Liu was removed from the post of vice mayor of Beijing in June 2006 and was axed from the Communist Party of China at the end of the year.

"I strongly advocate making great efforts to pursue transgenic engineering. The recent food shortages around the world have further strengthened my belief (in it)."

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in his recent interview with Bruce Alberts, Editor in Chief of the Science magazine of the United States

"This is not only a big step forward for China in opening up to the outside world, for the foreign journalists it's also a big step."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, at an October 17 press conference where he announced the Chinese Government's decision to ease restrictions on foreign journalists' reporting activities in China

"We must recognize that China's growth is an opportunity for U.S. companies and consumers, for our producers, exporters and investors. A stable, prosperous and peaceful China is in the best interest of the Chinese people, the American people and the rest of the world."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, addressing the annual gala of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in New York on October 21

"The IMF has agreed that rich countries must use all possible tools to deal with the crises, but its only plan for the poorest countries is to offer them small amounts of money, loaded with conditions."

Marita Hutjes, senior policy advisor at Oxfam International, an international anti-poverty organization

"Even bankers and managers are now reading Das Kapital to try to understand what they've been doing to us. Marx is definitely ‘in' right now."

Joern Schuetrumpf, Managing Director of academic publisher Karl-Dietz-Verlag in Germany, saying that Karl Marx's 1867 critical analysis of capitalism, Das Kapital, has become a best-seller in the country after the global financial crisis