July 18, 2013
Translated by Luo Shuqi and Pang Lei

Stories that got top billing on China's major web portals on Thursday morning include photos and articles about the death of a vendor in Hunan Province who is said to have been beaten by Chengguan or city officials. (Sina)

There's also high-profile coverage of comments made by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman regarding the Diaoyu Islands and Japan (Xinhua)

Keep reading below for a translated digests of some of the other stories being reported by mainland Chinese media outlets today.

China Resources Responds to Allegations of Corruption
Southern Weekly
As we reported yesterday, Wang Wenzhi (王文志), a senior journalist with Economic Information Daily, a paper published by Xinhua News Agency accused Song Lin (宋林), the chairman of China Resources (Holdings) Company Limited (華潤集團(tuán)), of dereliction of duty and corruption. Wang Wenzhi made the accusations against Song and other executives at the company via his personal Sina Weibo account (@記者王文志), saying that billions of yuan worth of stated owned assets were lost when a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of China Resources acquired a large stake in Shanxi Jinye Coking Coal Group Co. Limited (山西金業(yè)煤焦化集團(tuán)有限公司) in 2010. Yesterday afternoon, China Resources, a large, diversified and centrally-controlled SOE, published a statement on its website which labeled the claims as defamatory and called on anyone with proof of corruption at the company to produce evidence.
Original article: [Chinese]

Report Exposes China's Wealth Gap: Top 5% Earns 234 Times More than Bottom 5%
Southern Metropolis Daily
According to the "Chinese Family Panel Studies" (中國家庭動態(tài)跟蹤調(diào)查) released by the Institute of Social Science Survey at Peking University (北京大學(xué)中國社會科學(xué)調(diào)查中心), the bottom 5 percent of families earning the lowest incomes in 2012 accounted for only 0.1 percent of total family revenue in 2012. The top 5 percent of families accounted for 23.4 percent of the total income.
Original article: [Chinese]

China Has 591 Million Internet Users
Caijing
The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released another Statistical Report on Internet Development in China (中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)絡(luò)發(fā)展?fàn)顩r統(tǒng)計報告) in Beijing yesterday. The report reveals that up until the end of June 2013, China's Internet penetration rate had reached 44 percent with 591 million people said to be using the internet. The report also revealed that in the first half year of 2013, more people were using mobile phones to go online. Seventy percent of new internet users use mobile phones to surf the web.
Original article: [Chinese]

Ministry of Commerce to Adopt New Policies in Response to Weakening Trade
China Business News
Weak trade data in May and June has the central government on alert. China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) conducted research in coastal provinces from the end of June to the beginning of July, reports of which were recently delivered to the State Council. A series of policies to stimulate trade are expected to be released next week. A spokesperson for the ministry said at a monthly news conference held in Beijing yesterday, that although trade is facing numerous challenges at the moment, it is still too soon to judge whether targets set early this year will be achieved. Zhou Shijian (周世儉), a senior researcher at Tsinghua Center for US-China Relations, said that a major cause for the current difficulties has been the constant appreciation of the Chinese yuan.
Original article: [Chinese]

State Administration of Taxation Clarifies Remarks About "Researching" Expansion of Property Tax Trial
Beijing News
In yesterday\'s morning wrap we linked to a Xinhua News Agency article that said the State Administration of Taxation was "looking into expanding a property tax that is already being levied in Shanghai and Chongqing." The Tax agency has since come out and clarified this statement, saying that the media had read too much into the statement, which appeared in a notice released on July 12. Rumors of the property tax trial being expanded have appeared before. At the beginning of 2013, reports claiming that Beijing was planning to pilot the tax, led to a fall in real estate stocks. The reports were later denied by city authorities.
Original article: [Chinese]