Lawmakers, advisers active on microblog

Cartoon by Wang Xiaoying/cartoon.chinadaily.com.cn

BEIJING - Amid China's microblog boom, a growing number of national lawmakers and political advisors have opened verified real-name microblogs to stay in touch with the country's estimated 260 million microbloggers.

Following are daily highlights from their microblogs, which are most active during the ongoing annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, the top political advisory body.

----Zong Qinghou, a NPC deputy, chairman of China's beverage giant the Wahaha Group and the country's richest person according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2012, said in his first post since the beginning of the two sessions:

"I think it's a misunderstanding for media reports to say I have less sense of happiness than my staff. What I meant is that I don't consume or enjoy as much as them, but I am very happy because I lead a fulfilling and valuable life."

----Han Deyun, a NPC deputy and lawyer from Chongqing, is a long-time advocate for making public assets of government officials. He denied a microblog post which said 99.99 percent of his fellow deputies voted against his proposal for that:

"In fact, I have not met any NPC deputies from Chongqing or other delegations who said they are against the proposal. Although such a system will not be introduced soon, the concept of publicizing officials' assets are beginning to take hold in the public. It will undoubtedly become a consensus."

----Yu Xuewen, a NPC deputy and a farmer-turned-entrepreneur, tried to bring attention to an often-neglected issue in China's vast countryside:

"There are no public cemeteries or plans for building them in many villages and towns. Bodies of the deceased are now usually cremated, but their tombs have grown increasingly bigger. Many elders are not well attended to when they are alive, yet no resources are spared into building luxurious tombs for them when they die. Beautiful mountain slopes are now dotted with tombs and households nearby in fear of ghosts are forced to relocate."

----Zhang Xiaomei, a polical advisor and newspaper publisher, said central heating should not be exclusive to people in north China:

"I know the climate in the south very well, for at the age of four, I left with my parents to live in Sichuan (a southern Chinese province) as they were there in military service. I believe many people will share this feeling with me that it's tougher to live through the winter in the south than in the north. Now many households in the south depend on air-conditioners for heating, which is energy-consuming but not potently warming."

She said extending central heating, currently only available in north China, will also help save energy.