Quotable

"No matter whether my qigong is genuine or not, I do not break the law. This authenticity has nothing to do with the public and nothing to do with the law. I hope you only dig into whether I break the law, rather than whether my qigong is fake or not."

Wang Lin, the self-proclaimed master of qigong, a spiritual martial art, responds to allegations that his qigong skills, which purportedly include the ability to conjure snakes out of thin air, were only magic tricks. He also reportedly threatened Sima Nan, an independent academic and social commentator who has challenged Wang. Wang is alleged to have said he would jab Sima to death with his fingers.

"Supervision and criticism are patriotic actions. But, as I have discovered, there are some netizens on Weibo magnifying the significance of individual cases and denying the overall progress Chinese society is making."

Chen Mingming, vice-governor of Guizhou, stirring up a heated discussion online on July 29 with a micro blog post that calls for a "healthy public opinion environment" for the good of the nation's development.

"Homicide cases are more frequent in June, July, August and September because the hot weather makes people more vulnerable to anger. There are less murders in the winter."

Li Yunlong, chairperson of the criminal studies society of Jiangxi province, speaking about violent crime in an interview with the Xiaoxiang Morning Post. Li's comments sparked a hot debate on micro blogs and surprised many netizens.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/02/2013 page3)