Outstanding Minister

Emerging Markets magazine has named Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren Asia's Finance Minister of the Year.

Xie, 62, assumed his current post in August 2007. He began to work at the Ministry of Finance in 1990 and was appointed vice minister of finance in March 1995. In 1998, he became president of the Agricultural Development Bank of China, a policy lender. Starting in March 2003, Xie served as minister of the State Administration of Taxation until he was transferred back to the Ministry of Finance.

Emerging Markets believes that the quick and proactive fiscal policies China has implemented in the past year have boosted economic growth and made contributions to global economic recovery.

Emerging Markets is part of London-based Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc., an international publishing, events and electronic information group.

Academic Leader

Rao Zihe, President of Tianjin-based Nankai University, was awarded the Outstanding Academic Leadership prize on October 7 at the World Hi-Tech Forum 2009 in London.

Rao, 59, a molecular biophysicist and structural biologist, received his Ph.D in protein crystallography from Melbourne University in 1989 and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Oxford University, from 1989 to 1996. He won the 2006 Trieste Science Prize for deciphering the first crystal structure of the coronavirus, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome. His findings provide a potential framework for the design of drugs against the epidemic disease that killed nearly 800 people worldwide in 2003.

Rao was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003 and a fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World in 2004. He began to serve as president of Nankai University in May 2006.

The aim of the World Hi-Tech Forum, which is organized by the British Institute of Technology and E-commerce, is to bring the global community together to facilitate technological and business partnerships. China is the "focus country" of this year's session.

Campus Corruption

Wuhan University, in central China's Hubei Province, has confirmed the arrest of Chen Zhaofang (left) and Long Xiaole, its third-and fourth-ranking officials, for their alleged involvement in one of the worst corruption scandals in the country's higher education sector.

According to a statement on Wuhan University's official website, they have been removed from their posts. Before their fall, Chen and Long oversaw the university's financial affairs and logistics.

Local media reports said that Chen and Long had allegedly accepted millions of dollars in bribes for the university's building projects.

Chen, 59, had served as vice president of Wuhan University since 1994. Long, 61, was appointed the university's deputy Party secretary in 2005.

Wuhan University, founded in 1893, has more than 5,000 faculty members and 45,000-odd students.

"It is more important than ever before that the media should establish and uphold social responsibilities."

Chinese President Hu Jintao, calling on world media organizations to contribute to a harmonious world at the opening ceremony of the World Media Summit in Beijing on October 9

"When we reflect on China's last 60 years, reflect by all means on how far they have to go. But spare a thought for how far they have come. And then figure out how we can help."

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his article "China's New Cultural Revolution" in The Wall Street Journal on October 9

"The signature of the protocols confirms the desire of both Turkey and Armenia to turn a page and build a new future."

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, in a statement issued after Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark peace accord on October 10 to restore ties and open their shared border after a century of hostility stemming from the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War I

"Love the dude, but all he's done on the peace side of things is make a few nice speeches and not go to war with anyone else."

Ibrahim Assem, a portfolio manager at a London-based equity firm in Cairo, on U.S. President Barack Obama winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize

"The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe. We have to make sure that all countries understand that in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower."

Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union, during the Telecom World 2009 fair in Geneva