One of the most controversial issues facing Chinese society is the illegal expropriation of farmland. New head of the Ministry of Land and Resources, China's top land watchdog, Xu Shaoshi, has taken a tough stance on this issue stepping into his position in April, and very firmly put his foot down in defense of arable land area from further shrinking and being lost to the real estate mania sweeping the country.

Xu, also the state land inspector general, ordered four local governments to immediately stop illegal land use in the areas of Beijing Municipality, Henan and Yunnan provinces and Dalian City in northeast China's Liaoning Province, on July 12. "Quite a number of governmental departments of city or county level acquiesced, countenanced or even pulled the strings behind deals involving the illegal use of arable land," Xu told Xinhua, the state news agency.

Xu has acknowledged the difficulty in finding a way to protect arable land while at the same time ensuring the supply of land for accelerated urbanization and industrial development, but he is adamant a solution must be found.

According to Xu, the land approval process will be tightened to better utilize the available land. His inspection team will be strengthened to more effectively monitor land use and crack down on illegal land seizures.

A recent national survey shows that China's arable land has dwindled from 130 million hectares in 1996 to 121.8 million hectares, only slightly higher than the government-set minimum reserve requirements of 120 million hectares. The country's per-capita arable land, which stood at 0.093 hectares in 2005, is only 40 percent of the world average. This rapid loss poses a grave threat to food security and agricultural development in China.

Xu suggests that China should use its land in a more efficient way. He revealed that the area of unused construction land in the country is over 260,000 hectares at the moment, while the total area of discarded land across the country is 13 million hectares. "We can see from this that our focus must be on how to make full use of the land, rather than damaging arable areas," the minister said.

"The redline of 120 million hectares of arable land cannot be crossed, no matter what."

Xu Shaoshi, talking tough on National Land Day on June 25 when he called for a conservative land use in the country

"Since per-capita construction land demand in urban areas is less than that in the countryside, urbanization should never proceed at the cost of loss of farmland."

Liu Yunzhou, Deputy Director of the China Land Society

"I have read similar reports on environment and health many times, released by varied research institutes. Every time, the figures are different."

Zhou Jian, Vice Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration, questioning a World Bank report on the lack of a common scientific methodology when concluding that

pollution has caused large premature deaths in China

"Carbon dioxide absorbed by China's forests has risen from 470 million tons in 1990 to more than 500 million tons currently."

Zhu Lieke, Deputy Director of the State Forestry Administration, citing Chinese experts' estimates at a press conference in Beijing on July 17. He revealed that China's forest area has maintained the fastest annual growth rate in the world at 1.2 percent, against a 0.2-percent shrinkage of world forests

"Grassroots organizations committed to HIV/AIDS response and control are better received than the government by high-risk groups and are an

indispensable force in the war against the deadly disease."

Chinese Vice Minister of Health Wang Longde, pledging an

all-inclusive anti-AIDS campaign on July 17 when he received a UNAIDS award acknowledging his leadership in China's fight against the disease

"If global consumer demand remains then Chinese exports will grow. There is not a lot that government policy

can do about that."

Qu Hongbin, a senior economist at HSBC in Hong Kong,

predicting China's astonishingly high trade surplus will expand through the rest of the year due to huge global demand

for Chinese goods

"It wants to revise the rules of the game in the Euro-Atlantic area, written when Russia was weak."

Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the Moscow-based journal Russia

in Global Affairs, commenting on Russia's July 14 decision

to suspend observance of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe arms control treaty, due to what the Kremlin said

are "exceptional circumstances...broaching on the security

of the Russian Federation"

"Our commitment to work with the American government in general and the Bush administration in particular

is resolute."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, telling BBC Television on July 15 that the United States is still Britain's number one ally, amid speculation that London may distance itself from Washington over Iraq