Envoy to U.S.

(HOU JUN)

Zhang Yesui, China's new Ambassador to the United States, arrived in Washington, D.C. to take up his post on March 14.

Zhang is the ninth top Chinese diplomat in the United States since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979. He replaced Zhou Wenzhong.

Zhang, 56, has been in the diplomatic service for 34 years and is known as a specialist in multilateral diplomacy. Before his latest appointment, he had been China's Permanent Representative to the UN since 2008. Between 2003 and 2008, Zhang was vice minister of foreign affairs, whose areas of responsibility included policy research, Africa, Europe, North America and Oceania affairs, arms control and disarmament, international treaties and law.

Zhang had also served as director general of the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and assistant minister of foreign affairs. He studied at London School of Economics between 1975 and 1976.

Zhang's wife, Chen Naiqing, was the former Ambassador to Norway and special envoy on Korean Peninsula affairs.

Woman of Fortune

(CFP)

Wu Yajun was named the richest woman on the Chinese mainland by Forbes magazine. Wu and her family ranked 232nd on the publication's newest list of the world's richest billionaires, with estimated net worth of $3.9 billion, which was the sixth largest for Chinese mainlanders who made the list.

Wu is President of Chongqing-based Longfor Properties in southwest China and holds a 46.9-percent stake in the company. At the end of last November, Longfor Properties raised $3.38 billion in the largest initial public offering by a Chinese mainland real estate developer in Hong Kong in the year.

Wu, 46, started her business in 1993, after working in a Chongqing newspaper for six years as reporter and editor. She founded Longfor Properties in 1995, which centers on the development of high-end residential projects.

Referee Without Integrity

(NEWSPHOTO)

Lu Jun, the first Chinese soccer referee to officiate at the World Cup finals and the Olympic tournament, was arrested on corruption charges along with two other internationally experienced referees. The Chinese Football Association confirmed on March 12.

Local media said Lu accepted huge amounts of money to fix matches when he was in active service.

Lu, 50, started his refereeing career at the age of 19 and qualified as an international referee in 1991. He supervised more than 200 matches of China's top soccer league before retiring in early 2005. Lu made his Olympic debut at the 2000 Games in Sydney. In 2002, he refereed two group stage matches at the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan.

Lu was crowned Asian Referee of the Year in 1998 and 2004. Between 2006 and 2007, he was a member of the Referees Committee of the Asian Football Confederation, the governing body of Asian football.

"Our future and China's future are linked together."

David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary, during his recent China visit

"The reality is that America's 'weak dollar' policy—its long-standing practice of allowing its currency to depreciate in order to lower the value of its foreign debts—amounts to the biggest currency manipulation in human history."

Liam Halligan, chief economist at UK's Prosperity Capital Management, saying that the United States has a history of currency manipulation in an article on Daily Telegraph newspaper on March 13

"We do not agree that China wants only to get resources from Africa. When the West tells us that China is only after African resources, sometimes we remind them that they themselves have been after African resources."

John Kayode Shinkaiye, chief of staff at the Bureau of the African Union Chairman

"I'm really pleased with the fact the international community and the United States now have a realization of the side that is trying to obstruct the peace process."

Saeb Erekat, Palestinian negotiator, on Israel's settlement plans in the disputed east Jerusalem

"It's a well-planned act aimed at scheming new armed conflicts in the Caucasus region."

Dmitri Rogozin, Russia's NATO envoy, slamming a Georgian television channel that sparked panic by broadcasting a faked report on March 13 announcing that Russia had launched an invasion and the country's president was dead

"The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom."

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, telling Congress on March 16 that Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive