Ministerial Transition

(ZHAO PENG)

Former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Guangya has been appointed minister of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council. He replaces 68-year-old Liao Hui, who had headed the office since 1997.

Wang, 60, has been in diplomatic service for 30 years. He was first named vice minister of foreign affairs in 1999 and from 2003 to 2008, he served as China's permanent representative to the UN. Since completing his UN tenure, he had served as the vice minister of foreign affairs, responsible for executive affairs and policy planning.

Wang used to be involved in Hong Kong affairs as a member of the Committee for Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

Wang studied at the Student Center of British Council, Wales Atlantic United College and the London School of Economics in the UK from 1972 to 1975. He completed advanced studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1982.

The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council is an organ assisting the premier with affairs relevant to Hong Kong and Macao. It was established in 1978.

Armless Pianist

Armless piano player Liu Wei won the China's Got Talent final in Shanghai on October 10.

The 23-year-old Beijinger moved audiences with his performance of You're Beautiful—singing and using only his toes to play the piano.

"At least I have a pair of perfect legs," he told judges in the nationally televised show.

Liu lost his arms at 10 in an electrical accident. He won two gold medals at the National Swimming Championship for the Disabled in 2002. After giving up swimming due to physical problems, though, he began his music studies at 19, and taught himself to play the piano with his toes.

At the awards ceremony, Taiwan singer Jolin Tsai invited Liu to be a guest performer on her world tour. He will also perform in Las Vegas for three months and may receive a performance contract with Fremantle Media and Sony Music Entertainment.

Powerful Woman

Sun Yafang, Chairwoman of China's largest telecom equipment maker, Huawei Technologies, ranks 90th on Forbes magazine's 2010 list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. She is the only one on the list from the Chinese mainland.

Forbes magazine's citation says Sun, nicknamed "the market killer," leads the way at Huawei during a time when telecommunications are making a seismic shift from West to East.

Sun, 54, joined Huawei in 1992 and became chairwoman in 1998, overseeing marketing, research and development, and human resources. She also represents Huawei in the business community and communicates Huawei's overseas development and corporate commitments with government officials and state dignitaries around the globe.

Sun is credited with having spearheaded management reforms that have helped transform Huawei into a multinational and a leading vendor in the telecom industry. The achievement put her in prime position to succeed Huawei founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei.

"The Chinese philosophy holds balance as relative, while imbalance is absolute. According to the theory, the existence of economic imbalance in the world, which can be adjusted by market mechanisms, is no strange thing."

Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China, on world economic imbalance at a media briefing during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, D.C. on October 8

"Although half of China's backward production capacity will be eliminated during the five years from 2006 to 2010, there is still a long way to go before our conventional industries can be upgraded."

Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, in an interview with Xinhua News Agency. Li said China was expected to achieve its target of a 20-percent cut in energy use per 10,000 yuan ($1,500) of GDP during the same five-year period

"Since it was not a natural disaster, but manmade, it won't be the taxpayer who foots the bill, but those who caused the damage."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, telling lawmakers on October 11 the government was moving to place MAL Hungarian Aluminium Production & Trade Zrt. under state control and freeze its assets after its dam burst on October 4, causing the country's worst-ever chemical accident

"Before they are heroes, they are victims. These people who are coming out of the mine are different people."

Sergio Gonzalez, psychologist at the University of Santiago, on the extreme challenges the 33 Chilean miners will face after more than two months deep underground. The final stage of the rescue operation completed on October 13

"The Afghan civilians used to think of this anniversary as a day that they got their freedom from a cruel government. But day by day...the people have stopped believing that."

Mohammad Saber Fahim, an Afghan journalist, on October 7, the ninth anniversary of the start of U.S.-led war in Afghanistan

"The index for hunger in the world remains at a level characterized as 'serious.'"

The annual Global Hunger Index report, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute and other aid groups, which says 29 countries show alarming levels of hunger and more than a billion people were hungry in 2009

"I never was one, even on the basis of the earthly definition of a saint as a sinner who keeps trying."

Former South African President Nelson Mandela refusing the label of "saint" in his new memoir Conversations with Myself