Quotes from around China this week. 

“I have no demands. I’ll accept any woman I can find.”
- 24-year-old Wu Jinsong ofLowerQiantan, Hunan Province. In his village there are reportedly 80 single men over the age of 18, and not one single woman to court. The Globe and Mail

“A journalist called to ask me to comment on today’s macroeconomic figures. I’d have to be crazy to truthfully comment on false figures. That Gini coefficient, to use the words of Zheng Yuanjie, ‘no-one would even dare to write a fairy tale like that.’”
- Xu Xiaonian, a professor of finance and economics at the China Europe International Business School. Data recently released by the Chinese government suggests that China has income inequality roughly equivalent to that of the United States and that the gap is shrinking. New York Times 

"With regard to regional security, I reiterated longstanding American policy on the Senkaku Islands and our treaty obligations. As I’ve said many times before, although the United States does not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands, we acknowledge they are under the administration of Japan and we oppose any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration and we urge all parties to take steps to prevent incidents and manage disagreements through peaceful means."
- United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. These remarked enraged the Chinese government, which promptly responded with the suggestion that Clinton is ignorant of the history of the conflict. The Guardian

"It reminds me of a quote from 'The Night of the Generals’ that went something like 'What is admirable on a grand scale is abhorrent on a small scale.' "
-CNN reader Davidji, referring to the controversial story of the US programmer who personally outsourced his work to China and spent his work days watching cat videos online. CNN

"During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had such 'rules of the game' to avoid a possible conflict. We can learn a lesson from their experience."
-Shotaro Yachi, a former senior diplomat now advising Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on foreign policy, refers to the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute and its escalation. Reuters

“While there has been much attention paid to China’s rapid economic rise and growing international clout, two other scenarios have been overlooked: domestic revolution and foreign war. There are many serious problems in China that could trigger a major crisis, including slowing economic growth, widespread social unrest, rampant official corruption, vicious elite infighting, and heightened Chinese nationalism in the wake of escalated tensions over territorial disputes with Japan and some Southeast Asian countries. This suggests that your administration should not easily dismiss the possibility that revolution or war might occur.”
-The Brookings Institution’s recently published presidential briefing book entitled “Big Bets and Black Swans.”