"T he misuse revealed systemic defects and management loopholes [in the pension funds]. We must take the problems seriously, draw a lesson and improve our work."

Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng, after a commission was established to oversee the operation of Shanghai's 10- billion-yuan ($1.28-billion) pension fund in November 2006

"A s long as the people have the final say on the promotion of officials and the power to select and supervise them, the officials won't abuse their power as randomly as they do today."

Professor Wang Yukai at Peking University, suggesting a way of dealing with the corruption problem as quoted by People's Daily

"Hong Kong is entering a most important chapter in its constitutional history."

Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), welcoming a decision made by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, on Hong Kong's constitutional development. The decision, adopted on December 29, 2007, says that the election of the fifth HKSAR chief executive in the year 2017 may be implemented by the method of universal suffrage

"The world's most populous nation will mark the next 12 months with a coming-of-age party that will confirm its transformation in three decades from one of the poorest countries of the 20th century into the globe's third-largest economy, its hungriest consumers and the engine room of economic growth."

London-based The Independent newspaper, saying in an article on January 1 that China is set to assert its status as a global colossus in 2008

"My mother always said that democracy is the best revenge."

Bilawal Bhutto, the 19-year-old son of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, after he was named to succeed his mother as leader of the Pakistan People's Party on December 30

"We are determined to deploy the most robust force possible so that it can carry out effectively the difficult mandate the Security Council has entrusted to it."

Rodolphe Adada, head of the new UN Mission in Darfur, speaking at a handover ceremony on December 31 when a new joint African Union-UN force took over peacekeeping in the war-torn Sudanese region from an African Union mission

"Similar laws encouraging labor contracts without specific time limits have been in existence in Western countries since the last century."

Zhu Shanli, Vice President of the Guanghua School of Management under Peking University, defending China's new Labor Contract Law that went into effect on January 1 and enhances the rights of workers