China has fake news stories too ;-)Oh man, as if China didn't have enough world attention on its quality control! Zi Beijia, an aspiring investigative journalist for Beijing Television faked a story that shocked viewers of his report, but also landed him in jail!
Reuters reports that Zi had been arrested after it emerged that he had fabricated a report that local dumplings hawkers were adding softened, pork-flavoured cardboard to their food. On Sunday, a Chinese court sentenced the TV reporter to one year in jail for faking the report that was picked up across the world.
The Chinese official Xinhua news agency reported: "the journalist, Zi Beijia, was convicted after an open court hearing of "infringing the reputation of commodities". He was also fined 1,000 yuan ($132)."
Damage unlimited
But the damage has been done. No one hears that the story is fake, just that there was such a story. The public will remember that China has such practices and might, at best, remember that China fakes news reports.
In this new emerging market economy, trust between China and other countries needs to be earnt. Individuals are busy scrambling to grab a piece of the cake at any cost, but all the outside world sees is China Inc. suffering huge growing pains.
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