Acting Mayor of Shenzhen Named

Wang Rong, former Party chief of Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, was named acting mayor of Shenzhen, southern Guangdong Province, by the city's top legislature on June 12. He replaced Xu Zongheng who was sacked for serious disciplinary violations.

Wang, 51, a Jiangsu native, joined the CPC in 1976. After graduating from the Nanjing Agricultural University with a doctorate in 1988, he served the university as a lecturer. He was vice president of the university before being promoted to president of the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1997. After leading the provincial education department, Wang held several posts in the province's CPC organizations: Party chief of Wuxi in 2001-03 and then of Suzhou since 2004.

Wang pledged to build a clean and efficient government after his appointment was approved.

Self-defense Killer Freed

Deng Yujiao, a woman accused of stabbing an official to death and injuring another in self-defense in an alleged sexual assault on May 10, was exonerated by a local court of Badong County, central China's Hubei Province, on June 16.

The 21-year-old Deng, charged with intentional injury, was a waitress at the Xiongfeng Hotel in the county's Yesanguan Town. A group of local officials visited the hotel on May 10, where Deng Guida, head of Yesanguan's business promotion office, and his colleague Huang Dezhi, tried to have sex with Deng Yujiao. They continued to badger Deng Yujiao and insult her after she refused. It was not until Deng Guida pushed her onto a sofa that the annoyed woman fought back with a fruit knife, killing 44-year-old Deng Guida and injuring Huang.

The court ruled Deng's case as excessive self-defense, which deserves leniency under the Criminal Law. In consideration of Deng's plight and the fact that she has been diagnosed as being mentally imbalanced, along with her surrender to the police, she was freed after trial.

'Angel' Investor Arrested

A noted Chinese 'angel' investor, leading private equity owner, Liu Xiaoren, was arrested on June 10 for alleged fraud involving 215 million yuan ($31.62 million), said local police in Deqing County, east China's Zhejiang Province.

Liu, 45, Chairman of Holding Venture Capital Co. Ltd., started the company with four other partners with 30 million yuan ($4.41 million) in 2006.

The venture capitalist borrowed money by promising creditors high interest rates and revenues from investment returns on Internet companies and startup funds but failed to repay it, resulting in the collapse of his Ponzi scheme.

"Export growth is unlikely to rebound in the short run and it will be difficult to realize the 8-percent target for foreign trade growth this year."

Vice Premier Li Keqiang, telling a meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's top political advisory body, on June 16

"It's about raising the public awareness of democratic ideas—accountability, transparency, citizens' rights to participate, that the government should serve the people."

Xiao Qiang, a journalism professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who tracks China's Internet activity, commenting on Deng Yujiao's case

"No currency system can be successful if we have financial instruments denominated in just one currency. We must strengthen the international financial system not only by making the dollar strong, but also by creating other reserve currencies."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, calling for a more diversified international monetary system at the first BRIC summit

"Netanyahu will not find any Palestinian to talk to under the conditions he imposed on the creation of the Palestinian statehood."

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator for Middle East peace, rejecting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conditions on the creation of the Palestinian statehood. Netanyahu said in a speech on June 14 that Israel would endorse a demilitarized Palestinian state

"We are called upon to put in place those reforms that allow our best qualities to flourish—while keeping those worst traits in check."

U.S. President Barack Obama, when unveiling the biggest financial reforms in the country since the 1930s on June 17