Southern Weekend reported that the People’s Procuratorate detained Liao Hong, President and editor-in-chief of the state’s media, People’s Daily Online, for investigation. An anonymous source indicated that the accusation against Liao was linked to the case of Xu Hui, a deputy editor at People.cn, who was placed under investigation last May for extortion and for accepting bribes from businesses. Xu allegedly took money from businesses so that no negative reports about their businesses would be published. Caijing.com reported separately that Chen Zhixia, Vice President of People’s Daily Online was also detained and placed under investigation. Webpages for both reports are no longer available.
RFA: China’s Major Official Media Do Not Report the Slump in China Stock Market
On August 26, 2015, Radio Free Asia (RFA) published an article commenting on how quiet China’s official media have been on the China stock market slump. The sharp fall of the stocks in China’s market affected at least 70 million Chinese active investors as wells as the whole global stock market. However, those media that are China’s official mouthpiece, such as People’s Daily, Xinhua, and China’s Central Television did not even mention such a big incident. Why not? According to one of the interviewees, China’s official media always like to report good news rather than bad news. When, from the government’s point of view, there is no hope for China’s stock market, it is normal for the official media to avoid the topic.”
Source: Radio Free Asia, August 26, 2015
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/cyl-08262015105903.html
World Journal: Removal of Jiang Zemin’s Inscriptions Leaves Many Guessing
Within a period of 10 days in August 2015, former Chinese regime leader Jiang Zemin’s inscriptions were removed from two different locations: the Shanghai Air Force Political Academy on August 13 and the Chinese Communist Party Central Party School on August 21. The Chinese Communist Party has a tradition of removing sacked officials’ inscriptions. For example, inscriptions by Guo Boxiong, Xu Caihou, and Zhou Yongkang were all removed after they were arrested. Guo, Xu, and Zhou were all members of Jiang’s faction.
Many people viewed the removal of Jiang’s inscriptions as an indication of the elimination of Jiang’s influence and an omen of his impending political demise. Some others thought it was just a normal engineering operation, since Jiang was fond of leaving inscriptions and writing poems as he traveled with his entourage around the country. They thought it was normal to make some changes.
Source: World Journal, August 24, 2015
http://www.worldjournal.com/3397067/article-%E6%B1%9F%E6%BE%A4%E6%B0%91%E9%A1%8C%E5%AD%97%E8%A2%AB%E7%A7%BB-%E3%80%8C%E5%8E%BB%E6%B1%9F%E5%8C%96%E3%80%8D%E7%82%B8%E4%BA%86%E9%8D%8B/?ref=%E8%B6%85%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%A3
Internet Censorship Heightens as September 3 Draws Near
China Digital Times reported that the State Council Information Office ordered heightened Internet censorship for the period from August 23 through September 5, 2015, for online news and comments on China’s commemoration parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. The parade will take place on September 3, when Chinese leaders will review the troops.
Global Times: U.S. Praise of the Dongfeng 21-D Missile Harbors Ill Intentions
China’s state-media Global Times recently published an article reminding China to keep a sober mind toward the U.S. media’s praise of China’s Dongfeng-21D missile being a killer weapon that can destroy U.S. aircraft and not to follow the Soviet Unions’ path of failure.