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6 days

At least 19 people have died and 12 others have been injured in an explosion at a chemical plant in Sichuan, the province’s local work safety authority said Friday.

The incident occurred Thursday afternoon at an industrial zone in Jiang’an County in the city of Yibin. Photos from local media show the company’s three-story building has been razed to its frame. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

Blasts at chemical plants have killed dozens in China. In February, four people were killed in an explosion in Shandong province. In one of the deadliest disasters, 173 people died in a twin blast at a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin in 2015.  

4 hours

Guizhou will soon become home to China’s first hyperloop ultrafast transportation system — cinching the southwestern province’s transformation from a sleepy backwater to a tech hub.

The city of Tongren has signed a contract with California-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to build a 10-kilometer long hyperloop, according to a statement sent to Sixth Tone. The hyperloop, a concept pioneered by engineer and billionaire Elon Musk, will allow passengers and cargo to travel at high speeds in a network of low-pressure tubes.

The city will provide 50 percent of funding for the private-public partnership, the statement said. It is not clear when the project will be completed. (Image: Weibo)

6 hours

An internet finance company in Sichuan has been blasted for asking its employees to pay its office utility bills, local media reported Thursday.

A woman who resigned from the company at the end of June told the media on Monday that she only received part of her final salary because the company deducted 2,000 yuan ($300) for her share of electricity and water used at the office — as much as her monthly salary without commission. The woman said that utility costs were not mentioned in her contract. Calls to the company on Thursday went unanswered.

Small companies in China often come to public attention for bizarre rules or bullying tactics. Last year, a struggling battery rental startup asked its staff to relocate to remote rural areas as a means of pushing them to resign.

6 hours

A Guangzhou court announced Wednesday that it will now accept chat logs from WeChat and QQ as evidence without requiring such records to be notarized.

Nansha District People’s Court is the first in Guangdong province to permit direct presentation of chat records. Both parties must log into their accounts and show the entire chat to the court, which will accept the records as evidence if it finds them complete and consistent. In the past, chat records had to be notarized — a costly, complicated, and lengthy procedure.

From January to June 2018, the Nansha court handled 98 commercial disputes that involved electronic data evidence, an year-on-year increase of 50 percent. (Image: IC)

1 day

Crowdfunding site Qingsongchou sparked a storm of criticism after a Sichuan motorist who struck and killed four people used the platform to raise the money he was ordered to pay to the victims’ families, The Beijing News reported Tuesday.

“Hit Four, Can’t Pay, Please Help,” read the heading on the motorist’s crowdfunding page, created July 10. The man raised nearly 24,000 yuan ($3,600) in just one day, with most of the 1,200-plus donations reportedly coming from friends and relatives. Qingdongchou blocked the page a day later and told The Beijing News that all of the money pledged had been refunded.

Online giving is a popular phenomenon in China, where platforms like Qingsongchou are a dime a dozen. Because of the industry’s rapid growth, oversight regulation are often a step behind. (Image: VCG)

1 day

A whistleblower who exposed the private vices of judicial officials has been sentenced to four years in prison and fined 30,000 yuan ($4,500) by a Hunan court, China Youth Daily reported Tuesday.

From 2015 to 2016, Wu Zhengge hired private investigators to uncover judicial officials’ misdeeds, including adultery and gambling. He then submitted his findings to the local government, which led to the incriminated individuals being suspended or fired. Wu was arrested in June 2016 for violating personal privacy and providing fraudulent data to secure loans.

Last week, an environmental whistleblower who testified against polluting businesses was punished for defamation by a Henan court despite the fact that his allegations proved true. (Image: VCG)

1 day

Li Jinlian filed a compensation application to the Jiangxi High People’s Court for 41.4 million yuan ($6.17 million) on Wednesday, after his wrongful homicide conviction was overturned in June. Li, a 68-year-old farmer, had already served 19 years in prison.

China’s State Compensation Law stipulates that the state must pay compensation for each day of wrongful imprisonment based on the previous year’s national average salary. But what Li has proposed is three to 10 times that rate, according to online news outlet Jiemian.

The national record for the largest sum of state compensation is held by Chen Man, who received 2.75 million yuan after being wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years. From 2013 to 2016, China’s courts overturned 3,718 convictions and awarded a total of 699 million yuan compensation for the cases. (Image: From Li family)

2 days

In its yearly crackdown on copyright infringement that kicks off this month, China’s National Copyright Administration is focusing on articles and videos that are reposted without authorization, the regulatory body announced Monday.

The four-month campaign, called “Sword Net,” is directed toward so-called WeMedia — outlets which publish content through social media and have frequently been accused of plagiarism. The announcement also warned net users not to mimic or use other people’s short videos, though it’s unclear whether that includes joining in on one of the many memes on popular platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou.

“Sword Net” was first launched in 2005. Authorities have deleted over 6 million items of pirated content and shut 3,908 websites during the past five years alone. (Image: IC)

2 days

A 21-year-old woman died after being bitten by a snake she purchased online, local media reported Tuesday.

The Beijing News previously reported that the woman was admitted to a hospital in Weinan, Shaanxi province, on July 9, six hours after being bitten — though she did not receive the correct antivenom until the following day because it was not immediately available. According to the woman’s chat records with online vendors, she had hoped to make snake wine, an ancient tonic believed to have curative properties.

The snake, identified as a highly venomous banded krait, is an endangered species in China and cannot legally be sold. However, such prohibited pets are still readily advertised by third-party vendors on major e-commerce platforms like JD.com and Taobao. (Image: IC)

2 days

Graphic designers have apologized for copying design elements from the Japanese manga “My Hero Academia” in a poster released to celebrate popular Chinese dark comedy “Dying to Survive” making 2.5 billion yuan ($374m) at the box office.

“We are sorry that our careless creation hurt fans of our film and anime fans,” said a statement on the film’s official Weibo account. But net users were not impressed, pointing out that earlier posters plagiarized the design of another manga, “One Piece.”

Based on the true stories of how Chinese leukemia patients smuggled cheaper drugs from India, the film has been a hit with audiences, and even caught the attention of policymakers. As its box office takings climbed, authorities announced that they would bring down the price of cancer drugs. (Image: From Weibo)

2 days

The South Korean developer of wildly popular game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has removed controversial game elements referencing the imperial Japanese army and apologized, Xinhua reported Tuesday.

The report said that on Saturday, PUBG released a pilot mask emblazoned with the Rising Sun flag, and a non-player character identified as “Unit 731” — a notorious biowarfare research unit in the Japanese army that conducted lethal experiments on Chinese and Korean civilians during World War II.

The developer issued its apology on Sunday, after the imagery caught the attention of Korean gamers. Although the elements appeared in the Korean version of PUBG, Chinese players also added their voices to the chorus of criticism. (Image: Weibo)

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