photo: Xinhua

Quotes from around China this week.

“Increasingly, Chinese people are coming to the UK for business reasons and for tourism. If you look at what other countries are doing, they are trying to make it easier for Chinese people to come into the country for those purposes and we are looking to do the same.”
- Statement from British Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman. The Telegraph

"When I was taking my flight, going through the customs ... they also wanted to check me — even taking off my belt and shoes. But I think these checks are necessary."
- Mo Yan, while in Stockholm to pick up his Nobel Prize, compared the necessity of censorship to the necessity for airport security. Yahoo News

“In general we have been fighting yesterday’s corruption. [It is more important for society to fight] tomorrow’s corruption.”
- He Jiahong, a scholar at Renmin University, suggests officials should be given until the end of 2013 to disclose their family assets publicly, and that they get an amnesty for any acts of corruption committed to acquire those assets. The Economist

“I cleaned bottoms and toilets in the care home and for this I had to pay 120,000 yuan. I was so ashamed, I couldn’t tell my family.  I wasn’t able to use my Chinese nursing skills in the UK because you need English qualifications.  I couldn’t progress because the college wouldn’t support me.”
- A Chinese nurse who was cheated by a Chinese agent and a British college. Economic Observer

"Those private hospitals are managing the medical terms on Baidu Baike while they place advertisements. It has turned into a marketing battleground for private hospitals."
- Gong Xiaoming, an associate professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, talks about Baidu Baike (similar to Wikipedia) being easily modified to support unscrupulous medical institutions that advertise on the site. Many terms have been found to have errors. Global Times

“On any level, these ‘external services’ are no less important than their normal work.”
- A lecturer from a special 13-week course at Jiaotong University attended by 21 female mayors. The course focused on improving their governing skills and leadership capacities as well as certain “external services” like tea ceremonies, flower arranging, makeup and “creating a graceful appearance as a female mayor.” Danwei