Is China Short of Labor?

Most people believe the last thing China is lacking is labor. However, while extensive human resources remain untapped, many working-age employees are being laid-off and a large number of college graduates are having difficulty finding jobs. Some experts claim that China's demographic dividend will soon be exhausted. So, what is the real situation in China? People's Daily Overseas Edition spoke to Cai Fang, Director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on this issue. Excerpts follow:     

How Much Surplus Labor Is in the Countryside?

The long-held belief of an inexhaustible surplus of labor in rural areas of China is fading fast.Amid worries over its aging popula- tion,China is confronted with serious challenges to sustain its labor supply so as to shore up its growing economy.How to fur- ther transfer the remaining surplus labor into cities and how to improve the quality of Chinese laborers are questions the country faces.The Guangming Daily,a newspaper based in Beijing,con- ducted an interview with Cai Fang,an economist and Director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,to delve into China's labor dilemma.Cai gave his opinions in the following excerpts:     

What’s the Best Use of Young Officials?

正Jiao Sanniu, a 23-year-old graduate from China's prestigious Tsinghua University, was selected as vice director of the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office     

Does the School of the Gifted Young Do More Harm Than Good?

正In March 1978,21 teenagers between the ages of 11 and 16 were enrolled in the Special Class for the Gifted Young of the University of Science and Technology of China(USTC),becoming the first such students of their kind.Four decades have passed since the program was fi rst launched at USTC,which has since been expanded into the School of the     

Is the Game of Flattery Compliments Praiseworthy?

There is a new craze among young people—flocking to so-called kuakuaqun, or flattery groups, on the Internet, where they praise one an other, at times even paying to be exaggeratedly complimented.     

Why Do College Graduates Shun the Labor Market?

According to a recent report in Changjiang Daily, Chen Chuande, Deputy Director of Hubei Provincial Education Department,said at a conference on March 30 he deeply regretted college graduates’ mistaken ideas about finding work.     

Is the Cause of Professional Fraud Fighters Authentic?

<正>Dear Readers,Forum is a column that provides a space for varying perspectives on contemporary Chinese society.We invite you to submit personal viewpoints on past and current topics(in either English or Chinese).yanwei@bjreview.com Please provide your name and address along with your comments     

Is Free Teacher Education Worth 10 Years In Rural China?

Cash-strapped students desperate to get top quality education now have an opportunity to realize their dream.But there's a catch.Through a new initiative,students can opt for free education at prestigious     

Taking the Rural Pulse

A few weeks ago I joined a tour to Yunnan and Guangxi, two provincial divisions that are contiguous to each other and border on Myanmar, Laos and Viet Nam. Yunnan and Guangxi are in southwestern China, with a geographic location roughly like that of Arizona and New Mexico in the United States. Coincidentally, the combined territory of Yunnan and Guangxi, about 610,000 square km, is equivalent to the size of the two American states.     

China Is in?the?Mind of Every Arab and Muslim

正CHINA has a strong relationship with Kuwait,characterized by continuous improvements and mutual respect.To shed more light on these relations,China Today sat down with Kuwait’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Mohammed Saleh Ahmed Al-Thuwaikh.     

Is the Divided Fiscal Seal a Symbol of Democracy?

Guiye is a small,poor village in Jinping County,in southwest China's Guizhou Province. It recently became famous across the country because of an unusual fiscal seal local villagers have ad- opted to help them share supervisory power. Every year,Guiye receives 5,000 yuan for administrative expenses and is sometimes earmarked for poverty-reduction funds. However,as the years passed,local villag- ers felt increasingly doubtful about how the     

China Has Only 1 Percent of the International Labor Market

Wang Dongjin, vice minister of Labor and Social Security, said that although progress has been made in overseas employment, China‘s overseas work force makes up less than 1 percent of the international labor market, This is surprisingly low in view of China‘s huge population, According to statistics, at the end of 2003, China‘s overseas work force amounted to 525,000 and created foreign exchange earnings of US $2 billion.     

Labor Shortage Looming Ahead?

The large quantity of cheap labor resources has long been regarded as one of the important factors that make it possible for China's economy to maintain rapid growth. However, Cai Fang, Director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, warned at a lecture in early May that China's surplus rural labor force is not as large as thought and that China will soon experience the transition from labor surplus to labor shortage. He predicted that the turning point would occur probably in 2009. In response, Hou Dongmin, Director of the Institute of Population, Resources and Environment of Renmin University of China, and Deng Yuwen, researcher at the China Society of Economic Reform, analyze the expected impacts of transition on China's future growth mode (in sequence).     

Hi-Tech to Replace Labor?

It's an open secret that China's economic structure is drawing fire. Local and foreign economists are agreed in thinking that China's labor-intensive economy cannot maintain the current momentum in development in the long term. Hua Min, Dean of the Institute of World Economy, Fudan University, is an exception. He has different opinions, arguing that China's problem is not a shortage of labor, but a shrinking market demand on cheap labor. He explains why.     

The environmental psychology of the hospital: Is the cure worse than the illness?

Abstract

This paper presents a framework and summarizes evidence bearing on the role that the physical environment plays in the prevention and reduction of psychological and social problems encountered by patients in acute care and psychiatric institutions. Factors that are considered important to preventive strategies include issues such as the spatial layout and design of hospital environments, privacy problems, personal control and independence, information interventions, hospital social relationships, and levels of environmental stimulation. Two case studies are utilized to illustrate these issues within the context of both acute care and psychiatric facilities in a large municipal hospital. Greatest emphasis is placed on the use of the physical environment in the promotion of primary and secondary prevention within tertiary care settings.     

Is it Time to Change the Competitive Mindset of Education?

Asalient feature of China’s education system is competition, som ething that has long been the subject of debate. While Li Qi, a professor of economics at Agnes Scott College in Georgia, the United States, asserts that strict quantitative assessm ent at school helps prepare students for the real world but there is room for reform, Jiang Li, Vice President of the Test Group of Chinese Academ y of Inspection and Quarantine, argues that instead of a frantic scram ble for the most professionally rewarding disciplines, students should be encouraged to develop their true passions instead of being bulldozed into the subjects chosen for them by their parents.     

Is It the Right Place for a Statue of Confucius?

<正>On January 11 this year, a bronze 7.9-meter-tall statue of Confucius (551-479 B.C.) was unveiled in front of the renovated National Museum of China in Beijing. The erection of this statue in such a prominent