Rush to Become Civil ServantsLast year, 8,662 vacancies in 97 government ministries and departments were announced to the public. The announcements drew almost one million applicants, double the number for 2004. Experts ascribe the increasing interest in civil servant positions to job stability, respected social status and comprehensive welfare benefits - attributes that are either non-existent or on the wane in the private sector.Chinese Visit Cinema Once Every Five Years Though Chinese cinema box offices are record- ing annual increases in takings of 15 percent, and new movie houses are mushrooming all over the country, a survey shows that the average Chinese person visits the cinema just once every five years. The survey results were surprising even in a mod- em, cosmopolitan city like Shanghai, where the av- erage resident goes just once a year. Comparable surveys in the United States show that the average American visits the cinema 5.7 times a year. Movie-going may be getting more popular, but there is still room for improvement.10 Concerns About Urban Development The Beijing International Institute for Urban Development has carried out an Internet survey on the public's 10 great- est concerns about urban development over the next five to ten years. The results show that Chinese urbanites want to see reduced medical costs, a perfected social security system, the institutionalization of a credit culture, freedom to migrate, ex- pansion of the middle class, greater policy transparency, water and energy conserva- tion, better AIDS prevention methods, im- proved public security and non-discrimina- tive education. Bribery Blacklist China's Supreme People's Procurator- ate has established a file that contains the names of all those convicted of bribery since 1997. The list covers a wide range of business and government-related arenas. The public will have access to the list from January 1 this year. The move aims to stem rampant bribery in fields such as construc- tion, finance, education and medical care, as well as in government procurement de- partments."Eagle Operation" nets a large haul of counterfeiters. 5,001 Counterfeiters Busted in "Eagle Operation" National public security bodies in November 2004 kicked off the "Eagle Operation," to crack down on trademark and copyright infringement. At the end of October last year, some 2,611 intellectual properly rights cases had been solved, resulting in 5,001 convic- tions and the retrieval of RMB 990 million's worth of economic losses. Only 1 Percent of Chinese Enterprises Are Charitable Data collected by the Economic Research Center of the State Development and Reform Commission shows that of the 10 million companies registered with industrial and commercial administration departments, a mere 100,000 have made donations to charity. Meanwhile, of the top 50 Chinese tycoons on Forbes' rich list, just 11 make charitable donations. This indicates that more should be done to encourage support of charities among the nation's corporate leaders. Wealth Gap Must Be Reduced One of the government's main tasks in the next five years is to reduce the wealth gap between China's nch and poor. Per capita GDP levels in the wealthy eastern regions currently stand ten times higher than those among the poverty-stricken west. Moreover, the richest 10 percent in the country owns about 40 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 10 percent owns less than 2 percent. Married Men in China Looking "Elsewhere" At the end of 2005 the China Sexology Association published the results of its Internet survey, showing that 47.4 percent of married men had engaged in extramari- tal affairs. The 70,000 participants were well-educated city dwellers, and mostly aged below 40 years. Among divorced respondents, 67 percent of males and 56 percent of females admitted they had had an affair before their marriage broke down. Dual Urban-Rural Structure Facing Institutional Reform According to vice minister of Public Se- cur
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