This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.
Every year before the Spring Festival there are a flood of reports of migrant workers not being paid by their employers. A range of measures recently worked out by China's Cabinet should help to at least curb the long-standing problem of employers defaulting on wages.
The measures include real-name management of migrant workers, the overall responsibility of the chief contractor for migrant workers employed by subcontractors, as well as the introduction of a cash deposit system and special accounts for their wages. The measures also include strengthened supervision, a blacklist system and strict punishments for defaulters.
The measures are expected to make it more difficult for employers to cheat migrant workers out of their due pay.
The special accounts, for example, will prevent the employers from defaulting on workers' wages under the pretext of their failure to receive their own funds. While blacklisting enterprises that intentionally default on migrant workers' wages and their disclosure to the public, as well as denying them licenses, preferential loans and government procurement contracts are expected to deter enterprises from abusing the rights of migrant workers.
The strict implementation of these measures is both necessary and urgent, as the country's lingering economic woes have made life more difficult for many enterprises, small and medium-sized ones in particular, and increased the temptation for some not to pay their workers.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Chinese residents now enjoy the same level of health, on average, as people in medium-and-high-income countries.
The average life expectancy of Chinese is estimated to be one year more than in 2010.
The maternal mortality rate fell to 21 per 100,000 in 2014, from 30 per 100,000 in 2010. Infant mortality dropped to 9 per 1,000 in 2014, from 13 per 1,000 in 2010.
China has realized the United Nations Millennium Development Goals ahead of schedule in terms of maternal mortality and infant mortality.
The health insurance system is also improving. Coverage of the medical insurance scheme stabilized at more than 95 percent of the total population. The annual government grant for each urban unemployed citizen and each rural resident has risen to 380 yuan, roughly 61 U.S. Dollars.
Moreover, China has a low prevalence of HIV and AIDS; and the incidence rate of tuberculosis is on decline. Hepatitis B virus infection for Chinese children less than five years of age has dropped to 0.3 percent, thanks to vaccination efforts.
