China’s main state broadcaster yesterday paraded a financial journalist “confessing” to causing the stock market “great losses,” as authorities seek to rein in a rout on the exchanges.
Wang Xiaolu (王曉璐), a journalist for business magazine Caijing, was held after writing a story in July saying the securities regulator was studying plans for government funds to exit the market.
Beijing has launched interventions on a grand scale to try — with little success — to shore up plunging share prices after a debt-fueled bubble burst in June.
Britain’s Financial Times last weekend reported that China had decided to stop buying shares in favor of intensifying a crackdown on those “destabilizing” the market, although there was speculation as recently as Thursday last week that government funds were acquiring stock.
China has unleashed an unprecedented package of support measures, including using state-backed entities to buy stocks and cracking down on “malicious” short-selling — when investors sell shares they do not own in anticipation of a fall in their price.
However, the moves have done little to calm investors and concerns about the health of China’s economy and its ability to manage its finances has infected world markets, sparking one of the worst global sell-offs, on Aug. 24, since the financial crisis.
Chinese shares yesterday continued their slide, with Shanghai down by as much as 1.45 percent in the afternoon, hurt by profit-taking after two sessions of sharp gains and by economic worries before the release of manufacturing data.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed Wang saying that he had sought to create a stir and catch the eyes of readers with his articles.
“I should not have published a report that heavily and negatively affected the market at such a sensitive time... [I] caused such great losses to the country and to stock investors. I am deeply sorry,” he said.
Xinhua news agency said Wang was held for fabricating and spreading fake information, which had “caused panic and disorder on [the] stock market, seriously undermined market confidence and inflicted huge losses on the country and investors.”
In China, high-profile criminal suspects are regularly paraded on television apparently confessing to their actions, in what rights lawyers say is a violation of criminal procedure.
Once prosecutors post charges, conviction is all but guaranteed in courts, which are tightly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Journalists’ rights group Reporters Without Borders last week said it was “absurd” to blame China’s stock market crash on a reporter and called for Wang’s immediate release.
“Suggesting that a business journalist was responsible for the spectacular fall in share prices is a denial of reality. Blaming the stock market crisis on a lone reporter is beyond absurd,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in a statement.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft