3 . The recent reports of a 4-year-old girl on a Shanghai beach have gone viral on social media platforms, provoking debate about whether China should criminalize negligence in child supervision.

The father of the little girl claimed that he left her alone on the beach for about 12 minutes to fetch his phone. However, she was nowhere to be found when he was back. Surveillance (监控) videos show that she waited for about 10 minutes before walking toward the water’s edge alone, and then disappeared into the water. Two weeks later, her body was discovered about 100 kilometers away in neighboring Zhejiang Province.

The core issue in this case is the father’s leaving his young daughter unattended on the beach, causing her tragic death. Should such behavior, when it causes harm to a child, be seen as a criminal act? In an online survey, more than 90 percent of respondents insisted that the father be held legally responsible and face criminal punishments.

Nevertheless, according to Liu Chunquan, a lawyer, it may not satisfy the criteria for criminal negligence, since the primary focus of Chinese criminal law is on extreme cases of parental neglect, such as physical abuse and mental torture. Rarely do legal authorities charge parents; instead, they are just likely to face penalties consisting of warnings and fines.

In 2022, a 2-year-old baby drowned in a cesspool while in the company of his father. The court ruled shared responsibility between the father and the cesspool’s owner, with a 7:3 proportion. The owner was ordered to pay 20,000 yuan to the child’s family. Unluckily, similar cases do exist nationwide. Roughly, 100,000 children lose their lives in accidents annually in China, which is largely due to negligence, such as parents leaving their children unattended, either in locked cars or at home. Besides, drowning is now the main cause of death for children aged 1 to 14 years old.

It is no wonder that an increasing number of netizens request that specific laws and regulations be passed to ensure the safety of children and their well-being. Hopefully, criminalizing child supervision negligence in China can serve as a warning and precaution.

However, downsides of introducing such legislation may also emerge. For instance, it’s difficult to distinguish between a regrettable accident and criminal negligence, so that over-criminalization can be triggered, in which well-meaning parents making honest mistakes are charged with a crime.

Therefore, a more balanced approach to addressing the issue of infant safety should involve a combination of new legislation, education and support services. The ultimate objective is to prevent similar catastrophes in the future. We must recognize that children are not only their parents’ offspring, but also the nation’s future.

6 . In America’s retirement crisis, women get the short end of the stick. While women have a lifetime to build up their wealth, there are several factors that impact their ability to achieve economic security into retirement.

Retirement is a gender (性别) issue. Wealth is accumulated by saving and long-term investing, but women are at a disadvantage compared with men. A TIAA report found that if two recent college graduates, a man and a woman, want to have the same amount saved for retirement, it would take about 18% of the woman’s salary to equal 10% of the man’s salary. The reasons are simple. Women are usually paid less and tend to receive fewer salary increases. And women usually retire relatively earlier, so this gives them less time to accumulate wealth. Women have longer life expectancy. As a result, they often face financial instability in retirement.

Investing is another issue. While the investing industry would tell you we’re gender-neutral, 99% of investment dollars are managed at companies owned by white men, 98% of mutual (互助) fund dollars are managed by men, 90% of traders are men, and 86% of financial advisors are men. Maybe the reason women aren’t investing as much is that it is dominated by men.

The pandemic has a greater impact on women. Women who are privileged enough to work from home have lost productivity by double-digit percent, while men have gained productivity, like gains of 50%. The promotions that have occurred during the pandemic had gone something like 3-to-1 to men. A large number of women work in industries that have been deeply affected by the pandemic, including hospitality, retail, restaurants and caregiving, occupations that require in-person work. With these businesses having to either lay off employees or temporarily shut down, and with domestic and caretaker responsibilities, many women have opted to leave the workforce altogether.

How can the retirement risks women face be relieved? That’s what the government should take into consideration.

Personal opinion about artificial intelligence

9 . In the United States, immigrants known as “dreamers” are affected by Deferred Action (暂缓遣返) for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).     1     President Trump has attempted to remove their privileges of their stay. The main issue they face is being deported (驱逐) back to the country where they were born.

    2     Personally, I know people who see Donald Trump in very similar ways. I knew a family who came here from another country and had young kids born over there. At that time, Trump was not the president, but the parents feared putting their children under the DACA policy.

The political cartoon shows a child in bed asking, “No monster in tonight, right?” and Trump is inside the closet peeking (窥视) out.     3     Donald Trump is basically saying that there is nothing they should be afraid of. In reality, this affects the public because the political leaders lie to the public most of the time.

In another political cartoon, two kids are standing in front of a door and each says, “whites only” and “no Latinos” along with “new anti-immigrant laws”.

    4     The images have a different message, but at the same time, they show that our nation is affecting children and their futures. It is important to understand that young generations are the future of this world and that what they face in their childhood, will affect their future for better or worse.

    5     They have been proving that they belong to this country. Their communities are also engaged in preventing them from being affected.