Quotable

The environmental authorities need to improve their service, including rapid feedback to the people who called, thus expanding the influence of the hotline and encouraging more people to use it."

Qin Tianbao, an environmental law professor at Wuhan University Hubei province, commenting on a draft of public rights to encourage participation in projects and policies involving the environment. The Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the document on Oct 13. Almost 78 percent of complaints to the ministry's hotline in the first half of this year were about air pollution.

"We want to remove unnecessary barriers in filing a case and protect litigants' rights to appeal."

Li Shaoping, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, speaking about changes that make it easier to file lawsuits. There has been a huge increase in court cases over the past four months, especially those relating to government administration.

"China will never allow any country to violate, in the name of protecting the freedom of navigation or overflight, our territorial sea and air of the Nansha Islands."

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chun-ying, in response to reports that the US Navy might enter the 12-nautical-mile boundary surrounding reclaimed islands.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/16/2015 page3)