EASY RIDE: Light yellow and unified mark have been applied to school buses in Shanghai since September 2007 as part of the efforts to improve their safety (LIU YING)

Hidden Risks

Recently, a safety probe into school buses was launched in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. It found 1,060 of the 3,540 examined buses had potential safety risks.

In 2008, 4,423 middle and primary school students died in traffic accidents, mostly involving malfunctioning school buses. Who is responsible for this tragedy?

Although there are several regulations about school buses with requirements such as the vehicles being specially marked and painted certain colors, they are not compulsory. When school buses are put on routes without strict legal regulations, how can we expect them to run safely?

School buses are an important part of public transportation in developed countries. In the United States for example, federal laws explicitly define specifications and rollover protection standards. Besides, school buses are produced by designated manufacturers.

Children are the nation's future and their safety concerns whole families' fates. To ensure the safety of school buses, strict legal regulations and adequate budget allocation are necessary. It's hoped someday all our school buses will run safely on roads.

The Beijing News

Safe Milk Necessary

From April 19 to 24, four campus food poisoning accidents occurred in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Preliminary investigations showed more than 200 students fell ill on April 19 after drinking poison milk. Worse still, the problematic food was provided by designated suppliers of a government-funded "Milk and Egg Project." The project was launched to improve the nutrition of 860,000 boarding students in the province during the period of their compulsory education.

The poison milk indicates loopholes in food safety regulation. It is reported from the moment milk left the producer until it was delivered to students, no examination was undertaken to find out if there were problems.

How are the designated suppliers selected? Is there a strict bidding procedure? Is it possible these suppliers deliberately cut production and management costs to enable bigger profit margins? Without explicit accountability and strict supervision, accidents can only be a matter of time.

The "Milk and Egg Project" should not be regarded as a handout to children from impoverished families. The bottom line is to ensure food safety, or the project will endanger its recipients and lose the public's trust.

Beijing Times

Public Interest First

Recently, people.com.cn, a Beijing-based news portal, published a list ranking local authorities' responses to public opinion on the Internet.

Online discussion of public affairs has provided powerful supervision of local authorities. Quick and effective reactions to online criticism help build up administrative credibility. Passive replies, however skilful they might be, are ineffective in solving problems. The arrogant attitude of some local officials often triggers these actions, but the basic reason is the unfettered violation of public interest by the abuse of power. Conflicts cannot be resolved unless root causes are uncovered.

It is better to take precautions against these problems rather than shut the gate after the horse has bolted. If public interest is their top priority, local governments can expect their being distrusted to be gradually eradicated. Positive attitudes from administrators, rather than passivity, can better resolve crises of credibility exposed on the Internet.

The Beijing News

No Outside Food

An unspoken rule in the catering sector that customers are not being allowed to drink their own alcohol in restaurants has long been criticized by the public. But it very nearly became an official ban in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. In early April, the local association of consumers, together with the chambers of restaurant operators and private businesses, jointly issued a notice recognizing restaurants' right to deny food being brought in from outside.

This news has triggered strong criticism since it was reported by the media. Under public pressure, the Wuhan Consumers' Association later admitted the provision was inconsiderate and pledged to revise it as soon as possible.

Although those working on the document explained the stipulation was made to ensure food safety and restaurant operators had always argued they had the right to deny outside food, from the consumers' perspective, giving discretionary power on this issue to restaurateurs is undoubtedly unfair, because alcohol and soft drinks in restaurants sometimes sell at up to four times normal retail prices.

Consumers' associations are set up to supervise to protect consumers' legitimate rights and interests. That is to say, they must not take the side of businesses against consumers. They need to think from the perspective of consumers and, in this way, will be able to help protect consumers' rights and interests. If they speak for businesses, will consumers still have faith in them?

Changjiang Daily