Chinese man smiling
Photo: Science Photo Library

The top numbers and quotes making the news Monday Mar. 12, 2012.

“Easing inflation and weakening economic activity send a strong signal for further loosening in the upcoming months.”
Shen Jianguang, Hong Kong-based economist for Mizhou Securities Asia Ltd. 
Bloomberg

70 percent
...of China’s eleven-billion-dollar publishing industry comes from its textbook trade. 
The NewYorker

“Most foreign people simply don’t understand ordinary Chinese.”
Eric Li, Harvard alum, venture capitalist working in New York and Tokyo
China Daily Show

0.46
China has exceeded the .4 mark of the Gini coefficient, a predictor indicating the income gap, points out clear social disturbances in society today. 
Bloomberg

“When the public hospitals, which are the mainstay of the provision for health care in China, are for-profit institutions, they will use every possible means to get money out of the patients or the insurance, so the insurance fund is going to have a tough time to sustain itself.”
William Hsiao, economics professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health
WSJ

9 percent
...of the central government’s fiscal revenues come from the state monopoly and tobacco taxes annually. 
Tiger Head, Snake Tails by Jonathan Fenby

 
“First and foremost, we want to make sure that the public is not being misinformed. Saceur and Nato have made significant policy announcements on either the Twitter or Facebook feed, which reflects Nato keeping pace with social media. It is important the public has trust in our social media.”
Nato Official in response to recent suspicions
The Guardian