Trending across China

A teenage girl commits suicide after Internet bullying, and the Guo Degang-BTV feud escalates – it's all trending in China.

Internet bullying

An 18-year-old girl killed herself by jumping off a bridge on Dec 3 after netizens searched for her online amid theft allegations. The news has provoked reflection on the impact of "human flesh searches." Internet users began sniffing around following a post by a store owner in Lufeng, Guangdong province, calling for a group effort to identify a girl who was an alleged shoplifter.

Qiqi, a high school student, was exposed, despite pleading innocent. The abrupt pressure and humiliation led her to kill herself, according to her father.

The store owner, surnamed Cai, was detained for further investigation, Beijing Times reported.

Human flesh searches refer to online research carried out by a group for the purpose of identifying and exposing a person to public humiliation.

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Metro fare hike proposal

Authorities are considering increasing Beijing's subway fare, which may start at 2 yuan and increase after six stops, according to a proposal by Ning Bin, deputy of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress. The proposed hike sparked public concern in the capital, where subway fees, currently standing at 2 yuan regardless of distance, have long been the lowest nationwide.

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Cumbersome cash

A man surnamed Huang deposited 170,000 cash notes, worth 350,000 yuan ($57,661), on Dec 9, a process that took five bank workers seven hours to complete. Most of the notes were in small denominations and therefore could not be identified by bill-counting machines, according to the bank in Chengdu, Sichuan province, Western China Metropolis Daily reported.

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Sutra punishment

Buddhist sutras, though considered classic texts in many ways, were still not powerful enough to rectify a sex offender's behavior. An engineer from Taiwan, surnamed Han, was sentenced to seven months in prison for molesting a 15-year-old girl. Han received a reprieve after he agreed to copy a collection of Buddhist sutras 108 times by hand, per the wishes of the girl's family. The sutras, however, failed to purge his mind. Han was sentenced to 10 months behind bars following another sex offence during his reprieve. (www.chinanews.com)

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Harvest sabotage

A 2-hectare plot of land that could have yielded a healthy harvest was sabotaged when its vegetables were dipped in diesel and uprooted on Saturday. The act may be related to a government land seizure in Wuhan, Hubei province.

The incident dealt a blow to eight households, who claimed they worked hard to ensure a healthy harvest this season. The families have reached out to the police for help. A local agricultural official surnamed Ye denied any connection to land seizure-related disputes, Wuhan Evening News reported.

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Comedian-BTV feud

A feud between well-known cross-talk comedian Guo Degang and Beijing TV escalated to the next level when the China Radio and Television Association on Saturday condemned his controversial remarks about late BTV leader Wang Xiaodong. The association demanded a formal apology from the comedian in reply to BTV's letter calling for an industry boycott of Guo.

Guo posted a poem on Sina Weibo on Nov 20, which many saw as him gloating about Wang's death. Guo had been at odds with BTV since Deyun She, a cross-talk performance theatre he established, was suspended in 2010 after one of his apprentices attacked BTV reporters. (www.qq.com)

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Metro worker jailed for fraud

Li Bo, a Beijing subway worker, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for fraud involving 4.55 million yuan ($749,000). Li lied about personal connections to solicit bribes in return for help securing jobs at a bank and a subway company. Li, 26, was actually born into a working-class family. He started to work for the metro system in 2010. (www.sohu.com)

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Tax chief faces investigation

Guangdong's former provincial taxation bureau chief, Li Yongheng, is being investigated for serious discipline violations, local authorities said on Saturday, without giving further details.

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