July 23rd will mark the one year anniversary of a devastating high-speed train crash in China. The accident killed 40 people and injured nearly 200--but Chinese censorship authorities have banned all independent reporting on the anniversary. Beyond the tragic loss of life, the incident and the ensuing attempt to cover-up what happened also marked a crisis of legitimacy for the CCP and China"s prestigious high-speed rail project. //
Editors from two outspoken Chinese newspapers have been removed from their positions. The move comes before Chinese leader Hu Jintao is due to step down in 2013. The deputy editor and publisher of the Chinese newspaper Shanghai Oriental Morning Post were both removed from their positions on Wednesday. All media outlets in China are partially or totally controlled by the Chinese communist regime, but some news organizations try to push the boundaries. NTD Television remains the only uncensored television network that is broadcast in Mandarin into mainland China. //
China is already the world’s largest Internet market, and now it has hit a new milestone… 538 million Chinese are online. It’s up 11 percent from a year ago, according to a report from the China Internet Network Information Center. The Center says there were 25 million new Web users since the end of 2011, encompassing 39.9% of Chinese. The main reason for the increase… smartphone sales, which make up over 388 million Web users. Their price has gone down significantly, helping increase their popularity. The report also said that most Chinese are online 19,9 hours a week, up from 18,7 hours… and that most of the people online are between 20 and 40-years-old. //
21st century network a Mandarin website reporting business news reported that many Chinese mutual funds had lost a lot of their net value because of holding stocks in dairy, alcohol and food industries. Take Yili as an example, the baby formula of Yili Industrial Group was found to be tainted with "unusual" levels of mercury in June. The net value of China Asset Management"s fund decreased 76 million dollars on June 30th due to Yili. The net value of E Fund Management"s 9 mutual funds lost 35 million dollars. And Rongtong Fund"s 6 mutual funds lost 36 million dollars.
