Eight Found Dead in Collapsed Hotel, Travel Restrictions for the Unvaccinated, Shanghai’s Record Temperature

Here is today’s ranking of the 10 most-read news stories in China in economics, finance and current affairs, to help give you a sense of what’s trending in the Chinese language sphere.

Chinese social media users have been paying close attention to the Suzhou hotel collapse that killed eight people. They have also been following the government’s rejection of the Tencent-led game streaming merger.

1. Eight dead in Suzhou hotel collapse

Rescue operations are continuing at the site of a collapsed hotel building in Wujiang district in Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu province. Fourteen people have been rescued, eight have died and nine remained missing as of 10 a.m. Tuesday.

2. Unvaccinated people to face travel restrictions in three provinces

Several districts in Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Shanxi provinces have issued notices banning unvaccinated people (external source, in Chinese) from entering public places such as supermarkets, hospitals, schools, stations and pharmacies, starting from late July, according to The Paper.

3. Shanghai has highest temperature in the country for one day

Shanghai Central Meteorological Station updated its orange warning signal twice for high temperatures on Monday, as the mercury in the metropolitan Xujiahui area reached 37.7 C, the hottest in China on the day.

Photo: IC Photo

4. Shanghai raises monthly minimum wage by $18.50

According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai will raise the monthly minimum wage (external source, in Chinese) by 120 yuan ($18.50) to 2,320 yuan and the hourly minimum wage to 13.33 yuan, starting from Aug. 1.

5. Regulator rejects Tencent-led bid to acquire game streaming company

A Chinese regulator has rejected Huya Inc.’s proposal to acquire rival Douyu International Holdings Ltd., killing a deal that would have helped cement Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s lead in video game streaming.

6. 99,000 Taiwan residents get vaccinated on Chinese mainland

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office (external source, in Chinese), said that 99,000 Taiwan residents have been vaccinated on the Chinese mainland as of June 30.

7. Tesla reduces price on newly launched model

Tesla launched the Model Y Standard Range Edition (external source, in Chinese) on Thursday at a price of 276,000 yuan, down 71,900 yuan and 100,000 yuan respectively on the previous Long Range Edition and Performance Edition prices. The company sold 33,155 of the vehicles in June, a 122% year-on-year increase.

8. Tencent Music will be ordered to give up exclusive rights

China’s antitrust regulator plans to order Tencent’s music-streaming subsidiary (external source, in Chinese) to give up its exclusive rights to music labels that have been used to compete with smaller rivals.

9. India’s most populous state introduces birth control legislation

India’s most populous state (external source, in Chinese), Uttar Pradesh, has introduced legislation to control the birth rate, according to Reuters. Couples with over two children will not receive state benefits or government subsidies and will be ineligible to be government employees.

10. Two Chinese vaccines to be supplied to Covax

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization announced Monday that Covax has signed agreements with two Chinese pharmaceutical companies (external source, in Chinese), Sinopharm and Sinovac, to purchase more than 500 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccines in the first half of next year.

Translated by intern reporter Chen Bingyi.

Caixin has not independently verified the veracity or accuracy of all of the headlines or stories.

The daily ranking of most read news stories among Chinese people, about China and global affairs, is jointly provided to you by Caixin Insight and HANA Data, an artificial intelligence technology team.

The key indicators calculated on the list are based on mass data sourced from China’s mainstream social media platforms and online news websites. Click here for a detailed introduction of our methodology.