Dec 27, 2017 05:48 PM

Caixin’s Top 10 Stories of 2017

As the year winds to a close, take a look back with us at Caixin’s 10 most popular posts — spanning scandal, death, sharks, pornography and regulatory crackdowns. So, in other words, just another year.

10. Chinese Star Actress to Sue Guo Wengui Over Sex Scandal Claim

Chinese Star Fan Bingbing has vowed to take fugitive businessman Guo Wengui to U.S. court after she claims he 'viciously' defamed her. Above, Fan attends the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 26. Photo: IC

Superstar Fan Bingbing threatened to take fugitive businessman Guo Wengui to U.S. court after she claims he “viciously” defamed her. No word on whether Fan followed through on the threat — but it would have been one of many lawsuits Guo is battling.

9. Brokerage Deal Sheds Light on Fugitive Tycoon’s Ties With Abu Dhabi, Tony Blair

Chinese businessman Guo Wengui (L) and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R).

A look at how Guo Wengui — him again! — built connections with Abu Dhabi through Tony Blair, and raised billions of dollars from the United Arab Emirates’ royal family to fund his acquisition of a Chinese brokerage.

8. Apple in Hot Seat as China Targets Livestreaming Porn

As of Thursday in China, Apple had yet to comment on a Beijing Cyberspace Administration summons the tech giant was issued two days earlier over its livestreaming apps. Photo: IC

China’s summoning of tech giant Apple was the latest in a series of government efforts to control popular, but often-provocative apps.

7. Needle Marks Found on Toddlers at Beijing Kindergarten

Parents and reporters crowd together Thursday outside the Beijing kindergarten accused of abusing children. The company that runs the facility directly operated 80 kindergartens and franchised another 175 preschools, in 130 cities and towns across China, as of June 30. Photo: Caixin

Police confirmed that eight children going to a school run by RYB Education in a Beijing suburb had jab marks on their bodies. The incident was part of a string of school-related scandals in China recently. In a later police statement, however, a parent mysteriously “admitted” that his child was not given “white pills” in the kindergarten, and what was shown in a viral video was only his child being asked at home to re-enact what panicked parents worried might have happened at school. The police statement did not quell public doubts over the incident, however.

6. Woman in Labor Jumps to Her Death; China Asks Why

A video screen grab from the First Hospital of Yulin in Shaanxi province shows 26-year-old Ma Rongrong kneeling in front of her family in a hospital hallway on Aug. 31. The video has no sound so it is unknown whether she was kneeling in pain or begging the family for permission to let her have a cesarean section. Ma later committed suicide by jumping out of a fifth-floor window at the hospital. Photo: First Hospital of Yulin

Netizens were outraged after a 26-year-old pregnant woman jumped from the fifth floor of a hospital in Shaanxi province after she was allegedly denied a C-section. The woman’s family blamed the hospital’s staff, and the staff blamed the family.

5. Central Bank Breaks Silence on Cryptocurrency Fundraising Ban

The price of bitcoin has steadied in the wake of its biggest drop since June as investors and speculators reappraised the outlook for initial coin offerings (ICOs). In China, ICOs have surged in popularity this year, raising $398 million worth of new virtual currencies during the first half of 2017. Photo: Visual China

In September, China became the first country to outlaw raising funds through virtual currencies that are built on blockchain, a practice known as an initial coin offering (ICO). Soon after, all of the country’s 60 ICO platforms were closed. The central bank responded that the regulatory crackdowns should not deter future research into blockchain.

4. 5 Things to Know About Trump in China

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a press conference on Thursday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: IC

President Xi Jinping hosted U.S. President Donald Trump in China for the first time, and things went relatively smoothly. This backgrounder pulled back the curtain a bit on their agendas.

3. Frustrated Cities Clamp Down on Bike-Share Clutter

Shenzhen, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing are among the Chinese cities that are acting to address the growing problem of shared bicycles' cluttering their streets. Above, a Shanghai sidewalk is crowded with Ofo Inc.'s distinctive yellow shared bicycles on Aug. 23. Photo: Visual China

If you’ve been in China lately you’ve seen the infestation of shared bicycles, which have taken over many urban areas. Here, we look at responses from officials, who from Guangzhou to Shanghai began hitting the pause button on new two-wheelers in their cities.

2. China Steps Up Curbs on Virtual Currency Trading

Regulators order halt to virtual currency trading platforms after ban on initial coin offerings. Photo: Visual China.

The prelude to No. 5 above, as regulators ordered a halt to virtual currency trading platforms after banning initial coin offerings.

1. How Did 6,223 Sharks End Up on Ship With No Fishing Equipment?

The scalloped hammerhead (pictured), which was added to the list of globally endangered shark species in 2008, was one type of shark identified on the Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999. Hammerheads are among the sharks most often caught for their fins, according to a 2008 article by the science website RedOrbit.com. A large shark fin can sell for more than $100 a kilogram. Shark fins are an essential ingredient of shark fin soup, a popular dish often served at high-end weddings and other banquets in China and other parts of East Asia. Photo: Visual China

In August, Ecuadorean coast guards encountered a shocking sight on board a China-flagged ship intercepted within the Galapagos Marine Reserve — a hold filled to the ceiling with shark carcasses.

Despite an early theory that Taiwan vessels transferred endangered cargo to a Chinese refrigerated ship near Ecuador, big data point to Chinese ships of a Nasdaq-listed company.

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