China pledges new efforts to boost rural development
China this year pledges to increase investment, subsidies, and fiscal policies to supports rural areas and to better coordinate urban and rural development.

The central government announced this on Sunday in its first policy document of the year. The document, jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council, it promises to improve the livelihood of rural residents, which it announces as one of the main tasks in China's efforts to adjust the imbalance between incomes.


Officials: Prudent with Air Quality Improvement Measures 
Guangzhou is trying to clean up its air before the opening of Asian Games. However, government officials, the ones in charge of this, have promised to be prudent when implementing special measure such as temporarily closing factories and limiting the number of cars on the road. Our journalist Luo Su has the details:
The government believes its efforts to control car emissions and the desulfurization of manufacturers are starting paid off as the latest data shows that the air quality improved a little in 2009. The Director of the Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau, Li Qing, promised that more steps will be taken:
"Guangzhou has so far been using Euro 3 petrol for its vehicles. We hope the central government will allow us to adopt a Euro 4 standard so as to further cut emissions."

In terms of other temporary measures, Li Qing added:
"if the air quality meets the standards during the Asian Games, we won't take any extra measures. If it fails to meet these standards, we may have to temporarily close factories."

Guangdong users face suspension in anti-porn operation
Authorities in Guangdong are considering suspending mobile phone numbers if they are found to be sending over 300 pornographic or spam text messages per hour. Gu Weizhong, the director of the Guangdong Communications Administration, revealed this plan at a group discussion during the Guangdong CPPCC. Gu said that once the phone numbers had been suspended, an investigation will be launched to determine whether any illegal acts are involved and if so, the numbers will be revoked. Responding to concerns that phone numbers might be suspended for sending isolated, private jokes or intimate messages, Gu said the freedom of communications between phone users will be guaranteed and the authorities will be able to distinguish between such normal messages and spam ones through "technological means".