Topic 1: On Feb 20, Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to keep property price controls in place - such as curbs on the purchase of residential housing for investment purposes and by expanding the scope of a trial property tax. The pledges were named "guowutiao", or "five points from the State Council" in China's media. At the same time, around three-quarters of China's major cities saw price rises for both new and pre-owned housing in January, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday. The average price growth rate among the cities was 4.7 percent, up from last month's 2.4 percent, the NBS figures revealed.

Li Wenjie: The guowutiao is less stringent than previously expected. The government is just shouting upstairs but we did not see the landing of another shoe. We did not see any rhetoric regarding returning to reasonable house prices, which was included in the previous announcement. This may mean the government's target is actually stable and slight growth for prices. So if you want to buy a house, hurry up.

Mao-Jack: The government's "adjust and control" only increased the buying cost of those who want to buy a house for owner-occupier purposes. And the expectation of further government curbs only disappointed those potential home buyers and caused them to miss the best time to buy.

Orvibo: The nation's economy has been hijacked by the housing market for a long time. The "adjust and control" policies did not have any effect. Don't those decision makers know where the fundamental problem is?

Jihao: Let house prices rise. I don't care because I cannot afford to buy any way.

Topic 2: Foxconn Technology Group has halted recruitment at one of its key plants in Shenzhen owing to plans to further automate its production processes. A spokesman for the company, which makes various kinds of Apple products including the iPhone and iPad, said it had been on a steady course for a while to replace manpower with robotic systems. Foxconn operates a network of factories across the Chinese mainland, employing 1.2 million people.

Tianyuandifang: If labor costs continue to rise and Foxconn is forced to replace humans with robots, how does one solve the question of employment for migrant workers? I'm worried.

Jiachen: robots are good. They can work long hours and won't jump to their deaths.

Huarunwanjia: Foxconn chose to use robots not because robots would not jump from the building. It is because robots are more suitable for Foxconn. This is the only way to save itself in the face of rising labor costs on China's mainland.

All the information is from Sina Weibo

(China Daily 02/25/2013 page14)