Quotes from around China this week

“All uses of energy are connected with water. In the past, when there was not a shortage of water resources, people would only think about how much water they needed on the site where they wanted to build a project. Now it’s the other way around. The volume of water available determines how much energy can be developed in a certain place.”
- Lin Boqiang, an energy economist at the University of Xiamen, on China’s growing water shortages. Financial Times

"Let's for now not discuss whether [the Ryukyus] belong to China, they were certainly China's tributary state. I am not saying all former tributary states belong to China, but we can say with certainty that the Ryukyus do not belong to Japan."
- Luo Yuan, a general in the People's Liberation Army, on the island chain that includes Okinawa. The Guardian

“Charismatic Chinese revolutionaries such as Mao Zedong or Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th century which laid waste to much of Southern China, have usually been highly-educated frustrated scholars who felt their talents were not recognized by a corrupt society.”
- Jamil Anderlini of Financial Times.

“40 more years ago, I was a little Red Guard. I scolded and forced a math teacher to labor work with a club that was used to ‘verbally attack and physically defend.’ Sorry, teacher Zhou.”
- One of many netizens who, on the 47^th anniversary of the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, went online to apologize for their deeds during the period. Offbeat China

“China is two-thirds of the intellectual property theft problem, and we are at a point where it is robbing us of innovation to bolster their own industry, at a cost of millions of jobs.”
- Former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman. New York Times

“Most of the reports resulting from problems exposed on the internet came from Party sponsored and managed media. Other domestic new media must at least serve as the eyes and ears of the Party, and as its primary care physician — the information they release must benefit the health of the body of government. As for communications that do malicious harm to the government, no nation on earth will permit these.”
- A commentary in Red Flag Journal. China Media Project