Business Week has published a long report about the epidemic of suicide in China: “By now, readers of BusinessWeek are no doubt accustomed to seeing articles touting China as the new economic superpower that’s leading the world in this or that. Biggest cell-phone population. Fastest-growing Internet population. Manufacturing mecca. Favorite location for foreign direct investment. The list goes on and on. But here’s one tag the Chinese government could do without: China, suicide center.” The full story is here.
China Daily also reported about the high suicide levels among rural women in China. Quoting a recent study, the article says, “among the 24 surveyed hospitals in China, 14,334 suicidal cases were recorded by emergency rooms between 1990 and last year, in which 72 per cent were from rural areas. And 71 per cent of these cases were women.” Read the full article here. Another article profiles Xu Rong, who runs a suicide prevention organization in Hebei Province.
Meanwhile, a recent study conducted by Berkeley professor Teh-wei Hu, found that lost productivity due to depression costs China 30 billion yuan a year.
