Photo: Aftermath of the Jilin fire that killed 120

Quotes from around China this week

“It’s nothing. Global Times has such a large circulation. Its website is the largest besides the People’s Daily. Confidence helps people maintain their manners.”
- Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin on a Xi’an reporter refusing to listen to man’s story after learning he worked at Global Times. South China Morning Post

"Even though at times, for many reasons, mistresses are led by fallings out with corrupt officials to denounce them, at the root of the issue, both their motives are the same - to satisfy each other's greed."
- A People’s Daily editorial arguing that mistresses can’t be relied on to bust graft. Reuters

"We have received credible information that the nine young North Korean defectors were subsequently returned to [North Korea] via China. We are dismayed … especially given the vulnerability of this group, all of whom are reported to be orphans."
- Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. Shanghaiist

"I don't think safety was being managed properly. This should never happen again. They paid the price with their blood. So many of these big disasters in China are caused by lax supervision."
- Zhao Zhenchun, who lost both his wife and his sister in the Jilin chicken processing plant fire that killed 120. Reuters

"No matter how much we talk about this, they won't compensate us. So we don't talk about it anymore."
- Shu Qichang, who tried to sue a factory in the early 2000s for polluting his village of Dongxing – one of China’s 459 “cancer villages.” The Guardian

"We have mountains of [hacking] data, if we wanted to accuse the U.S., but it's not helpful in solving the problem." 
- Huang Chengqing, director of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China. Reuters