices, unlicensed clinics will gradually lose the soil for growth. Otherwise, no matter how much the government cracks down on these clinics, they will always find their way back.

Beijing Times

Updating Management

It has been reported that China will reform its much-criticized city management (chengguan) system. According to a draft plan, which is still soliciting public feedback, city management officers may be put under the direct leadership of the mayor.

Currently, city management officers have powers covering a wide range of affairs, from sanitation of public space to maintenance of market order. At the same time, they have multiple supervisors, such as the police and industrial and commercial authorities, overseeing their work. In effect, though, having to report to multiple departments leaves plenty of room for city management officers to operate without any oversight at all.

It is hoped that the reform will not only regulate the powers of these officers, but also make these officers employ more soft law enforcement measures and comply with the law.

It's good to see that mayors may take a direct hand in overseeing city management officers. But the officers themselves should realize that they have to change their mindset from that of an administrator to a servant of the people.

Changjiang Daily

Troubled Water

In recent years, municipal water pollution has grown worse, leading to the mass construction of water diversion projects and an increase in sewage purification costs. According to Shao Yisheng, Director of the Urban Water Resources Center under the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the problems have in turn necessitated an increase in prices of tap water.

However, in most cities in China, the pollution of water sources is caused by enterprises that discharge sewage. Although local governments require them to reduce sewage discharges, the results are often unsatisfactory because of negligence of duty by environment watchdogs and the ignorance of polluting enterprises. As a result, the environment suffers and water pollution becomes worse.

During this process, polluting enterprises and local governments have inescapable responsibilities. It is unreasonable for ordinary citizens to pay the price.

Thus, before increasing the price of water, the government should make clear who should pay the price first. If a local government insists on indiscriminately increasing prices of tap water, it will mean that ordinary citizens, not polluting enterprises, face the consequences for pollution.

Guangzhou Daily