THIS WEEK PEOPLE

“High-end restaurants and hotels are suffering. We have now put our bet on private consumption. We have offered more discounts to the public and strived to increase our visibility on the Internet.”

Yang Xiaowei， a sales manager at Lijingwan International Hotel in Beijing， commenting on the impact of the Central Governments ban of consumption at upscale accommodations with public expenses

“In 2013， the number of employers who came to our university for graduate study of environmental protection and pollution treatment increased a lot compared to previous years.”

Lan Yaming， a student employment officer at Nanjing University in east Chinas Jiangsu Province， identifying the rising popularity of environmental engineering in the labor market

“More senior foreign experts will be invited to Beijing this year， and the validity of their residence permits can be extended to last five years as opposed to the current one year.”

Chen Bei， Deputy Director of Beijings Human Resources and Social Security Bureau， at a news conference on January 17

“The Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Public Security have held discussions this year on policies concerning government intervention in child abuse cases. The current law has failed to specify who can sue when a child is abused by their legal guardians.”

Huang Ermei， Vice President of the Supreme Peoples Court， at a legal symposium on child protection in Beijing on January 20

FOOTBALL PRESIDENT

Chinas vice sports minister Cai Zhenhua was elected president of the Chinese Football Association （CFA） on January 21. In the first reshuffle of the CFA executive board in a decade， Cai was unanimously voted as the replacement for 75-year-old Yuan Weimin， who had acted as CFA president since 1992. Cai， 53， a former table tennis world champion and national team coach， will be faced with the daunting task of revitalizing the sport in the country. Chinas mens soccer team has only participated in the World Cup once， in 2002， when they lost all three group matches without scoring a goal. The womens team has similarly fallen from their peak in the late 1990s， when they became the 1996 Olympics runners-up and the 1999 World Cup silver medalists.

INJURED CHAMPION

Four-time Olympic short-track speed skating champion Wang Meng will probably miss the Sochi Winter Olympic Games since she sustained a serious ankle injury on January 16. Wang was diagnosed with fractures in the tibia and fibula in her right ankle. A sport medicine expert said she will need to rest for at least six weeks， meaning Wang will lose the chance to defend her 500-meter， 1，000-meter and 3，000-meter relay titles at Sochi Olympic Games which are only about four weeks away.endprint