In Chinese, we say that you can bore a hole in a stone by the steady dripping of water,' her friend Qian Gang told me. Other journalists preferred a noisier metaphor: they called it 'dancing in shackles.
-- Evan Osnos quoting Qian Gang and a common saying (chapter 8 paragraph 1)

Importance: This quotes a common saying among journalists to describe how government censors, most notably the CPD, restrict what reporters can publish.

We were one year away from the twentieth anniversary of that movement, but my experiences with Tang Jie and his friends made clear that prosperity, computers, and Westernization had not pushed China’s elite toward democracy in the way that outsiders had expected after Tiananmen. Rather, prosperity and the strength of the Party had persuaded more than a few to postpone idealism as long as life for them kept improving.
-- Evan Osnos (chapter 9 paragraph 1)

Importance: This demonstrates that many young Chinese, unlike the generation directly preceding them, do not strongly believe that China should transition...