Quotable

"For all his life, he had striven for the liberation of African nations, championed the dignity of the African people and endeavored to advance the unity of all African countries and move forward Africa's cooperation with the world."

Li Yuanchao, China's vice-president, said when he joined more than 90 global leaders to pay respects to Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium near Johannesburg on Dec 10.

"US computer security firms have been keen on playing up the so-called cyber threat from China. But their so-called evidence is never solid and is widely doubted by professionals."

Hong lei, Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Dec 10 while rejecting a US computer security firm's accusation of Chinese hacking against European countries before the G20 Summit in September. Recent media reports quoting research by FireEye Inc, Chinese hackers infiltrated the computer networks of five European foreign ministries by sending emails containing tainted files to staff.

"To promote Chinese culture, we cannot just count on experts from China; we have to foster more China experts in other countries.

Zhu Chongshi, a member of the Council of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, saying the institute hopes to expand the promotion of Chinese culture overseas by cultivating a new grade of expert. So far, 30 foreign PhD students and 40 joint PhD fellows have been given the chance to study at 14 universities in China.

(China Daily European Weekly 12/13/2013 page3)