Chinese autonomous vehicle companies have been racing to offer their own robotaxi services in the country’s big cities in preparation for a future in which public transport systems may adopt driverless cabs as standard. The latest to do so is a Shenzhen-based startup founded just two years ago.

DeepRoute.ai launched its robotaxi service in Shenzhen on Monday, becoming one of the first companies to carry passengers in autonomous vehicles in the city, although human backup drivers are there just in case, according to a company statement.

Currently, a fleet of 20 robotaxis has been deployed in the central business district of Shenzhen, where more than 100 pick-up and drop-off points have been established. The service is now only available for free to passengers over 18 years old, who are required to apply for an invitation code through DeepRoute.ai’s official WeChat account before booking a ride.

“We have tested our self-driving vehicles in Shenzhen for more than two years,” said DeepRoute.ai Vice President Liu Xuan. “We are excited to launch this program and look forward to gradually increasing the number of vehicles available and operation zones covered.”

The launch comes three months after DeepRoute.ai obtained what it called the first permit to trial its robotaxi service in Shenzhen, where lawmakers are reviewing a draft regulation on managing intelligent and connected vehicles.

On Saturday, Baidu expanded its Apollo Go robotaxi service to Guangzhou, allowing users to take autonomous rides in a designated area that contains more than 200 pick-up and drop-off spots. Last week, the city’s government announced the launch of a pilot project that will allow the coexistence of self-driving cars and human-driven vehicles on public roads, paving the way for the large-scale use of driverless vehicles in the city.

Related: Baidu Expands Robotaxi Pilot Program to Guangzhou

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and editor Heather Mowbray (heathermowbray@caixin.com)

What’s trending?

Canadian pop star Kris Wu, 30, has been accused by 19-year-old Du Meizhu of raping her two years ago and sleeping with several other underage girls. That’s according to an interview she gave to NetEase, a Chinese news site, Sunday.

Millions of Weibo readers who have been following the story known as #吴亦凡事件# agree that their own part in the story involves little more than “eating melons,” which means watching things unfold from the sidelines.

What’s the story?

In the interview on Sunday and her previous posts, student and online celebrity Du said the singer Wu had date-raped her when she was 17, and had sex with seven or more other young girls, at least two of whom were under the age of 18, after plying some of them with alcohol.

Wu, who gained fame from acting, modeling and singing in China since leaving Korean boy band EXO in 2014, said on social media, “I only met Miss Du once at a friend’s gathering … I have never ‘coerced women into sex.’”

On July 19, Wu’s studio issued an official statement on Weibo, saying that the revelations were fabricated and that police were investigating the matter.

Despite denying the allegations, more than 10 associated brands have dropped collaborations with the singer, pending the police inquiry. Domestic skincare brand Kans, music streaming platform Yunting, and household detergent-maker Libai have formally severed ties with the celebrity.

Wu holds Canadian citizenship and grew up between Vancouver and Guangzhou. It is not the first time he has been accused online of taking sexual advantage of female fans.

Southern Weekend, a Chinese newspaper, wrote Monday, “This is no longer simply an entertainment circle ‘melon,’ but a public incident that possibly involves a crime. Police should actively intervene in the investigation. If the allegations are true, Wu should be held criminally liable. If not true, the blogger who broke the news is deemed to be spreading rumors, a criminal offense.

China’s MeToo movement sparked by feminist activists in 2018 has been low-key on Chinese social media due in part to a legal system that makes such cases hard to pursue. In particular, cases brought to justice must meet a high evidence threshold in China’s court system, which is harder to gather in cases of sexual assault.

What are people saying online?

A number of commentors on the original story have taken the accusations at face value and decided that Wu is guilty and that his foreign status is at the root of it, telling the singer he should “roll out of China,” a comment that sounds far ruder in Chinese than in English.

Others took a swipe at male entertainers in general. “Sexual assault cases are hard to back with evidence, but does that mean he’s innocent? Do male artists not also need a moral bottom line?”

Taking a different moral stance, one person, ignorant of celebrity culture, wondered why young girls were out with pop stars anyway, “Don’t these girls have to go to school?”

Another popular comment reads, “We aren’t standing in line looking at this rationally. (If we were, we’d see) lots of holes in the story.”

And these are gaps that commentors seem ready and willing to fill themselves. Examples include, “Who is behind [accuser] Du Mizhu? What kind of team does she have?” and “The mainstream media is silent while brands abandon Wu left right and center. This must be about capital.”

One Weibo user thinks, “It has to be about the Olympics. Every time an Olympic event comes around, stories like this surface. Last time, it was Wang Baoqiang’s divorce that we were all munching on like ‘melons.’”

That story had over 5 billion likes on Weibo in the summer of 2016.

Related: Trending in China: High Hopes for Sex Education in Schools

Related: Trending in China: Didi Chuxing Falsely Implicated in Staged ‘Sexual Assault’

Contact reporter Heather Mowbray (heathermowbray@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)

Hong Kong’s richest tycoon Li Ka-shing has received his first dose of the BioNTech SE vaccine for Covid-19, as the city ramps up efforts to get more people vaccinated.

The 92-year-old billionaire got the shot on Friday at Hong Kong’s Sanatorium & Hospital, according to a representative for his charity, the Li Ka Shing Foundation. In a post on Facebook, Li asked others to do the same: “I have taken the vaccine shot today. What about you?”

Hong Kong’s Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip thanked Li for taking action to support vaccinations in a separate Facebook post. Nip urged Hong Kong people to get vaccinated as soon as possible to “restart economy and resume traveling.”

The government on Thursday expanded eligibility for Covid-19 vaccines to all residents aged 16 and older, in its latest attempt to boost the financial hub’s inoculation rate by making the shots more widely accessible.

Li founded CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd., one of Hong Kong’s largest conglomerates, with businesses spanning ports, retail, telecommunications and infrastructure. The group last month posted its first annual profit decline since 2015 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

What’s trending?

Ai Ai Land, the first silicon sex doll experience ‘brothel’ in China, has been shut down by Shenzhen officials. The police who directed the operation did not provide any reason or details but some legal experts suggested that they targeted the brothel out of hygienic concerns. The hashtag #the-first-silicon-sex-doll-experience-house-was-shut-down# has been viewed over 150 million times on Weibo.

What’s the story?

Li Bo, the owner of Ai Ai Land, launched his sex doll service two y ears ago. According to Zhengguan News, the brothel is close to the Shenzhen Foxconn factory complex, where over 80% of the workers and around 120,000 residents nearby were men. Li said that he felt that meeting the sexual needs of single men was important.

Real-human prostitution is strictly prohibited in China and according to Chinese Criminal Law, the act of arranging or providing prostitution can be punished by “fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than 10 years.”.

However, there are no laws that explicitly restrict non-human sex services. Spotting the loophole, Li opened the first silicon brothel in China. In order not to commit the offence of distributing obscene materials, he even removed the speakers from the dolls. He charged the customers 188 yuan/hour ($28) and told them not to develop emotional attachments with the dolls. Li claimed that in the past two years, thousands of customers have visited Ai Ai Land.

What are people saying online?

Ever since its debut, the sex doll brothel has been under the spotlight. People on the internet not only worried that the existence of such places challenged Chinese moral standards, but also the hygiene conditions could not be guaranteed and regulated.

“It has to be shut down! What a terrible influence on my kids if they see a brothel on the street,” read one popular comment. One Weibo user also said, “The owner cannot make sure if he sanitised the dolls thoroughly. The doll house is a great danger to public health.”

But some also expressed that they felt confused why some people refuse to acknowledge that humans need sex. One popular comment read that “sexual needs are nothing to be ashamed of. The real problem is how can we make the place safer and more hygienic for customers.”

Related: Trending in China: Billionaire Child Sex Abuse Trial Triggers National Debate

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

Recent controversy surrounding e-commerce giant Pinduoduo is intensifying, after an employee leapt to his death from his family’s 27th floor apartment in the central city of Changsha.

The controversy centers on the relentless work culture at many Chinese internet companies, where employees are often pressured to follow a “996” schedule that requires work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for six days a week. Pinduoduo is just one of many companies with such a culture, but has become a poster child for the abusive policy following two recent worker deaths.

The first occurred in the early hours of Dec. 29 when a 22-year-old female employee working for the company’s grocery business in Western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region collapsed in the street and died later after getting off work.

That was followed by another death over the weekend, when the worker surnamed Tan died in an act that a doctor later confirmed was a suicide. Tan had requested leave from his job at Pinduoduo in Shanghai last Friday and flew back to Changsha the same day before taking his life.

The first death triggered a firestorm of debate on Chinese social media. Before she died the woman had complained on her own social media account, saying: “The capitalist revolution has truly gobbled up the ordinary people.”

To read the full story, click here.

Related: Pinduoduo Worker’s Death Renews Scrutiny of 996 Work Culture

Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)

Mongolia delivered the first batch of sheep that the landlocked nation promised China eight months ago in support of its neighboring country’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Loaded on more than a dozen of trucks, 4,000 sheep entered China after being quarantined in the Mongolian border city of Zaman Ude for 30 days. The rest of the 30,000 sheep offered by Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga are expected to enter China by mid-November, officials said.

The animals will stay in Erenhot, a border city in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, for an additional 10-day quarantine before they are slaughtered and processed to be sent to Hubei, China’s first outbreak epicenter. Mongolia’s president promised the sheep during a February visit to China.

The gift shows Mongolia's firm support to the Chinese government and people in the fight against the epidemic and highlights the sincere friendship between the two countries and peoples, China’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Erenhot is the largest border city between China and Mongolia and a major trade gateway. During the first eight months this year, China exported 68,000 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables to Mongolia through Erenhot, up 12.5% from the same period a year ago.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).

Jack Ma, a founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has topped the Hurun China Rich List for the third year in a row.

Ma, who retired as Alibaba’s chairman in September last year, saw his fortune rise by 45% to $58.8 billion in 2020 on the back of the impending blockbuster IPO of Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group and the healthy growth of its online shopping platforms, according to the list released by Shanghai-based publishing group Hurun Report on Tuesday. The wealth calculations were as of Aug. 28.

“This year has seen the biggest wealth increase in the 22 years of the Hurun China Rich List. Stock markets’ boom and a flurry of new listings have minted five new billionaires in China a week for the past year,” Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report’s chairman and chief researcher, said in a statement.

China’s second richest man is Pony Ma of social media and gaming giant Tencent. The entrepreneur’s net worth grew to $57.4 billion this year, as gaming emerges as one of his company’s major revenue streams.

In the third spot on this year’s list was Zhong Shanshan of YST, which is known for its bottled water brand Nongfu Spring. Zhong is worth $53.7 billion.

There were 743 newcomers this year, five of whom jumped straight into the top 100, led by YST’s Zhong. The list measured the wealth of 2,398 billionaires.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (dingyi@caixin.com)

Related: Pinduoduo and ByteDance Chiefs Were Two of the Three Richest Billionaires under 40 in 2019

Since China brought its Covid-19 epidemic under control earlier this year, a number of local outbreaks have sparked concerns that the novel coronavirus which causes the disease may spread through global chilled-food supply chains.

That theory has now been strengthened after the country’s disease control authority said it “isolated” active samples of the virus from packaging used to store frozen fish in the eastern port city of Qingdao, which recently recorded a Covid-19 flare-up.

The discovery marks the first time that active viruses have been found on packaging under the extreme conditions of cold storage. However, the authority said the risk to public health from contact with frozen or chilled foods is “very low.”

Viruses are known to remain active for long periods in subzero conditions, including the refrigerated containers used to move meat, seafood and other perishable products around the world.

Read the full story over on Caixin Global.

Contact reporter Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com)

What’s trending?

Chinese farmer Li Zhifang is being crowned a “Food Hero” by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on World Food Day, for his efforts to keep food cheap and accessible to residents of Wuhan during the worst period of the city’s lockdown during the pandemic.

What’s the story?

Li is marketing manager of the Wuhan Qiangxin Vegetable Production and Marketing Cooperative. He strived to keep food prices affordable and food supplies accessible during an unprecedented lockdown in the city where the virus began and many were forced to stay in their homes for months. Vegetable prices rocketed at the beginning of the pandemic when the situation was still developing.

Li not only persuaded farmers to sell produce at “normal” prices but also helped to increase deliveries from cooperative members to supermarkets, including Hema, also known as Freshippo, a Chinese fresh food supermarket chain owned by Alibaba.

During the pandemic Li volunteered to help the local government distribute necessities to districts where there was a shortage of fresh food, including communities adjacent to the Huanan Seafood Market, thought to be the original epicenter of the pandemic, which people were scared to visit.

“Someone must be brave when the battle begins,” the “Food Hero” was quoted as saying.

What are people saying online?

People have praised Li for his contribution and commented that his new title on this special day shows that the UN approves of China’s anti-pandemic policies. “Wuhan relied on these ordinary heroes to recover from the pandemic.” One popular comment read.

Another person from Wuhan posted about their personal experience during the lockdown. “As a Wuhan local, I could buy vegetables at reasonable prices during the lockdown, thank you so much!”

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

Related: Update: China’s Consumer Inflation Edges Up Amid Faster-Rising Food Prices

Months before the global pandemic started in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year, thousands of residents near a biopharmaceutical plant in the Northwestern city of Lanzhou were exposed to the highly contagious and hard-to-treat disease called brucellosis from contaminated exhaust at a biopharmaceutical factory.

Most of those tested positive for antibodies of the disease, which commonly occurs among sheep, cattle, goats, pigs and dogs and also is called Malta Fever or Mediterranean Fever. But few were ever formally diagnosed.

There are more than 10 residential communities with a combined population of more than 10,000 located within 1 kilometer of the plant, and Caixin learned that antibody tests later showed that more than 3,000 were infected.

One of the victims, 40-year-old shopkeeper Gao Hong, a pseudonym, was hit with crippling joint pain and persistent fever. It took nearly six months for doctors to diagnose her condition. By then, she had missed the window for the most effective treatment, leaving her with a hard-to-cure chronic condition that requires long-term medication.

The nightmare for Gao and others started at the Lanzhou Biopharmaceutical Plant, a unit of state-owned China Animal Husbandry Industry Co. Ltd. located on the northeastern periphery of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province. Local health authorities later determined the factory used expired sanitizers while producing Brucella vaccines between July 24 and Aug. 20, allowing bacteria to enter the factory’s exhaust and infect people nearby.

To read Caixin’s in-depth, investigative story on this quieter outbreak that has affected thousands of lives, click here.

Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)

An alleged theft from a WeChat wallet account points to possible corruption by police.

Luo Ximei, a 55-year-old Jiangxi woman, detained by local police over an organized crime case, says more than 66,000 yuan ($9,653) was taken from her phone’s WeChat account while it should have been locked up in evidence. Mobile payments are a ubiquitous part of life in China, with people typically connecting their bank cards to the apps to facilitate transfers to and from their bank accounts.

Caixin first revealed Luo’s case on Friday. Then on Saturday, the politics and legal affairs commission of Fengxin’s Communist Party committee released a statement (link in Chinese) saying a local policeman surnamed Chen had been arrested on suspicion of embezzlement from a WeChat account.

Luo’s daughter says the officer’s detention is not a satisfactory outcome, and that the incident should be investigated as a case of corruption, not merely theft.

Read the full story here.

Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com) and editor Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com)

Four Chinese tech entrepreneurs have been ranked among the big names in Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list this year. The list honors the world’s most influential people under the age of 40 in various industries ranging from finance to entertainment.

On Thursday, the American magazine published the annual list’s 2020 version, which highlights a total of 200 people with 40 powerful people in five different categories – finance, technology, healthcare, government and politics, as well as media and entertainment – marking a break from the previous years when 40 heavyweights from all walks of life were named in a single list.

Fortune attributes the monumental change to 2020’s special situation where the deadly Covid-19 pandemic has significantly affected every aspect of people’s lives and the way global businesses operate.

This year, the Chinese people named in the list’s technology category include Su Hua, cofounder and CEO of short video app Kuaishou; Cindy Mi, cofounder and CEO of online education firm VIPKid; Liu Yachao, cofounder and COO of TAL Education Group; and Wu Tian, corporate vice president of internet giant Baidu.

The industries where the four Chinese tech executives work saw explosive growth during the coronavirus outbreak which led to the shutdowns of many schools and kept many people indoors.

In addition to the tech entrepreneurs Yang Bing of Ant Group’s OceanBase was listed in the finance category, while Yang Luhan of Qihan Biotech and Ma Chun’e of Shukun Technologies made it in the healthcare category.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (dingyi@caixin.com)

Related: Alibaba’s Zhang Yong Tops 2020 Forbes China Best CEOs List

The apparent suicide of a young shopkeeper in Shenzhen has highlighted the lack of independent oversight of account suspensions on Tencent’s WeChat, the super-app which intertwines its 1.2 billion users’ personal, professional and financial worlds.

The man fell to his death from the roof of Tencent’s customer service center in Shenzhen, apparently after several attempts to have the suspension of his account reversed.

Further questions have been raised by a mystery compensation payment of 150,000 yuan to the man’s family, which his brother says came on condition they remain silent about the incident. He says he broke his silence after police returned the man’s phone, which contained a video in which he directed blame at Tencent. Caixin has not seen the video.

Tencent has denied making the payment.

“I would never have signed that form if I’d known about the video,” the man’s brother told Caixin. “I was told if we didn’t sign that consent form, we won’t get any compensation fee at all.”

Read the full story on Caixin Global.

Contact reporter Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com)

What’s trending?

Universities across the country are receiving the go-ahead to reopen for the fall semester, with classes scheduled to return at different times in order to reduce traffic flow. However, the return to campus might not be as attractive as it sounds. Some institutions are contemplating strict public health precautions, such as barring all students from leaving campus for the duration of the semester.

What’s the story?

In March, the Ministry of Education issued a directive to universities that banned all on-campus students from leaving school grounds. Students who wish to leave campus for a compelling reason needed approval from university administrators. Five months later, as the domestic epidemic has been largely brought under control, it remains unclear what kinds of limitations students will face in the fall. Instructions for colleges reopening in Beijing only said that “the specifics of reopening will be determined by each school after careful research and submitted to authorities for review.”

However, many institutions have opted to err on the side of caution. For example, in an interview with China National Radio, an instructor at Anhui University said that students will be confined to the campus once they return for the fall semester. Meanwhile, at most universities across the nation, staff, their family members, and vendors who own shops on campus face few restrictions when entering and leaving campus.

Not only has the confinement rule angered students, it has also caused unintended consequences for the surrounding areas. In suburban college towns, many restaurants and shops that used to rely on student patrons are now out of business while they struggle to pay rent.

What are people saying online?

Under state media posts on Weibo about the grand reopening, panicking college students have demanded more details about whether or not they will be confined to campus. One user wrote, “Keeping everyone on campus is completely unnecessary, especially if the rule doesn’t apply to university staff and on-campus vendors. Does the virus only infect college students? Why can primary and middle schools operate as usual?” Others have called people’s attention to the immense pressure that confinement and online courses have placed on students’ mental health.

Many netizens have criticized colleges for not adopting a more nuanced policy. “Students are most likely to obey rules, but also most likely to be treated unfairly. The confinement rule does nothing apart from signaling that administrators are making some kind of effort.”

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

What’s trending?

Huang Zheng, founder and CEO of China’s e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo, now has a net worth of $45.4 billion dollars, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires Rankings. That means he has surpassed Alibaba founder Jack Ma to become the second-richest person in China, closely trailing behind Pony Ma, founder and CEO of Tencent.

What’s the story?

In the short five years since its founding, Pinduoduo has overtaken rival JD.com to become China’s second largest online retailer after Alibaba. Thanks to increased user engagement as people have turned to online platforms amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Nasdaq-listed company’s shares have doubled in value since the beginning of the year.

After rapid growth in the first quarter of 2020, Pinduoduo’s market value rose sharply in June, triggered by robust sales during the annual nationwide shopping promotion on June 18. During the shopping festival, the number of orders on Pinduoduo exceeded 1.1 billion. The company now boasts a market capitalization of over $104 billion with over 628 million active buyers. Huang owns a 45% stake in Pinduoduo and has quickly risen to the top ranks of China’s wealthiest people. However, the company is far from profitable, reporting a net loss of 4 billion yuan ($581.8 million) in the first quarter of 2020.

What are people saying online?

Huang’s staggering net-worth has triggered mixed feelings among internet users. One user dismissed Pinduoduo as an online platform that “mostly sells counterfeit products.” Several other users echoed this sentiment, saying they never expected the company to be so successful.

Other netizens are impressed by Huang’s wealth and optimistic about the company. “It’s only been five years since Pinduoduo was founded. The company has a bright future ahead,” one user wrote.

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

What’s trending?

From June 11 to June 18, Beijing reported 158 cases of Covid-19. In response to the outbreak, the city has launched a mass testing campaign. People who are deemed to be high risk must receive mandatory tests at designated sites, usually converted parks and sports fields. Others can make reservations for voluntary tests at clinics across the city. Although testing efficiency is high, by international standards, the sheer number of tests needed has put a strain on the city’s testing system.

What’s the story?

Starting from June 14, Beijing committed itself to carrying out as many tests as possible. Several kinds of people are required to be tested at sites run by the government, including those who work in the healthcare and service industries, as well as those with direct links to Xinfadi Market, where the latest outbreak is believed to have begun. Other people who want to be tested can choose among 98 testing clinics and make reservations. Demand for voluntary tests is particularly high among people who want to leave Beijing for work or personal reasons as they need to provide proof of a negative test result up to 7 days in advance of being allowed to travel.

Beijing currently has the capacity to collect 400,000 samples and complete 90,000 tests per day. Due to the gap between sample collection and testing capacities, many people are experiencing delays in receiving their test results. With the surge in testing demand, numerous testing clinics have filled up all bookings for voluntary tests until the end of June, or in extreme cases, until September. Photos of testing sites show crowds of people lined up to get tested. The vast majority of them are wearing masks, but the size of the crowds sometimes makes strict social distancing difficult. Meanwhile, medical personnel must wear full personal protective equipment for hours at a time despite high temperatures.

What are people saying online?

Many people have expressed their approval of Beijing’s swift and widescale action, while acknowledging the mounting difficulties in receiving voluntary tests. One user wrote that she is still waiting for her test results, five days after being tested on June 14.

Others thank medical personnel for their dedication and hard work. They hope that the government can furnish the testing sites with better working environments because of the hot weather.

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

Related: In Depth: Controlling Covid-19 May Become Ongoing Game of Whack-a-Mole

What’s trending?

Sina Weibo, China’s biggest social media site, reopened its trending topics list on Wednesday afternoon. The Cyberspace Administration of China had ordered Weibo to freeze the list for a week as punishment for Weibo “disturbing online order” and “posting illegal information in violation of regulations.”

What’s the story?

Weibo’s trending topics list is back after a week of suspension, fines, and internal review procedures. Web regulators said the punishments were related to Weibo’s violations in an incident involving a person surnamed Jiang, without providing further details. People suspected that they were referring to Weibo’s suppression of viral posts in April regarding an alleged affair of Jiang Fan, Alibaba’s e-commerce chief. Immediately after the feature’s reactivation, the most popular topics included the Covid-19 outbreak in Beijing and abroad, China-Indian border conflict, and China’s college entrance exam timeline this year.

Weibo launched its trending topics list in 2010, and since then, it has become a convenient tool for netizens to follow hot news stories and celebrity gossip. In concept, the list of hashtags is based on user behavior and updated every minute. However, it is no secret that people can buy their way onto the trending topics list. One of the top three spots, for example, costs about 50,000 yuan ($7,066). It is predicted that Weibo will be more careful in dealing with negative content and celebrity news from now on.

What are people saying online?

The hashtag “trending topics list is back” has received 690 million views on Weibo. People have expressed mixed feelings on the list’s return. Some say that they enjoyed reading directly from news providers and a break from the noise of celebrity gossip. “If trending topics depend on who paid more money, I’m fine without it,” one user wrote.

Meanwhile, others who rely heavily on the list to stay informed have enthusiastically welcomed its return and likened their joy to the feeling of reconnecting to WiFi.

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

Related: Weibo Posts Stronger User Growth Even as Revenue Falls Amid Pandemic

What’s trending?

On June 4, Miao Kexin, a fifth-grader at Hebin Elementary School in Changzhou, killed herself shortly after attending a writing class. Almost two weeks later, the controversy is unabated as Miao’s family and many netizens mistrust the official investigation into the suicide and probe possible misconduct by the writing teacher.

What’s the story?

According to Miao’s family who watched the surveillance footage at her school, Miao ran out of the classroom looking distressed after her Chinese writing class. She then jumped to her death from the fourth floor of the school building. After interviewing Miao’s classmates and teachers, preliminary investigations found that the teacher of the writing class did not verbally or physically abuse Miao on the day of her death.

Miao’s parents have expressed their dissatisfaction with the preliminary investigation findings on Weibo and urged witnesses to step forward. Officials confirm that the teacher had previously slapped Miao in the face, and encouraged the parents to pay for extra lessons. The teacher ran private writing lessons for profit, a practice which is forbidden by the education authorities. The parents suspect that the teacher was especially harsh towards Miao because she would not attend the private lessons. Several of the teachers’ former students have come forward with testimonies of the teacher’s abuse of students.

Several widely circulated photos of Miao’s essays immediately before her death show large chunks of her writing crossed out without any reason or feedback. The essay was a reading response to an excerpt from one of China’s four classics, Journey to the West. Above a sentence where the girl wrote “we should not be fooled by hypocritical facades,” the teacher criticized Miao for lacking “positive energy.” Meanwhile, the teacher failed to notice a factual mistake that Miao made about the book’s author, raising doubts about the teacher’s qualifications.

What are people saying online?

Miao’s tragedy has sparked widespread outrage as people condemn the teacher for her alleged misconduct. One indignant user referred to the accident as “indirect murder,” and said that such harsh treatment of an innocent child will eventually cause irreversible harms.

At the same time, other netizens feel reluctant to blame the teacher for what they consider is the girl’s inability to withstand criticism.

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

Related: Livestreamed Suicide Raises Painful Questions in China

What’s trending?

On Thursday evening, a Sina Weibo user accused an unidentified driver of live-streaming the sexual assault of a female passenger in Zhengzhou, Henan. The driver is said to be associated with Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing giant. The Weibo user’s initial post has since received thousands of reposts and sparked widespread concern. Didi Chuxing quickly launched an investigation of the incident and notified the police.

What’s the story?

Using the hashtag “Didi driver live-streams sexual assault,” a Weibo user urged netizens to help her spread the details of an alleged sexual assault where the victim was supposedly drugged. According to an article anonymously posted on the GitHub online platform, cited as evidence by the Weibo user, a driver who claimed to be working for Didi flirted with a female passenger, stopped driving, drugged her using a spray, and proceeded to sexually assault her. He filmed the whole process and posted the footage on an underground live-streaming platform. The anonymous source wrote that thousands of viewers paid money to watch the video. While it remains unclear whether or not the driver is actually associated with Didi Chuxing, the company is closely cooperating with local police in their investigation.

Previous sexual misconduct incidents involving Didi drivers have already put Didi Chuxing under intense scrutiny. From 2014 to 2018, the media reported at least 50 cases of Didi-related sexual harassment and assault, including 2 murders and 19 rapes (Source: Southern Weekly).

What are people saying online?

Many people have questioned the veracity of the incident. Numerous medical professionals have commented that there is no known drug that can knock a person unconscious for 10 minutes with just a few sprays. They argue that the incident seems to have been staged and people should not jump to conclusions. The Weibo user who first exposed the story is now being criticized for hastily blaming Didi Chuxing before police have the chance to confirm the driver’s identity.

Others wrote that, regardless of Didi Chuxing’s involvement or not, the police should thoroughly investigate pornographic live-streaming platforms. “It’s disgusting that there are people who are willing to pay to watch live-streams like this,” one user wrote.

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

Related: In Depth: China’s Didi Faces Reckoning

Self-driving startup Pony.ai has nabbed licenses to test autonomous vehicles carrying passengers on Beijing’s roads in designated areas, a move that could pave the way for the broader commercialization of such cars.

According to a statement published Monday on the company’s public WeChat account, Pony.ai will mainly focus on testing their fleet of internet-based “robotaxis” on limited routes in the Chinese capital’s Haidian district and Yizhuang in the southeast of the city.

The “robotaxis” will be able to pick up passengers and drive on specified public roads, although a human will have to be present in the driver’s seat just in case of an emergency.

The issuance of the licenses to Pony.ai comes six months after Beijing gave the green light to road test autonomous vehicles carrying passengers.

The company, which is based in California and has research and development centers in Beijing and Guangzhou, claim that its five autonomous vehicles logged a total of 114,700 kilometers in test drives on specially approved roads in Beijing last year and importantly this did not involve passengers.

Pony.ai has taken a further step in making its robotaxi service available to the general public in the U.S. in February, when the company unveiled the PonyPilot service in Fremont, California, allowing local government employees to hail taxis equipped with the company’s own self-driving system using an specially designed app on fixed routes.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

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