PEOPLE/POINTS

PEOPLE/POINTS

“If the rules are made by the international community through agreement and China is part of it, China w ill definitely abide by them. But if the rules are decided by one or several countries, China does not have the obligation to observe them.”

Pang Sen, Deputy Director of the Department of International Organizations and Conferences of the Chinese Foreign M inistry, in response to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk’s demand that China play by the rules, at a press briefing in Honolulu, Hawaii,the United States, on November 14

“China is and w ill always be capable of supporting its elderly population as long as it continues to enjoy social stability and econom ic grow th.”

Hu Xiaoyi, Vice M inister of Human Resources and Social Security, making the remark in an article of thePeople’s Dailynewspaper on November 17 while discussing the challenges facing China’s pension fund plan

“As the largest trading nation, the second largest national econom y and the third largest currency area, China should have an influence in the international monetary system second only to the United States and Europe.”

Nobel-laureate economist Robert Mundell, stressing that China’s currency should play a greater role in a possible future international monetary system, in an interview w ith Xinhua News Agency in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, on November 14

“Moscow believes the road of sanctions against Iran was dead-ended. To threaten w ith sanctions and air-strikes can only

delay a solution by negotiation.”

Russian Foreign M inister Sergei Lavrov, during a stopover while returning from Hawaii to Moscow on November 14

“As I said, change brings opportunities,an opportunity to begin to refashion the EU so it better serves this nation’s interests and the interests of its other 26 nations.”

British Prime M inister David Cameron, in a keynote foreign policy speech in London on November 14, against a background of financial and political uncertainty and change in the EU and the eurozone