Highlighting rural China's "barefoot" social workers

Source: China Daily

The young girl talking on stage appeared nervous, but her wordsattested to the impact that a social worker has had in turning her life around.

"My new aunt helped me a lot in study and daily life," Cun Xiangliu told the audience at aforum held in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss rural social work, an under-developed fieldin China but one which is getting increasing attention.

The "aunt" is Ban Xiaolian, one member of a small army of "barefoot social workers," aninformal position tasked with providing a safety net of childhood welfare in the vast andunder-resourced Chinese countryside. Ban is involved with a project that has designated asocial worker in 120 pilot villages across China.

Based in Jinghan, of Longchuan County in China's southwestern Yunnan Province, Ban firstmet Cun in 2010. She found the youngster of the Dai ethnicity to be quiet, some timesdepressed, living a desperately harsh life.

Cun's mother has HIV. Her parents divorced and both left home, leaving behind twochildren and their sick grandfather.

"HIV is a stigma. Other villagers, even their relatives, stayed away from them," explained Ban. More…

19/05/2014

GlaxoSmithKline China Accused of Tax Evasion Via AIDS Treatment

Source: international business times

A Chinese newspaper has accused GlaxoSmithKline's China unit of evading £9.53m in taxes in its HIV treatment protocols, mounting pressure on Britain's largest pharma company which is already battling corruption charges against its executives in China.

A report in the Legal Daily newspaper, run by the ruling Communist Party's Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, said GSK deliberately imported Lamivudine, a drug used to treat HIV and hepatitis, at a higher cost.

Along with using tax loopholes for charitable donations, this helped GSK "avoid over 100m yuan (£9.53m, $16m, €11.7m) in import value-added tax and corporate income tax," the report said.

The Legal Daily report followed accusations by state-run press agency Xinhua that GSK used transfer pricing to artificially reduce its profits and tax expenses in China, reported Reuters.