Quotes from around China this week

“Western anti-China forces led by the United States have joined in one after the other, and colluded with dissidents within the country to make slanderous attacks on us in the name of so-called press freedom and constitutional democracy. They are trying to break through our political system, and this was a classic example.”
- Zhang Guangdong, a propaganda official in Lianyungang, on the Southern Weekly protests in January. New York Times

“If my well-being has been bartered for my father’s acquiescence or my mother’s further cooperation, then the verdict will clearly carry no moral weight.”
- Bo Guagua, the son of Bo Xilai. New York Times

“China has too big a government, with too much power, and everything relies on the government. Those who can, rely on officials; those who can’t, swindle. ”
- Zhang Ming, a political science professor at Renmin University. Washington Post

"Our red nation will never change color."
- President Xi Jinping. Washington Post

"Frankly, our legal system stalled 30 years ago and has not progressed since the time of the Gang of Four. The problems now are the same as then – the system is not separate from the Communist Party.’’
- Zhang Sizhi, the lawyer who represented Jiang Qing, Mao’s widow, in her 1980 trial. LA Times

“I can’t tolerate that my name, Wang Xuemei, is confused with an organization producing such ridiculous and irresponsible forensic conclusions.”
- Wang Xuemei, a leading female forensic scientist, in announcing she was quitting as vice president of the Chinese Forensic Medicine Association. Wang contends that forensics show the death of Ma Yue wasn’t an accident, as her colleagues officially pronounced it was. Tea Leaf Nation