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Chiefs of Official Website of People’s Daily Arrested

On August 28, South China Morning Post reported that the CEO and the Deputy CEO of the People.CN website had been arrested for corruption investigations. People.CN is the official website of People’s Daily, which is the primary newspaper that speaks on behalf of the Communist Party. Several Mainland news channels also reported the event before the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued the official announcement. For a period of time, this news was blocked from all Chinese news websites. People.CN is a publicly traded company. On the afternoon of August 25, the Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended its stock. According to the Supreme Procuratorate, the Henan Provincial People’s Procuratorate conducted the arrests and the investigations. The investigations are still underway. People’s Daily, as the controlling stockholder, has already nominated a new Board member for People.CN.
Source: South China Morning Post, August 28, 2015
http://www.nanzao.com/tc/national/14f722469bac12b/nei-mei-ren-min-wang-zong-cai-liao-hong-fu-zong-cai-chen-zhi-xia-bei-jian-fang-dai-zou-diao-cha

Local Government Debt Capped at 16 Trillion Yuan; Debt Ratio Lifted for Commercial Banks

People’s Daily reported that, on August 29, the National People’s Congress passed a resolution setting the cap for the government debt in 2015 at 16 trillion yuan (US$2.51 trillion). The number consists of 15.3 trillion yuan (US$2.4 trillion) for the debt existing at the end of 2014 plus 60 billion yuan (US$9.4 billion) of new debit from 2015. The report said that it is the first time that China has set a limit on what the local governments can borrow. The People’s Congress also revised the commercial bank regulation. Effective October 1, 2015, it eliminated the ratio of 75 percent of savings to borrowing. The article said that the ratio has been in existence for 20 years, but due to the slowdown in the economy, banks need to increase their support for the real economy. Moreover, since commercial banks have been commercialized and can assume all of the risks themselves, the limit is no longer needed.

Source: People’s Daily, August 30, 2015
http://finance.people.com.cn/n/2015/0830/c1004-27531602.html

RFA: China Denied that Investing Trillions in Pension Funds Was to Save the Stock Market

RFA reported that China stated it had planned the investment of two trillion yuan in pension funds in the stock market in order to grow their value. It denied that the move was to save the stock market. The investment of pension fund money in China, until recently, was limited to bank savings and Treasury bonds. The new regulation allowed the pension funds to be invested in stock and in mutual funds but the ratio for investing in stock is capped at 30 percent of the total. RFA reported on interviews it had conducted on this issue. Some of those interviewed expressed concern about the corruption in the stock market. Some thought that it was a risky move because China’s stock market is just not well regulated. Another concern was that Chinese people don’t have control over how the pension funds are managed even though they are the beneficiaries. According to the 2014 Chinese Pension Development report that the China Academy of Social Science published, due to mismanagement, pension funds, social security funds, and savings have lost close to 17.5 billion yuan. Some reports indicated that the government used the pension funds for funding the government.

Source: Radio Free Asia, August 28, 2015
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/yl-08282015155834.html

China Formed First Alliance to Refute Rumors about Food Safety

Xinhua reported that, on August 28, the Chinese Alliance to Refute Rumors about Food Safety was formed in Beijing. The goal of the Alliance is to improve the overall image of Chinese food, build domestic and international branding, and promote global recognition of Chinese food. The responsibilities of the alliance include focusing on food safety issues; spreading scientific knowledge; safeguarding the image of the food industry; cleaning up online food safety rumors and promoting the healthy development of the Chinese food industry. According to the article, food safety rumors rank at the top of the list among the entire list of Internet rumors.

Source: Xinhua, August 28, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/food/2015-08/28/c_128177544.html

Senior Officials at the State’s Media, People’s Daily Online, Detained

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. 

Source: Southern Weekend and Caijing reprinted by BBC Chinese, August 27, 2015 http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2015/08/150827_china_media_arrest

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. 

Specifically, all online postings of news and comments regarding the commemoration parade must be reviewed by the Internet content inspection staff before being released to the public. Only positive comments may be released. No negative comments on the military and on the parade can be released.  Comments “attacking” the Party, Communist China, the political system or Chinese leaders cannot be released. Further, there should be no comments posted that distort the history of the Party or of Communist China. Also prohibited are “comments that misguide” and “harmful information.”  Comments that praise the Party and military are required to be displayed in a prominent position. Point of contact information for the content inspection staff on duty at Internet companies must be reported and placed on file with the authorities. Internet companies are asked to “attach great importance” to this matter and to cooperate actively with the authorities. Those who do not fully implement the censorship “will be dealt with severely.” 
Source: China Digital Times, August 24, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/o2wymze