News » China » Pressure leaves millions of youth in suicide risk

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• Pressure leaves millions of youth in suicide risk
• Grain supplies still not secure
• Labor shortage worsens as migrant workers stay home
• Spring break draws mixed reviews
• Paid leave seen as tourism boost
• Flower buds bathing in rain
• Five missing in E China boat accident
• One-China principle, non-interference prerequisites for China-Vatican ties: FM spokesman
• China reports no cases of Ibuprofen-related blindness
• Commentary: Japan's UNESCO bid a new provocation
• China urges calm over Korean Peninsula situation
• Legislature to prepare for NPC annual session
• S China warned of forest fires
• People's Daily stresses integrity in "strangers' society"
• One dead, six injured in N China supermarket fire
• At least 4 buried in SW China landslide
• 63 sentenced over SW China pyramid selling
• Legislature to prepare for NPC annual session
• Chinese ships continue patrolling Diaoyu Islands
• 20,000 pirated books confiscated in C China

Pressure leaves millions of youth in suicide risk Posted: 18 Feb 2013 08:37 AM PST "Sometimes, I would sit in my lab staring at the equipment and ask myself over and over again, 'Why am I alive?' " This is how PhD student Sun, 27, who did not want his full identity revealed, recalls one of his lowest points. "It was a few years ago, but at the time I just couldn't see a future," he said. "I still can't, I guess." He eventually sought professional help, and with continued support he says he feels better. Analysis suggests millions of young people like Sun are struggling under the pressures of work, study and relationships. Unfortunately, many are not finding the help they need. Every year, roughly 250,000 people commit suicide in China, while another 2 million attempt to cut their lives short, according to the Ministry of Health. Although studies show the highest incidence is among elderly and rural women, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention says suicide is now the top cause of death for people aged 15 to 34. The data "show us that this group of people needs far more help with mental health", said Lin Kunhui, founder of Life Education and Crisis Intervention Center, a nonprofit organization in Shanghai. In December, his center launched the city's first 24-hour suicide hotline, and within a month it had received 632 calls, mostly from white-collar workers aged 23 to 35. According to Lin, roughly 20 percent of callers needed urgent crisis intervention. "Young people on the Chinese mainland are under a huge amount of stress, but they have few places where they can talk to someone about their problems," he said. Suicide remains a taboo subject in China. Studies into the problem were nonexistent until the 1990s. Michael Phillips has been looking into the issue for more than two decades, and between 1995 and 2000 he cooperated with the Chinese CDC to conduct the largest-ever study of suicide in China. He talked with families in 23 locations nationwide about loved ones who had killed themselves. "Suicide is a very complicated problem. It's a different situation among different groups," said Phillips, now director of suicide research and prevention at the Shanghai Mental Health Center and winner of the State Council's 2012 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. "The problem among young people has to do with education and family environment. There is too much to be done in the country." The study found that from 1995 to 1999, China's suicide rate reached 0.023 percent, one of the highest in the world. In recent years, the rate has dropped, thanks largely to controls on pesticides, and greater medical support and education. However, the suicide trend among young people in recent years has raised concerns. A 2008 poll of more than 3,800 teenagers in Foshan, Guangdong province, found that 17 percent of female junior high school students had contemplated suicide. The main reasons were the pressure to behave well and feelings of isolation and loneliness, according to a report by the city's health authority. "There is a clear connection with the country's basic education system," said Xu Kaiwen, an associate professor of clinical psychology at Peking University. "They (the girls) have been educated to work hard and receive high marks from childhood. But although they perform well in class, they lack education about the value of life," he said, adding that the problem is even more serious at prestigious universities. "When they (students) meet difficulties, they are fragile," he said. "Such problems will extend to their work and life after graduation." Depression increases the risk of someone attempting suicide by as much as 20 times, according to the Chinese CDC, with anxiety disorders increasing the risk by six to 10 times and alcohol abuse by six times. To help students cope with the pressure, Xu said Peking University offers psychological counseling sessions once or twice a week. "For young people who grow up under the protection of their family, there must be a platform for them to speak out whenever they feel anxious or in trouble," said Zhang Qi, deputy director of the psychological counseling center at East China Normal University. "Keeping these things inside can make them into a disease," he added. "It requires work from families, schools and the government." Cao Lianyuan, former director of Beijing Psychological Crisis and Intervention Center, agreed and said that although there is no cure-all remedy, ensuring people get enough social support through help lines and counseling would go a long way to reducing the suicide rate. The first suicide hotline on the Chinese mainland opened in Beijing in 2002. Since then, similar projects have been launched in major cities such as Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing. "In Taiwan, a 24-hour suicide intervention hotline can receive as many as 100,000 calls a year on average," said Lin, who is also secretary-general of the Taiwan Suicide Prevention Association. "On the Chinese mainland, the number still lags behind." He said about a third of calls to the Life Education and Crisis Intervention Center come from people living outside of Shanghai. "That reflects a large demand for such services, so psychological aid and crisis intervention need to be widely publicized," he said. The center is now planning to expand the hotline to cover every district in Shanghai.

Grain supplies still not secure Posted: 18 Feb 2013 08:37 AM PST Despite consecutive years of bumper grain harvests, China still faces potential risks in ensuring grain security due to poor storage and huge waste, senior officials and experts warned. It is estimated that more than 35 million metric tons of grain are wasted every year in China in storage, transportation and processing, Ren Zhengxiao, head of the State Administration of Grain, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying on Sunday. Of the total waste, 20 million tons of grain are lost due to poor storage by farmers who have not yet placed their grain on the market, according to the administration. Currently, the amount of grain stored by local farmers accounts for around half of the country's annual grain output, Ren said. Another 7.5 million tons of grain are wasted in storage and transport, and more than 6.5 million tons of grain are wasted in processing, he said. Meanwhile, food valued at 200 billion yuan ($32 billion) is thrown away in China every year, he said. The country recorded a grain output of more than 589 million tons in 2012. It was the ninth consecutive year of increased grain harvests, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Meanwhile, the country has experienced rising imports of grain in recent years mainly due to rapid urbanization and changes in consumer demand. More than 260 million farmers have switched to non-agricultural jobs in cities, which may hamper the country's grain harvest, said Chen Xiwen, director of the Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee's Leading Group on Rural Work. The country's total grain imports, including soybeans, were more than 70 million tons last year, according to the ministry. Imports of soybeans last year totaled 58.4 million tons, the ministry said. "For China, improving its quality of grain stocks and reducing food wastage are as important as protecting arable land," said Ren. Statistics from the State Administration of Grain showed that one-third of China's storehouse capacity for grain is old and in poor condition. "The country should accelerate its construction of storehouses in those major grain-producing areas where there is a great shortage in storage capacity, such as in Northeast China," said Liu Yang, a researcher in agro-product processing at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Also, the country's total grain storage capacity should be enlarged in the future since great waste is caused by local farmers and small rural cooperatives that lack enough investment to improve grain storage conditions, he said. A five-year campaign will be launched this year to repair and upgrade facilities on grain storage, improve the emergency grain supply system and reduce food waste across the country, according to the administration.

Labor shortage worsens as migrant workers stay home Posted: 18 Feb 2013 08:37 AM PST Inland provinces are holding job fairs to attract migrant workers home to work, leading enterprises in coastal manufacturing hubs to fear increasingly serious labor shortages. Zhang Hongbo returned to his hometown Nanchong in Sichuan province for Spring Festival and decided not to return to his job in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Zhang, 35, had worked in Guangzhou as a mechanic for more than 10 years. "I believe I can find a perfect job in Nanchong due to my experience," he said. "The main reason for my decision to work at home is that I want to take care of my child and parents." Zhang said he had contacted several local enterprises about their employee needs. Zhang also plans to attend a job fair, which will be held on Thursday at a local industrial park, to see if they can provide a position that matches his skills. Luo Deguo, who is in charge of employment at Jialing Industrial Park, said nearly 60 enterprises will offer some 2,000 positions at the job fair. "More than 3,000 people are expected to attend the job fair," he said. Luo said more than 100 workers have visited or called his office asking about job opportunities every day since Feb 14, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. In Yichang, Hubei province, labor authorities hope to retain returned migrants by holding 57 job fairs from Spring Festival until the end of March, providing nearly 40,000 jobs. In southwestern Chong-qing municipality, more than 30 job fairs will be held this week to help migrant workers find a job at home. Shopping malls, restaurants and enterprises in fields such as electronic device manufacturing and real estate are major job providers. There are more than 250 million migrant workers in the country, and many of them leave home for other provinces to earn a living. In Chongqing, among 9 million farmers-turned-workers, 4.1 million worked outside the municipality in the first nine months of 2012, according to local labor authority. As inland provinces' efforts to lure migrants are paying off, many enterprises in coastal regions are feeling the pinch to retain employees. Zeng Hongwu, general manager of Guangzhou-based shoes and leather goods manufacturer Apples Industrial Corp, said his company has some 500 employees but is short by about 40 percent. "More than 10 percent of workers have not returned after the Spring Festival each year since 2009. We've asked employees this year about their willingness to stay or not and 15 percent of them said they would not come back," he said. Zeng said orders are expected to rise this year from 2012 and that would exacerbate the labor shortage. "It is felt by almost all factories in Guangdong," he said. Zeng said garment factories have already begun to relocate from Guangdong's Shenzhen and Dongguan to inland provinces such as Jiangxi and Henan due to lower costs, and he predicts that shoes and leather goods factories will gradually move to inland locations in the next three to five years. "Till then, a larger number of migrants will go back to inland areas," he said. Zeng said it's an opportunity for enterprises in coastal regions to shift from manufacturing bases to being more research and development oriented and more innovative so they can outsource orders to inland factories. To offset the labor shortage, some enterprises in Wuxi, eastern Jiangsu province, are holding job fairs in Anhui province to vie for migrant workers.

Spring break draws mixed reviews Posted: 18 Feb 2013 08:37 AM PST Opinions vary on a suggestion from the State Council on Monday that encourages local governments to experiment with giving primary and high school students a spring or autumn break. Students in China currently have only two breaks — usually 10 to 12 weeks in summer and winter — in addition to State holidays. The outline on developing national tourism and leisure, approved by the State Council earlier this month to develop the domestic tourism industry and improve the quality of travel and leisure, said that the addition of a spring or autumn break will not increase the total number of student vacation days. The outline also encouraged primary and high school students to take part in organized tour groups to expand their horizons. Gao Yiran, 13, a seventh-grader at the Experimental School attached to Haidian Teacher Training College, is cheered by the news. "If spring and autumn breaks are approved, I will have time to taste four seasons. Spring and autumn are a pleasant time, but in the past I always have buried myself in my studies," said Gao, who is still on her winter vacation, spending three to four hours every day on homework. But she also worried that "it means that I will have to spend more time at school in the cold winter and hot summer". Parents are not as happy with the idea, as the added breaks mean they will have to arrange somewhere for the children to go. "Who will take care of my child?" said Wang Li, 41, a mother of an 8-year-old primary school student. Wang's son, Sun Haokai, stays with his grandparents, who are in their 70s, during summer and winter breaks, as Wang and her husband have to work. Though tourism authorities expected that the addition of breaks would scatter the concentrated tourist flow of students and parents in summer and winter, the 41-year-old mother was afraid that it won't change the crowded scene at tourist attractions much. In addition, the added breaks will mean that the summer and winter vacations will be shortened. "This will make it difficult to arrange long trips," said Wang, who has nearly 30 days of paid leave every year. The possible spring and autumn breaks troubled some teachers as well. Xu Lei, an English teacher at Beijing No 80 High School, believed the addition of vacations might be difficult for teachers. "The first one or two weeks before and after holidays are students' 'happy hours.' It is also the period when teachers have to take the pain to rein in students' hearts and make them concentrate on studying instead of thinking of play," he said. Zhang Ting, a Chinese-language teacher at Beijing No 5 High School, said the added breaks will disrupt their teaching plans, and possibly involved changes in textbooks and examination arrangement. In addition, for high school students under the pressure of taking the national college entrance exam, the added breaks may still mean hard work for them.

Paid leave seen as tourism boost Posted: 18 Feb 2013 08:37 AM PST Better enforcement is the key to ensure almost all workers in China enjoy paid leave by 2020, a target set by the top tourism authority, experts said. The Outline for National Tourism and Leisure, issued by the China National Tourism Administration on Monday, includes measures such as reducing entrance fees of scenic spots and improving tourism and leisure infrastructure and accessibility. The outline aims to meet increasing demands for tourism and leisure while promoting the development of the tourism and leisure industry, said Zhu Shanzhong, deputy director of the China National Tourism Administration. Paid annual leave, instead of giving three week-long national holidays a year, is regarded by economists as the right way to boost the domestic tourism and leisure industries. "We have seen scenic spots crowded with tourists and some hot spots even fall into disorder during long holidays," said Li Kefu, a senior researcher in tourism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "Paid leave can help divert tourists and better meet their diversified needs, as they can have more than 200 days each year to choose as days off," he said. According to a regulation endorsed by the State Council in 2008, workers can enjoy five days of paid leave a year after working 12 months. People who have worked more than 10 years can enjoy 10 days of paid leave and workers who have worked 20 years and longer get 15 days. But the holiday system is not well implemented. A survey by China Youth Daily last year, which polled more than 2,400 people, found 55 percent had never enjoyed paid leave from work, and only 22 percent said they could enjoy fully paid leave every year. Wang Nan, 37, a manager at an e-commerce startup in Jiaxing of Zhejiang province, said: "We don't have paid annual leave in our company since we are only a startup and everything is not mature enough." The outline said that supervision and inspection will be intensified to enforce paid leaves, and more legal aid should be provided to protect workers' rights to rest. Efforts will be given to make sure that employees of small private businesses can enjoy the rights, it said. Jiang Ying, a labor law professor at the China Institute of Industrial Relations, said paid leave is mostly absent at non-public corporations, especially at small and medium-sized enterprises. "Many workers think that paid leave is only welfare and they do not realize that actually, it's their legitimate right," she said. Jiang also partly contributes worker's lack of paid leave to labor authorities' inefficiency in supervision. Li Jianfei, a law professor with Renmin University of China, said that the poor implementation is partly due to the fact that there is no detailed punishment for employers who fail to guarantee paid leave. In addition, workers lack a channel to effectively safeguard their rights to annual paid leaves, Li Jianfei said. Better implementation of paid annual leave will also benefit overseas destinations as tourists have more time for travel, said Jiang Yiyi, a researcher with the International Tourism Development Institute at China Tourism Academy. Meanwhile, the outline hopes to encourage more tourists to make domestic trips by urging that entrance fees be stabilized and then lowered. Experts believe that it is difficult for fees at many attractions to be reduced by a large margin in the near future. "Many tourist attractions are operated by private companies, which run for profit," said Li Xinjian, an associate professor in tourism studies at Beijing International Studies University. "More financial support from government is needed for sustainable development of the tourism industry," he said. Chen Xin and Yang Yao contributed to this story. Contact the writers at wangxiaodong@chinadaily.com.cn and jinhaixing@chinadaily.com.cn

Flower buds bathing in rain Posted: 18 Feb 2013 08:37 AM PST Photo taken on Feb 18, 2013 shows the rain drops stained on a flower in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province. Monday marks the day of "Rain Water", the second one of the 24 solar terms on the ancient Chinese lunar calendar. [Photo/Xinhua]

Five missing in E China boat accident Posted: 18 Feb 2013 02:42 AM PST Five people remain missing two days after a boat capsized in east China's Anhui province, authorities said Monday.

One-China principle, non-interference prerequisites for China-Vatican ties: FM spokesman Posted: 18 Feb 2013 02:17 AM PST China is willing to develop relations with the Vatican if the Vatican severs its diplomatic ties with Taiwan and refrains from interfering in China's internal affairs, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday.

China reports no cases of Ibuprofen-related blindness Posted: 18 Feb 2013 02:40 AM PST No cases of blindness have been reported in the country from using Ibuprofen, a drug commonly used to reduce fever and pain in children, China's drug safety watchdog said Monday.

Commentary: Japan's UNESCO bid a new provocation Posted: 18 Feb 2013 01:47 AM PST The plan of including China's Diaoyu Islands into Japan's application to the UNESCO's list of World Natural Heritage sites is a clear provocation.

China urges calm over Korean Peninsula situation Posted: 18 Feb 2013 01:20 AM PST China on Monday appealed for relevant parties not to take any actions that could worsen the situation of the Korean Peninsula.

Legislature to prepare for NPC annual session Posted: 18 Feb 2013 12:23 AM PST China's top legislature will review a report on the qualifications of deputies to the first annual session of the12th National People's Congress (NPC), during a bimonthly session next week.

S China warned of forest fires Posted: 18 Feb 2013 12:19 AM PST Chinese authorities on Monday warned that eight provinces in south China are at risk for forest fires due to lingering dry weather.

People's Daily stresses integrity in "strangers' society" Posted: 17 Feb 2013 11:19 PM PST Improving social integrity is in dire need, as China is turning from an acquaintances society into a society of strangers, said a comment piece in the People's Daily Monday.

One dead, six injured in N China supermarket fire Posted: 17 Feb 2013 11:19 PM PST One person died and six others injured when a three-story supermarket caught fire early Monday morning in north China's Hebei Province, local firefighters said.

At least 4 buried in SW China landslide Posted: 18 Feb 2013 12:43 AM PST At least four people were buried as a landslide on Monday hit southwest China's Guizhou Province, local government and rescuers said.

63 sentenced over SW China pyramid selling Posted: 18 Feb 2013 12:07 AM PST Sixty-three people involved in a pyramid selling scheme in southwest China's Yunnan Province have been given jail terms ranging from one year to 42 months, a local court has said.

Legislature to prepare for NPC annual session Posted: 17 Feb 2013 11:31 PM PST China's top legislature will review a report on the qualifications of deputies to the first annual session of the12th National People's Congress (NPC), during a bimonthly session next week.

Chinese ships continue patrolling Diaoyu Islands Posted: 17 Feb 2013 09:44 PM PST Chinese marine surveillance ships continued regular patrols in the territorial waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands on Monday, the State Oceanic Administration said.

20,000 pirated books confiscated in C China Posted: 17 Feb 2013 09:42 PM PST Local authorities in central China's Henan Province have raided a publishing house suspected of printing pirated books and found some 20,000 illegal copies, China's publication watchdog announced on Monday.

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