NEW POLICE CHIEF

Zhao Kezhi was sworn in as minister of public security on November 4 after the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress， Chinas top legislature， appointed him to the post on the same day. He pledged his allegiance to the Constitution at an oath-taking ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Zhao is the 14th minister of public security since the Peoples Republic of China was founded in 1949. He replaced Guo Shengkun， currently Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of the Communist Party of China （CPC） Central Committee.

Zhao， born in 1953 in Laixi， east Chinas Shandong Province， was secretary of the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee since July 2015 before assuming his current post. He had also held several leading government and Party positions in Shandong， Jiangsu and Guizhou provinces during his public service career of more than 40 years， including governor of Guizhou and secretary of the CPC Guizhou Provincial Committee.

Domestic Passion for Mandarin Needed

Workers Daily November 6

It is reported that there are more than 100 million people living outside China who are learning the Chinese language. In more than 60 countries， Chinese language teaching has been incorporated into their national education systems， with more than 170 countries opening Chinese courses or setting up Chinese programs in schools. In many overseas regions， the number of Chinese language learners is exploding.

For example， Chinese language courses are now available in primary and secondary schools in Washington， D.C. and every U.S. state except South Dakota， ranking the fourth most widely taught foreign language in the countrys education system， according to a survey released in June.

In contrast to foreigners mania for the Chinese language， however， a lot of people in China， including students， attach more importance to English than Chinese studies. As a result， even a big fraction of college students in the departments of Chinese language and literature are not good at their major. But many of the students poor in Chinese grab high scores in English tests and can speak fl uent English.

Science students do even worse. Statistics from China Central Television show that 29.7 percent of non-English major students spend the majority of the four-year campus time on English learning. Chinese language courses， however， are widely neglected.

Few people in China worry about not having a good grasp of Chinese， while English language proficiency certificates are highly valued. With the rise of Chinas status and influence in the world， Chinese people should first love and learn their mother tongue， so that this beautiful language can gain greater popularity around the world.endprint

Land Reclamation Spree

Caixin Weekly October 30

On August 22， the State Council dispatched inspection teams to investigate excessive land reclamation at sea in coastal provinces such as Liaoning， Hebei， Jiangsu and Fujian and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. However， reclamation projects along the countrys coastline are unlikely to be curbed as a result of this move.

In addition to a strict land use quota， arable land development usually involves huge compensation and other complica ted issues. Comparatively， reclaiming land from the sea costs much less and incurs fewer problems. Such manmade lands bring huge profi ts to developers as they are usually located in densely populated regions on the seaside and have developed transportation networks. Even land prices of their neighboring areas will inflate. High economic returns thus lead to more and more land reclamation projects.

More importantly， these projects tend to be big， which helps grow the local economy and increase tax revenues， beneficial for both local governments and businesses. But their damage to the coastal ecosystem should not be underestimated.

Statistics from the State Oceanic Administration （SOA） reveal that the average area of annual land reclamation stands at about 10，000 hectares in recent years.But industry experts point out that due to poor management， the real acreage could be much bigger.

According to the SOA， over-development of sea resources and lack of effective and unified management have led to dramatic shrinking of Chinas coastline. In some cases， the scale of land reclamation exceeds the actual demand and the reclaimed land is thus left idle. All this poses a severe threat to the seas sustainable development.

More worrying is that the absence of explicit laws and regulations to regulate land reclamation and rein in excessive projects has made it easy for developers to escape supervision and punishment， which in turn exposes the sea to further damage.

Make Good Use of Education Funds

China Youth Daily November 2

Statistics from the ministries of education and fi nance show that in 2016， government spending on education reached nearly 3.14 trillion yuan （$473 billion）， up 7.44 percent over the previous year and accounting for 4.22 percent of the national GDP. This marked the fi fth consecutive year that state education investment had surpassed 4 percent of the GDP.

In the past， there was a shortage of funds for Chinas education and a big gap existed between urban and rural areas as well as between higher education and basic education in terms of investment. For some time， rural areas， home to 60 percent of the total population， had access to only 23 percent of the governments education funds， with the inputs in eastern regions outweighing those in the west exponentially. This irrational distribution seriously hindered the development of education in the vast rural areas， in central and western regions， and in the elementary education sector.endprint