A State Council routine meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao discussed and approved in principle the Opinions of the State Council on Solving Housing Difficulties for Urban Low-Income Families. Relevant policies on adjustment of basic pensions for corporate retirees were also discussed.

Aug 2
The Ministry of Education launched the "Plan of Supporting the Training of Xinjiang Primary and Middle School Teachers", which was one of the three major plans of the Ministry of Education to train teachers in western and minority areas during this summer vacation. More than 1,000 core teachers in Xinjiang would attend this 10-day state-level training.

Aug 8
The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) held a regular press conference this morning. According to Yan Jiangying, the spokeswoman of the SFDA, the Administration had begun to research and implement a "Project of Building Infrastructure of Food and Drug Supervision System". China will invest 8.8 billion yuan (around 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) to this project, of which, 6.3 billion will come from the central government and the rest from the local government.

Aug 13
China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) held a forum on launching a judicial assistance program for the courts of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Jiang Xingchang, vice president of the SPC, said Xinjiang faced a more complicated situation than other areas. The SPC agreed to launch an assistance program, in which judges from other provinces will be dispatched to Xinjiang, and judiciary staff from Xinjiang Courts will go to other provinces for training. More funds and judicial facilities will be given to the courts of Xinjiang, so as to improve local courts' capacity and maintain sustainable economic and social development.

Aug 15
Hu Xiaoyi, vice minister of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security released that more than 26 million migrant workers had been covered by the health insurance for special and severe illness. And according to this year's plan, the number will exceed 30 million.

Wen Jiabao, premier of the State Council, chaired a routine meeting of the State Council to research and deploy the disaster resistance and relief work.

Aug 16-17
The National symposium on Management and Service Work for the Floating Population was held in Dalian, Liaoning Province.

Aug 20
Co-sponsored by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, the Ministry of Justice and the National Office for Law Popularization, the "Teenager Road Traffic Safety Online Knowledge Competition" kicked off today, marking the official start-up of the 4th National Teenager Online Law Popularization Knowledge Competition.

Aug 22
Shanghai Internet Addicted Teenagers Camp was launched officially. 22 teenagers, with their parents, would receive 10 days of special correction training. This was the first movement to get rid of internet addiction by the method of interaction between parents and children.

Aug 23
China's State Council held a teleconference on specialized rectification of national products quality and food security.

Aug 24
Sponsored by China Ageing Development Foundation, the charity project called "Caring for the Senior, Macrobian China" was started up in Beijing.

Aug 24-25
The National Conference on Urban Housing was held in Beijing. Zeng Peiyan, Vice Premier of the State Council attended and addressed the meeting. He indicated that housing was an important issue of people's livelihood, so local governments should take active measures to strengthen the construction of low-rent housing system and solve the housing problem of urban low-income families. Housing structure should be further adjusted, housing price should be stabilized and healthy development of real estate market should be promoted, he said.

Aug 27
According to Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the State Council newly established a national leading group to address product quality and safety issues. The group is headed by vice premier Wu yi, who called for an integrated quality monitoring network across the country, covering product design, raw materials, processing, sales and service.

Aug 28
Dong Yunhu, Vice President and Secretary-General of China Society for Human Rights Studies met the Hungarian human rights delegation headed by Lstvan Lakatos, Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Organizations and Human Rights affairs under the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.

Aug 28
To protect legal rights and interests of consumers and business operators, State Development and Reform Commission recently emended the Provisions on the Administrative Punishment of Price-related Violations and submitted it to the State Council for deliberation. 

Aug 29
China's Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and state Development Bank jointly held a signing and launching ceremony for a pilot project. Administrative regions that signed on the agreement will provide credit loan for students from their own regions. The first batch of five provinces and municipalities were approved to take the leading in doing so. They are Gansu, Jiangsu, Hubei, Chongqing and shaanxi.

Aug 30
China's top legislature approved the Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of China this afternoon.