In brief

Health

Funds to help healthcare

China will increase its funding for basic public healthcare services by two-thirds this year - to more than 30 billion yuan (3.3 billion euros) - something that will improve coverage for vulnerable groups, including children, pregnant women and the elderly, the Ministry of Health announced on May 24.

The change means government funding for basic healthcare services will rise to 25 yuan per person this year from 15 yuan in 2010. The new funds will be used to enlarge beneficiary groups, improve effectiveness and expand available services, said Qin Huaijin, acting director of the ministry's department of maternal and child health and community healthcare.

From this year, basic medical services that used to only cover children under 3 will be provided to everyone under 6, making 48 million more children eligible.

Depressed emotions on rise

More elderly people in Chinese cities are suffering from feelings of depression, which are becoming almost as common in China as they are in developed countries, according to recent research.

A team from the Laboratory of Mental Health under the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that nearly 40 percent of the elderly people living in Chinese cities are suffering from feelings of depression, significantly more than had experienced such feelings 20 years ago.

Elderly people with feelings of depression are prone to develop clinical depression, a true mental illness, according to Li Juan, director of the research team.

Li said the number of elderly people suffering from feelings of depression is 30 percent higher than it was in the 1990s, when family ties were stronger and the country was less urbanized.

Food

Drive targets food corruption

Authorities are targeting corruption and negligence among officials involved in food safety in a bid to curb a growing number of incidents concerning contaminated food.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), the top-prosecuting agency, will investigate and crack down on crimes, including bribery, negligence and favoritism in the food industry, Qiu Xueqiang, SPP vice-president, said at a news briefing on May 23.

Between September and April, 220 suspects accused of making and selling food unfit for human consumption had been arrested, with 113 prosecutions in 65 cases, according to SPP statistics.

Law

Lawyers helping abused children

China has formed the world's largest network of volunteer lawyers in a bid to protect minors' rights.

The network, which now has 8,900 lawyers on its books, was established by the Special Committee of Child Protection under the All China Lawyers Association. When it was set up in the 1990s, the network had fewer than 100 volunteer lawyers.

"The safeguarding of children's rights is an important step in the prevention of juvenile delinquency," said Tong Lihua, director of the Beijing Children's Legal Aid and Research Center and an expert on juvenile law.

According to statistics released by the Department of Legal Aid within the Ministry of Justice, legal aid departments across the country handled 87,530 cases concerning the infringement of children's rights during the past year and offered free legal advice to more than 1.1 million minors.

Art

Kunqu Opera star honored

Chinese opera performer Zhang Jun has been selected as the UNESCO Artist for Peace for a period of two years for his "long-term commitment to promoting" Chinese Kunqu Opera, the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization announced on May 23.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova will designate Zhang during an official ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on May 26, the organization said in a statement.

Born in Shanghai, in 1974, Zhang is a leading promoter of Kunqu, one of the oldest forms of Chinese opera, inscribed in 2008 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The Artist for Peace is appointed by UNESCO every two years to drive public awareness regarding key development issues.

Telecom

Mobile phone users rise rapidly

China's cell phone users grew by 41.39 million in the first four months of 2011 to 900.39 million in total, covering nearly two-thirds of the nation's population, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on May 24 on its website.

The number of telephone subscribers exceeded 1.19 billion by the end of April, with the number of fixed-line subscribers dropping by 2.93 million to 291.45 million.

By the end of April, third generation (3G) mobile telecommunication users in China reached 67.57 million, 20.52 million more than that of the end of 2010.

China's telecommunication industry reported a 9.4 percent growth year-on-year in main business revenue for the first four months to 308.36 billion yuan (33.76 billion euros), said the ministry.

China Daily