BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Aug 12 (Reuters) – When Chinese journalist
Wang Keqin found himself cornered in the countryside two years
ago by police who were trying to stop him looking into a rape
case involving local officials, he looked online for help.

Wang, one of China’s most dogged investigative journalists,
and his colleagues called a friend who posted constant updates
about their stand-off with encroaching police to a Twitter-like
microblog site. Authorities in Badong County, central China,
were soon flooded with phone calls from citizens warning them
not to detain or hurt him.

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Alibaba.com (1688.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), China’s largest e-commerce firm, beat forecasts with a 29 percent rise in quarterly net profit, its smallest rise in about 1-1/2 years, and warned that the adverse global economic outlook could hit its second half.

Alibaba.com, the listed unit of Alibaba Group, which is 40 percent owned by Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), operates an e-commerce website that links Chinese small businesses looking to sell their goods to overseas buyers, which makes its turnover sensitive to the performance of the world’s major economies such as the United States and Europe, which are struggling with crippling debt crises.

SHANGHAI, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Tencent Holdings Ltd ,
China’s largest Internet company, lifted profit at its slowest
rate in nearly four years and faced growing pressure on margins
from expansion and acquisition costs.

Tencent, which operates online games such as Dungeon &
Fighter and Crossfire, undershot forecasts in the second
quarter, usually a weak period as millions of school children
focus on school examinations.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s ZTE Corp has Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics in its crosshairs as it targets rapid expansion in the U.S. smartphone market.

ZTE, China’s second-largest telcom equipment maker, is confident of beating its 2011 target of shipping 80 million mobile devices and its looking to make the United States its top market in three to five years, an executive said on Tuesday.

SHANGHAI, Aug 9 (Reuters) – China’s second-largest telecom
equipment maker ZTE Corp said on Tuesday
it shipped 60 million terminal devices, including 35 million
handsets, in the first half of the year.

That represented a 30 percent increase in terminal products
shipped from the same period a year ago. ZTE said in a statement
it also saw a 400 percent increase in smart phone sales to five
million units and 300 percent U.S. market growth.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Hollywood studios are set to break into China’s massive Internet market as domestic video sites scramble to screen U.S. movies and dramas on their digital platforms, a move which could also curb rampant piracy.

China’s Youku’s and Sohu’s online video platforms have already cut deals with Disney and CBS Corporation to stream U.S. drama serials such as “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Gossip Girl,” and more such deals are expected.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Hollywood studios are set to break into China’s massive Internet market as domestic video sites scramble to screen U.S. movies and dramas on their digital platforms, a move which could also curb rampant piracy.

China’s Youku’s and Sohu’s online video platforms have already cut deals with Disney and CBS Corporation to stream U.S. drama serials such as “Desperate Housewives”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Gossip Girl”, and more such deals are expected.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Hollywood studios are set to break into China’s massive Internet market as domestic video sites scramble to screen U.S. movies and dramas on their digital platforms, a move which could also curb rampant piracy.

China’s Youku’s and Sohu’s online video platforms have already cut deals with Disney and CBS Corporation to stream U.S. drama serials such as “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Gossip Girl,” and more such deals are expected.

NEW YORK/SHANGHAI, Aug 6 (Reuters) – China bluntly
criticised the United States on Saturday one day after the
superpower’s credit rating was downgraded, saying the “good old
days” of borrowing were over.

Standard & Poor’s cut the U.S. long-term credit rating from
top-tier AAA by a notch to AA-plus on Friday over concerns about
the nation’s budget deficits and climbing debt burden.

NEW YORK/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, drawing a blast of criticism on Saturday from its biggest creditor China and deepening investors’ alarm over the euro zone’s debt crisis.

China said Washington only had itself to blame and called for a new stable global reserve currency.