Maternity leave extended

Female workers in China are set to enjoy longer maternity leave from work. A draft regulation published by the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office would prolong a working woman's maternity leave from the current 90 days to 98 days (14 weeks).

An online poll conducted by China's popular micro blog weibo.com showed that 94 percent of net users support the new regulation while four percent oppose it. However, many mothers say 14 weeks is still not enough and suggest six months.

Some people worry that the new rule will push employers to favor male workers more and it may become more difficult for women to find jobs.

Year-end crash expenditure

The Hunan provincial commission of finance reportedly spent 30 million yuan ($ 4.7 million) on a purchase which was really worth 15 million yuan. The related officials said they did it to "expend the budget".

Statistics from the Ministry of Finance showed that in 2007 government sectors spent nearly 1.2 trillion yuan at the last month of 2007, more than a quarter of expenditure of the whole year. In November of 2008, the figure was 1.5 trillion and in 2009 it was two trillion. This year, government sectors have to decide where 3.5 trillion yuan - roughly equal to Switzerland's GDP of 2010 - will go in the last two months of 2011.

Finance and taxation experts attribute the problem to the imperfect budget system. The current budget model is like this: every year the budget will increase on the base of last year's expenditure and the surplus will be turned over. For example, last year's budget was 100 thousand but the sector only spent 80 thousand, the surplus 20 thousand will be turned over. Further, this year the budget will be cut to 80 thousand. Therefore, government sectors see no good in saving.

Relaxed family-planning policy

Central China's Henan province has amended its family-planning policy, allowing parents from single-child families to have another child. So far, all provinces in the country have adopted a relaxed family-planning policy.

Whether the relaxed rule will make the already huge population jump has evoked much concern online. A poll by a local newspaper shows that 52 percent are willing to have a second child. Most of the people who don't want a second child attribute the reason to "too much pressure in life and even hard to support one".

Also evidence shows the worry about a population surge is unfounded. A survey conducted in Shanghai, which has adopted the rule, shows that almost half of the families have given up the offer of having a second child because its "expensive and exhausting to raise a child". Population experts say that when the living conditions have reached some level, the population will decrease without control from the government.