(XINHUA)

Chinese national football team skipper Zheng Zhi was awarded the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) football player of the year prize at the annual gala of the AFC in Kuala Lumpur on November 26, for his performance on pitch for both his club and country.

Zheng, 33, was the former captain of the China national team. After signing with Guangzhou Evergrande in 2010 following a spell at former English Premier League team Charlton Athletic and Scottish giants Celtic, he soon became the backbone of the team.

Top Negotiator

(XINHUA)

Chen Deming, President of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), made his first visit to Taiwan since assuming his post in April by leading a business delegation that arrived in Taiwan on November 26.

At the invitation of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), the delegation visited a selection of the island's companies, industrial parks and free economic pilot zones.

Before his departure for Taiwan, Chen, the former Minister of Commerce, expressed to the media his hope that the visit would promote exchanges between the ARATS and the SEF, and help them play a bigger role in advancing cross-Straits communication.

"There are many issues that we are not actually satisfied with, but we can accept the results."

Xie Zhenhua, Head of the Chinese delegation to the 2013 UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, Poland, commenting on the results of the conference at its conclusion on November 23

"Today, people-to-people exchanges, political trust and business cooperation have together become the three pillars underpinning the new model of major-country relations between China and the United States."

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong, during her speech at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. on November 21

"Putting every judicial process under the spotlight will test judges and help them improve the quality of their rulings. It could also prevent abuse of the right to sue and of legal resources."

Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme People's Court, urging courts to publicly disclose the progress of trials and judgments to improve judicial transparency, on November 27

"The Chinese think that frequently saying 'thanks' and 'sorry' is being overly polite, and purposely creates distance between friends, which hinders deeper communication."

Shi Tonglan, a professor at Japan's Ryukoku University, in her paper Exploring the Cultural Differences in Chinese and Japanese Language Behaviors