BESTSELLERS: Power cuts in Anping County, Hebei Province, allegedly for energy conservation, has brought a market boom for household generators (CHENG SHUANGQING)

Uncertified Graduates

Xiaogan University in Hubei Province stipulates students at graduation won't be granted diplomas and degree certificates unless they show employment contracts. The direct result of this requirement was numerous falsified contracts and the university's employment rate for 2010 jumped to more than 95 percent.

Universities have no right to retain accreditation if students do not have bad records. In this case, Xiaogan University is turning its duty into a tool for making profits.

Nowadays, universities' recruitment quotas and government allocations are connected with student employment rate. Without a good rate, universities, especially private ones, may run into difficulty during next years' recruitment.

Being disadvantaged at school, students easily become victims. Excessively high tuition fees, withheld diplomas and degree certificates and various other fee-charging items target students as a source of income.

Universities do need stable income sources to survive and develop, but it's unwise for them to focus on making profits. In the long run, only providing good education and training will support educational institutions and bring them lasting success.

Beijing Times

Misused Money

The Henan Provincial Audit Office said in a recent report funds earmarked for the province's food safety testing facilities were frequently embezzled and existing county-level agricultural product quality inspection stations were not working well.

Due to ineffective pesticide residue tests, local consumers reportedly prefer worm-eaten vegetables—because they believe if worms are able to live on a vegetable's leaves, it is unlikely to have excessive amounts of pesticide in it.

In order to ensure food safety, the Central Government has input 120 million yuan ($17.65 million) in food safety testing facilities in Henan in recent years, but where has it gone?

It's reported the Weixian County Agricultural Bureau embezzled 196,200 yuan ($28,853) to buy an expensive car, the Xixian County Agricultural Product Quality Inspection Station misused allocations for workers' allowances and the Henan Provincial Agricultural Department embezzled 4.5 million yuan ($661,765) for building a new office building.

While shifting around funds allocated for food safety testing, the departments concerned are not only committing crimes, but also putting people's lives and safety at risk.

Xinhua Daily Telegraph

Fliers in Danger

During 2008 and 2009, the General Administration of Civil Aviation investigated the qualifications of all Chinese commercial pilots. It found more than 200 pilots had falsified their flight records.

The late publication of the investigation result was even more shocking, coming as it did after an air accident involving a Kunpeng Airlines plane in Yichun in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province killed 42 people last month.

That accident brought Captain Qi Quanjun's ability to fly into question. Qi had not been licensed as a captain by Shenzhen Airlines when he previously worked for the company. But later, working for Kunpeng Airlines, he received a license.

The falsification of pilots' flight records is one of many problems in the civil aviation system. It's a pity most of these problems are not effectively dealt with until grave, even fatal, accidents happen.

Recent years have witnessed great leaps forward in China's civil aviation development. In this situation, pilots have become a scarce resource, particularly experienced pilots. As a result, some pilots began to falsify flight records to increase their appeal to desperate employers. Slack examination and supervision are what makes this possible.

The falsification of flight records is a by-product of the crazed expansion of civil aviation. It is putting the whole system at risk and reducing every factor related to flight safety to fragility.

Legal Daily

Power Outages

Anping County in north China's Hebei Province started rotational power cuts for local residents from September 3, allegedly for the purpose of reaching its prefixed target of reducing annual energy consumption by 6.6 percent year on year. Though power supplies to hospitals and traffic lights resumed on September 5, local officials said there would be new restrictions.

But the Electricity Law stipulates electric power suppliers should not disrupt supplies to users while power generation and supply systems are working well. Anping's power cuts are therefore illegal.

In order to deal with power cuts, people turned to gasoline and diesel generators of various kinds for help, which caused greater energy consumption.

More importantly, the county's really big power users are not households, or hospitals, or traffic lights, but energy-consuming industries, such as wire mesh processing enterprises, which are major sources of the county's revenue. A medium-sized wire mesh factory, within a month, consumes more electric power than a residential community. The county's indiscriminate power cuts show local officials' lack of governance competence.

Energy conservation is of vital importance to the country's sustainable development. But the abuse of governing provisions will severely damage the implementation of rule of law.

China Youth Daily