RELICS PRESERVATION: Without effective legal protection, the fate of the centuries-old Great Wall is worrisome (XINHUA)

Responsibility Needs Boost The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) recently released the 2009 Blue Book on Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility.

The report comes to the disappointing conclusion that the overall level of Chinese corporate social responsibility is comparatively low, and 40 percent of corporations never take actions to practice social responsibility.

Moreover, there is a huge divide between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private businesses. The enterprises that are commended in the Blue Book are all SOEs.

Zhong Hongwu, Director of the CASS Corporate Social Responsibility Research Center, explained that SOEs' performance should be partly attributed to the government's efforts to promote corporate social responsibility in recent years. For example, the Guidelines on Fulfilling Social Responsibility by Central Enterprises issued in 2008 have played an important role in this field.

Zhong's explanation shows that administrative intervention, rather than corporate initiative, remains the main factor promoting Chinese corporate social responsibility. Thus private businesses, which are less controlled by the government, take on less social responsibility.

In countries that have developed charities, private businesses are always the major donors. Only when private enterprises become the primary source of charitable donations can we say that overall corporate social responsibility in China is progressing.

To achieve the target, a better charity mechanism is needed.

Xinmin Evening News

Cost of Cleanness

In order to improve the sanitation of Zhidan County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, county chief Qi Yujiang has been collecting trash every day since taking office three years ago.

Leading officials of Zhidan County have worked their hearts out to improve local sanitation. They have issued a series of documents and even set up an accountability system that includes 24-hour cleaning.

But sanitation workers in Zhidan County are paid only 500 yuan ($73.21) a month, and none of the county's policies have included measures to improve the lot of its sanitation workers.

Meanwhile, Baoting County in southern Hainan Province has improved its sanitation by giving rewards to its sanitation workers. The average salary, one cleaner said, has increased four-fold in the past decade. Besides, county officials often visit sanitation workers' families to inquire about their needs.

Personally collecting trash is commendable, but it would make more sense if officials raised sanitation workers' wages, treated them respectfully and elevated their social status.

Taking good care of sanitation workers may be more effective in keeping streets clean than formulating rules and building models.

The Beijing News

Bitter Donations

Weixian County in north China's Hebei Province employed 191 college graduates as teachers for its primary and middle schools this year. In October, these teachers were told to make donations to local education programs, the amount ranging from 30,000 yuan ($4,400) to 50,000 yuan ($7,350). If they refused, they would be fired. However, local education authorities have repeatedly stressed that the donation was voluntary.

Weixian County is a national-level impoverished county. Its total fiscal revenue in the first months of this year was 59.85 million yuan ($8.8 million). The donations required from newly employed college graduates would generate up to 7 million yuan ($1.02 million), not an inconsiderable sum to the local government.

Although media coverage ultimately forced local education authorities to return the donated money, the issue is far from being resolved. Without strict accountability mechanisms, similar scandals are likely to arise in the future.

Guangzhou Daily

Saving Great Wall

Recently, investigators in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region found that a section of the Great Wall that dates back 2,000 years to the Qin and Han dynasties had been seriously damaged by prospectors.

Known as a World Cultural Heritage site, the Great Wall is of huge cultural and historical significance. It is a symbol of the Chinese nation. This precious cultural heritage should be carefully preserved, but that is not always the case. In Inner Mongolia, many people falsely believe that the Great Wall section in the region is old and dilapidated, and thus worthless.

The Regulation on the Preservation of the Great Wall was promulgated in 2006, but the situation is awful. Not only has the section built in the Qin and Han dynasties been demolished, but the section built during the Ming Dynasty only 500 years ago is in poor repair as well. Due to the lack of effective preservation, only 20 percent of the Ming section is now in good condition. In some regions, sections of the Great Wall are used for sheepfolds and the like.

A worse fate befell the Great Wall when mining prospectors came searching. Although the prospectors' action is a violation of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics and the Regulation on the Preservation of the Great Wall, ineffective legal punishment does little to discourage further damage.

If the damage on the Great Wall is not effectively reversed, someday we'll have no Great Wall to hand down to future generations.

Yangcheng Evening News