August 6: Top court orders heavy penalties for food hazards; one-third of investors flee Chinese stock market
Politics and policy
China’s top court has demanded heavy penalties for companies selling food online that are the cause of any safety issues, and urged firms to compensate consumers more quickly. Food safety is one of the top concerns among Chinese consumers following a series of health scares including baby formula milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine in 2008 and, more recently, bottles of the liquor baijiu found to be laced with Viagra. (Reuters)
State-run Xinhua news agency’s deputy president Shen Haixiong will take over the Communist Party’s publicity department in Guangdong province. (Guagndong News)
Economy and Business
Nearly one-third of the country’s more than 20 million individual investors fled the plunging stock markets last month. The number of retail investors holding stocks in their accounts dropped to 51 million at the end of July from 75 million a month earlier, according to a state-run securities agency that tracks accounts. (The Wall Street Journal)
China's biggest natural gas producer, PetroChina, is reportedly offering flexible prices to large industrial users and a promise of year-round supply as it seeks to boost sales amid slowing demand. (Bloomberg)
Diplomacy
Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated at a Southeast Asian summit that China's controversial land reclamation works in the disputed South China Sea had stopped, in an attempt to ease tensions with its territorial rivals. (The Wall Street Journal)
Senior diplomats from China and the United States agreed to enhance cooperation in anti-terror information-sharing and law enforcement as they met in Beijing for the second China-US consultation on the issue. (China Daily)
Czech Republic President Miloš Zeman became the first leader in the European Union to agree to attend China's military parade this September to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war. (Global Times)
Society
An orphan girl from the Yi ethnic minority group has stirred concerns from many Chinese internet users after her essay that depicted her heartbreaking life was posted online. The fourth-grader, who lives in a poor village in Sichuan province, lost her father four years ago and recently her mother also passed away after being sick for a while. (China Daily)
