Quotes from around China this week

“The biggest [competitive] advantages young people have are on the internet, but the internet at Chinese schools is even slower than the internet elsewhere, and some content is missing too. China’s internet is already censored, if the schools make it even slower and even more censored, how much competitiveness is left? If the youth aren’t better than us, is there any hope for this country? Such simple logic should be easy to understand. Perhaps I’m just out of touch.”
- Youmi founder Wang Lifen. Tech in Asia

“THIS is how wars usually start: with a steadily escalating stand-off over something intrinsically worthless.”
- Hugh White on the possibility of a war involving China, Japan and the US over the Diaoyu Islands. Sydney Morning Herald

“The education at school always instills the idea that Japanese are evil people and if you turn on the television most of the programs are about the anti-Japanese war. How can we possibly not resent the Japanese?”
- Yang Shuilan, mother of the man who was arrested in September for beating a Toyota-driving Chinese compatriot with a bicycle lock. Financial Times

“Something has shifted. In the past, it might take 10 days for an official involved in a sex scandal to lose his job. This time he was gone in 66 hours.”
- Zhu Ruifeng, a Beijing journalist who has exposed more than a hundred cases of alleged corruption, on the fall of Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu. New York Times

“May the King of Peace turn his gaze to the new leaders of the People’s Republic of China for the high task which awaits them. I express my hope that in fulfilling this task, they will esteem the contribution of the religions, in respect for each, in such a way that they can help to build a fraternal society for the benefit of that noble people and of the whole world.”
-Pope Benedict XVI. New York Times

“[China and India’s] ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse.”
- The Economist on the quiet decline in yields of some of the world’s staple crops.