英语角-圆桌会议 RoundTable1030 - 中国需要国服吗？

Topic1 Pension replacement rate low China is getting older year by year since 2000. As we enter an ageing society, do today's retirees have sufficient income to meet their needs? And will you and I have the appropriate pension to maintain our current lifestyle when we retire? Experts are saying without savings of at least one million Yuan, don't even think about a comfortable retirement life.

How bad is the pension trouble now? Is the pension replacement rate a good indicator of the situation?

Topic2 Height Discrimination When two security guards in Dalian get their first month's paycheck earlier this year, they question why each receives different amounts for identical work. The company responds by saying that it's because one man was 5cm taller than the other.

This is from an article on Economist, which focuses on the employment discrimination over height in China.

Is it a common problem?

Topic3 China to end salt monopoly in 2016China's top economic planner has mapped out a timetable to phase out the country's ironclad control on the salt market and therefore allowing social capital to enter the market.

China Salt Industry Association has revealed that the National Development and Reform Commission has given the green light to a reform plan to abolish a 2000-year-old system of holding exclusive rights to produce and sell salt.

How big is the change?

Topic4 Affordability Index of World's Big Cities Shanghai is even more costly than Paris, New York and London for young people working and living there. This is the finding of an affordability index that ranks 25 of the world's biggest cities in terms of affordability for the youth.

Is the index reliable?

Topic5 National Outfit Japanese have kimono, Indians have sari, but we Chinese don't have anything as an equivalent.

At a symposium that is recently held in Beijing, experts have a heated debate on whether or not China should have its own national outfit.

Do we need a national outfit?