Zhu Junbing tells a depressing tale of a cheating boss. The reponse from the authorities fits with recent offical policy directives.
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Today sees the opening of the first of this years’ ‘Two Congresses’, the Third Session of the 10th CPPCC National Committee, which will be followed by the Third Plenum of the 10th National People’s Congress, China’s supreme legislative body.
The Political Affairs Office of the People’s Daily apparently conducted an on-line survey to find out what are the ten topics of greatest concern to readers of the paper’s website. Here’s what they distilled from their ten thousand or so responses:

• Social equality and reducing the gap between the rich and poor 关注社会公平，缩小贫富差距
• Opposing corruption, advocating probity and punishing corrupt officials 反腐倡廉，惩处腐败分
• Improper fee-charging and corruption in education 关注教育乱收费，警惕教育腐败
• Solutions to the difficulties of getting medical treatment and improvements to the medical welfare system 解决看病难，建立健全医保体系
• State enterprise reform and prevention the loss of public assets 关注国企改革，防止国有资产流失
• Government by due legal process 依法行政，打造法治政府
• Attention to public petitions and solutions to popular grievances 重视信访，解民疾苦
• Crackdown on counterfeit goods and services; re-establish good faith in social dealings 重视信访，解民疾苦
• Upholding equal justice and establishing judicial authority 维护公平正义，树立司法权威
• Shortages of urban housing and rising prices 城市住房紧张，物价上扬

I read the story in a re-post here, where there’s more comments posted by readers. Don’t expect to read anything too far outside the officially prescribed parameters for debate though, because Xinhua has proudly announced that ‘China will enforce a 24-hour monitoring over the Internet‘ whilst the NPC is in session.

As promised, here’s the second of the personal accounts of migrant working originally published in China Youth. Li Yibing is a young man caught between tiring and dangerous jobs as a migrant worker in Guangzhou and pressures from family expectations.
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This is a translation of one of four short interviews with migrant workers that were posted on the 新文化论坛, originally published as part of the cover story from this month’s China Youth magazine. I’ll do the other three too over the next few days. The individual stories as told to journalist Chen Min have the merit of being short so I thought I’d offer them here as first person accounts of life as a migrant worker. They’re voices that are often ignored in the wider discussions about internal migration and what it means for Chinese society - though that said China Youth is the magazine of the Communist Youth League so obviously there are people in the Party listening.
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This story from the Guangzhou Daily (24/2/05) was reposted at the 世纪沙龙 forums with an approving title encouraging readers to sign up for duty. It appears Guangzhou is the first city in China to start using the new jury system which was announced late last year.
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