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A business institution recently introduced a new project - "Commercial school for children” in the west China city of Chengdu. The school aims to educate children about money management and endow them with a spirit of entrepreneurship. We have learned that their students are aged between 7 and 11, most of them come from rich families, and the school's tuition fees are about 30,000 yuan a year. Lessons employing British teaching materials, interactive games, and practical courses are their commercial strengths; with the help of advertising stunts, financial literacy for kids is becoming a new talking topic among Chinese parents....

The first nuclear submarine fleet from PLA North China Sea Fleet has just carried out a military drill. According to naval officials, the fleet is now capable of nuclear deterrence and nuclear counterattack. CRI's Wu Yanping has more. The drill is aimed at testing the maneuver capability of the fleet in deep-sea navigation, long-distance operation, submarine communication and coordination with other battleships. Other than nuclear-powered submarines, a wide range of destroyers, frigates, depot ships and military helicopters were also engaged in the drill. Living conditions in the nuclear submarine are extremely harsh. Confined in an enclosed space, the soldiers are...

Djang San is a French musician that has been living in China for over a decade. He plays in several bands, but the focus of this episode is his "Djang San" persona, a folk artist playing traditional Chinese instruments, singing in Chinese language, and mixing in Western influences such as experimental and jazz. See what Chinese music is, and can become, in the eyes of a talented outsider.

(Reuters) - Faster isn't necessarily better for China's telecom carriers as they prepare to roll out high-speed 4G mobile phone networks at the expense of their profitability for years to come. China Mobile Ltd, which has the most subscribers in the world, is investing billions of dollars to upgrade its infrastructure so clients can enjoy speedier Internet and data access once the government awards 4G telecom licenses before the end of the year. Its rivals China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd and China Telecom Corp Ltd are being forced to follow suit, especially as China Mobile is in talks with Apple...

LAUNCESTON: Asian oil refiners are facing slumping profits as China is expected to ramp up exports of diesel and gasoline this quarter. The margin from refining diesel in Asia has fallen almost 10% in the last 10 trading days, although it would have to drop another 13% to plumb the levels reached just after the first quarter, when the Chinese were last major exporters. While Chinese refiners are likely to add significant volumes to the product markets, they are also likely to buy more crude in order to boost runs rates, and as new refining units come on stream. This...

Reality and economic analysis in China seem to have grown far apart. But, given confusion even within the Chinese government between economic data and investment promotion, ideological polarization over simple questions like “Is the economy growing?” may be inevitable. To some of us, it is almost unfathomable that the Wall Street Journal, in a recent report, could write: “There is currently a supply crunch of homes in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, which is in turn leading to fast-rising property prices” or that Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters could ink the sentence: “China needs more housing.” The reality of eyes...

"I was so stunned, angry and distressed." It is rare to hear such words from a senior Chinese official uttered publicly. China's science minister even repeated the word "angry" early this month to express his anxiety over academic corruption. What shocked Wan Gang, minister of Ministry of Science and Technology (MST), were two major graft cases that he revealed authorities were now working on at a press conference on October 11. Although Wan didn't give details, he said the cases involved abuse of power and the embezzlement of huge amounts of funds by a well-known environmental scientist and a senior...

Chimneys and blast furnaces spew out gray, white and dark yellow smog smelling of sulfur, a common scene in Tangshan, north China's Hebei Province, a city known for iron and steel manufacturing. There seems to be no end in sight to their numbers, and blackened skies have become the norm, an outcome of over-expansion in China's iron and steel industry. In recent years, excess production capacity has been spreading, greatly hindering China's economy and posing a severe challenge to its natural environment. On October 15, the State Council issued the Guidelines to Tackle Serious Production Overcapacity, which listed five sectors...

TURPAN - He is a civil engineer and project manager. Once graduated, he applied for a good job in a state-owned firm in Urumqi, but his application was rejected since the employment officer told him that they did not plan to hire ethnic Uyghurs. Then he went to Beijing with a kind of depression and anger, but was fortunately hired by one of the biggest engineering firms in China and is now working as a project manager. Ironically, he was later sent to Urumqi for a big project and once there met the same employment officer who rejected his job...

Beijing's intensifying campaign to snuff out any form of coordinated opposition will enter a new phase on Monday as three Chinese activists go on trial in what rights groups fear will be the first in a wave of politically-motivated cases against Communist Party critics. Liu Ping, Wei Zhongping and Li Sihua – three civil rights campaigners from the southeastern province of Jiangxi – will go on trial in the city of Xinyu, at around 8.30am, according to Zhang Xuezhong, a rights lawyer involved in the case. All three activists are expected to face charges of "illegal assembly" while Ms Liu...

BEIJING -- China Construction Bank Corp. reported third-quarter net-profit results that missed market expectations, as the state-run bank and other lenders grapple with China's slowing economy and Beijing's efforts to liberalize financial markets. The country's second-largest bank by assets reported Sunday that net profit for the quarter rose 9.4% to 56.8 billion yuan ($9.34 billion), lower than the average forecast of 57.69 billion yuan among four analysts polled by Thomson One Analytics. The third-quarter profit growth for China Construction Bank, the first of the state-run banks to report quarterly earnings, marked a slowdown from its 13% growth in the first...

Researchers from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) have developed a naked-eye 3D tablet computer, which should be in the shops by the end of this year. Naked-eye 3D technology has put 3D lens onto the screen, allowing viewers to watch 3D images without glasses, Fang Yong, deputy director of the spectrum modulation technology center at the SJTU Wuxi Research Institute, said on Tuesday. Users will not suffer from eye strain or dizziness. According to Fang, the research team has filed a patent and the televisions and computers with the technology are on the way.

China signaled concern on Tuesday that ample credit could fuel inflation as a report showed house prices jumped the most in nearly three years, with double-digit gains in major cities. A policy adviser to the People's Bank of China told Reuters the authority may tighten cash conditions in the financial system to address the inflation risks, while the central bank refrained from supplying cash to money markets for the second day running. (Read more: China's home price rises don't tell the whole story) If it also avoids injecting cash at its next money market operation on Thursday, the effect will...

China shares have enjoyed a three-month-long rally and now it's time for investors to turn selective, analysts said. Since the beginning of July, the Shanghai Composite has tacked on more than 11 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index has gained around 12 percent, even as many regional markets suffered a bout of extreme volatility amid concerns the U.S. Federal Reserve would begin to taper its asset purchases. Indonesian shares, for example, have fallen around 6.5 percent over the same period. "Market return is more likely to be muted or show slight downside near term unless we see positive surprises...

BEIJING — Thick, choking smog enveloped cities in northeast China on Tuesday, closing schools and airports, snarling traffic and reducing visibility to a few yards, in a dramatic sign of the country’s worsening air quality. China’s breakneck dash for economic growth has badly damaged the environment, and the rapid deterioration in air and water quality has increasingly become a source of public unrest. As a result, improving environmental standards has become a priority for the government. But the acrid clouds enveloping several cities this week showed how tough that task had become. In the industrial city of Harbin, home to...

Satellite broadcasters in China have been told to cut back on entertainment programs, and even less of overseas programs, giving a headache for choices to station chiefs. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced that starting from next year, it will allow every satellite TV station to buy the copyrights of just one overseas program. The new order is aimed to push for domestically-produced and "morality-building programs." Also, the copied programs cannot be aired during prime time from 7:30pm to 10:00pm within the year when they are imported. And only one musical talent show will be approved every...

China's economy faces the twin challenges of realizing efficiency and achieving strong growth momentum China's economic growth is picking up in a stable way, with gross domestic product (GDP) increasing 7.8 percent in the third quarter, higher than the 7.5 percent in the second, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on October 18. However, compared with a strong rebound in July and August, the economic upswing in September is not sustainable. Therefore, emphasis should be laid on stimulating and stabilizing economic growth while carrying out restructuring. The rebound In the first half year, China's economy witnessed...

<p>In China there are about 22 million vocational students (aged 15-18) and Foxconn is one of the biggest employers of these as "interns" (Aditya Chakrabortty, 15 October). Foxconn internship programmes range from three months to a year, subject to extension as production requires. Aditya Chakrabortty cites independent research findings, which are strongly supported by Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior.</p>

The US needs Chinese support in order to keep the post-withdrawal situation in Afghanistan stable. This situation has opened up several prospects for China to increase its influence in Central Asia Last month, the President of China, Xi Jinping, visited four Central Asian countries before attending the 13th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Bishkek. During these visits, Mr Xi discussed plans of mutual cooperation that would bring billions of dollars of investment to the region. The trip is regarded as a Chinese ploy to open up a modern silk road that will serve as the beginning of...

(Reuters) - China's economy grew 7.8 percent in the third quarter, its fastest pace this year and in line with expectations, as firmer foreign and domestic demand lifted factory production and retail sales. Yet any optimism from the government figures released on Friday could fade quickly as global demand remains volatile, which was underlined by a surprise fall in exports in September. Efforts at home to engineer slower but more sustainable growth will also weigh on the economy in coming quarters, analysts say. "The Q3 GDP figure is in line with market expectations but the uncertainty is whether the current...