Quotable

"Government officials should learn from the destroyed building, which will remind them of public protests and make them remember the duty to serve the people."

SHA XIANGUI, Party chief of Weng'an county of Guizhou province, said the preservation of the destroyed building is to be a permanent warning for officials to respect public opinion. The building, former headquarters of the county government, was set on fire on June 28, 2008, by angry protesters who did not believe the government's explanation about the death of a teenage girl. The girl was found dead in a river a week earlier, and the official autopsy result said that she committed suicide, but her family members suspected that she was murdered after being raped.