People In the Know

The Spring Festival is the most important holiday in China. It has become almost a ritual for people to travel back home each year, no matter where they are, for a family get-together. This has created an immense travel rush during this period of time. But recently, the Spring Festival has also become a time for people to travel with their families. Figures from China's tourism authorities show that the number of tourists who traveled within China during the Spring Festival reached more than 300 million. This excludes a fast-growing number of people who went to travel overseas. So how do experts evaluate this year's Spring Festival tourism season? And what about the Spring Festival travel rush? Zheng Chenguang speaks to Dr. Wei Xiang, an expert specializing in the management and economics of tourism, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing and Mike Bastin, Senior Lecturer at Southampton Solent University in the UK.

The phenomenon of mass migration from China's towns and villages into the big cities has been well documented over recent years, as have issues surrounding the children these workers often have to leave behind. China's State Council has now introduced guidelines aimed at protecting those children who have been left behind in rural areas by one or both parents.So, what are the biggest challenges facing migrant workers' children? What are the key features of the new guidelines? And will they be enough to address this challenging situation? For more on this topic, Nick Lanigan and Zheng Chenguang spoke to Ron Pouwels, Chief of Child Protection at UNICEF China, and Zai Liang, Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Albany.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has pledged further "strong" measures against North Korea. Park made the comment in a speech to parliament on Tuesday.This comes after South Korea suspended operations at a jointly-run industrial park, in a bid to punish the North for its recent long-range rocket launch and nuclear test.Park said the suspension of the Kaesong industrial zone is only the start of a series of actions to be taken together with the international community. Meanwhile, as part of a defense plan, Seoul has agreed to enter into talks with Washington about deploying a missile defense system in South Korea, which is strongly opposed by China.So why are we seeing such a reversal in the South Korean president's attitude toward her northern neighbor? Is it time for the major international players to take a different approach to addressing the predicament on the Korean peninsula? For more on this topic, Liu Kun and Brian Kopczynski had a conversation with Tong Kim, Washington Correspondent and Columnist for The Korea Times, and Xie Tao, Professor of American Studies from Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Data show Japan's economy contracted an annualised 1.4 percent in the final quarter of last year. The GDP contraction was bigger than a market forecast of a 1.2 percent decline.This comes as consumer spending slumped in Japan, and exports to emerging markets have failed to gain momentum.However, while commenting on the fall, government spokesman Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga insisted that overall, things remained positive. Last month the Bank of Japan unexpectedly cut a benchmark interest rate below zero to try to stimulate the economy.The shock move has thus far failed to boost Tokyo stock prices or weaken the yen.So how serious is the economic contraction to Japan? What other policies can be produced from the Japanese government's toolbox to prop up the economy? To answer those questions and more, we spoke to Dr. Joshua Hausman, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics, University of Michigan, Paul Gillis, Professor of accounting from Guanghua School of Management, Peking University and Cao Can, CEO of Shengya Capital.

The U.S. and North Korea need to formally end 76 years of hostility if the international community wants North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to stop developing nuclear weapons. That was the view expressed by Fu Ying at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.Fu chairs the foreign-affairs committee of China's National People's Congress. She said North Korea and the U.S. have been in an extended cease-fire instead of having made peace, and the two need to enter a more normal relationship.On February 7th, North Korea launched a long-range rocket, just weeks after conducting a fourth nuclear test.So is it possible for the US and North Korea to achieve friendly relations? What will it take to bring the country back to the negotiation table? And how can the major outsiders, China and the US, cooperate on eliminating the nuclear threat from the Korean peninsula? To find out more, Brian Kopczynski and Tu Yun spoke to Yang Xiyu, senior research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies, and Rick Dunham, Co-director of the Global Business Journalism Program, Tsinghua University.