Quotable

"It's natural that so many people are sitting the civil service exam. This will help improve the quality of civil servants, who are supposed to be a group of elites."

Ou Zhenzhi, director of the Guangdong provincial department of human resources and social security, responding as a record 1.12 million people took the annual national civil service exam on Nov 25.

"One of the biggest challenges for China today is social injustice, and the unfair distribution of income is an important cause of that."

Yu Keping, deputy director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, saying in a recent interview. Social injustice will be one of the three major challenges China faces, he said.

"Luo Yang was like a soldier who died on the battlefield. The base of a strong country is its elites who are willing to sacrifice themselves. We should respect Luo."

Sima pingbang, commentator, expressing his condolences to Luo Yang, who headed the development and production of the J-15 fighter jet. Luo died of a heart attack soon after the carrier-based aircraft successfully completed landing and take-off tests on the aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.

(China Daily 11/30/2012 page2)