Quotable

"China is on a march to a higher-income, highly productive, highly innovative economy and society... Based on my studies of numerous cases of the middle-income transition, I think it's fair to say that a 6 to 7 percent sustained transition through the middle income would be a new normal success."

Michael Spence

"Infront has strengths in football promotional expertise and resources. I believe we can accelerate our dreams of hosting the World Cup, as our top leader expects, through the new partnership."

Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, after the company announced it had acquired Infront Sports & Media, an international sports marketer and football promoter.

"Our purpose is to maintain fair competition in the industry. Some practices have hindered the innovation capability of other companies. This is not beneficial for the whole industry or customers."

Xu Kunlin, head of the National Development and Reform Commission's anti-monopoly bureau, after China's antitrust regulator fined Qualcomm Inc, the world's largest chipmaker, 6.08 billion yuan ($975million; 860 million euros), the highest penalty since China's antitrust law took effect in 2008.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 02/13/2015 page3)