China finds scapegoat for market crash as journalist "confesses" to causing the whole thing

(NaturalNews) The Communist Party leadership in China has found a scapegoat for their bad economic stewardship that has led to the country's stock market plunge and a devaluation of the currency: a journalist.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that China's main state-owned television broadcaster recently paraded a financial journalist on screen who was "confessing" to having caused the stock market's "great losses" in recent weeks, as authorities work feverishly to stem the rout.

AFP further reported:

Wang Xiaolu, a journalist with the respected business magazine Caijing, was held after writing a story in July saying the securities regulator was studying plans for government funds to exit the market.

Beijing has launched interventions on a grand scale to try -- with little success -- to shore up plunging share prices after a debt-fuelled bubble burst in June.

AFP cited a Financial Times report that claimed that Chinese officials decided to stop buying stock shares and instead intensify a crackdown on anyone they suspect of "destabilizing" the market, although government funds appeared to still be acquiring stock.

In addition to obtaining a "confession" from Wang, Chinese authorities also said that 197 others had been punished for "spreading online rumors" on a range of issues, including the markets and giant deadly blasts at the port of Tianjin August 12, but they provided few details.

In August, Natural News editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reported exclusively that based on sources in China, the explosion in Tianjin was actually caused by an American space-based weapon in retaliation for China's currency devaluation.

Cracking down

He also noted that the Chinese government "put in place unprecedented secrecy surrounding the mysterious explosion, and aggressive police state tactics are now being invoked to control the flow of information surrounding this event" – a claim that is supported by the AFP report.

Regarding China's financial troubles, the government has introduced an unprecedented package of support measures, including utilizing state-backed entities to purchase stocks while cracking down on "malicious" short-selling – that, is, when investors sell off shares they don't yet own in anticipation of a fall in their market price.

However, the measures have not done much to calm investors and concerns about the overall health of the Chinese economy as well as its ability to manage its financial condition. In fact, China's stock fall set off a plunge in stock values on Wall Street and elsewhere around the first world.

As for Wang, the state-owned CCTV broadcast him saying that he wanted to create a stir and buzz among readers with his articles.

"I should not have published a report that heavily and negatively affected the market at such a sensitive time... (I) caused such great losses to the country and to stock investors. I am deeply sorry," he said in a contrite admission.

Jail as a censor

AFP cited a state-owned Xinhua news agency report that said Wang was being held by authorities for fabricating and spreading false information, which "caused panics and disorder at [the] stock market, seriously undermined the market confidence, and inflected huge losses on the country and investors."

The Chinese government's reaction to its own economic ineptitude – blaming a journalist – is not unlike the Obama administration blaming the death of Libyan Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three American security personnel at Benghazi on a spontaneous "protest" allegedly spurred by an anti-Muslim video, a claim that was just recently debunked based on newly released documents.

The man accused of making that video - Nakoula Basseley Nakoula - was nevertheless jailed by an Obama administration eager to shield the truth about events that led to the Benghazi attack, which occurred on September 11, 2012, a full 11 years after the 9/11 attacks.

It's a safe bet that Wang will end up in a Chinese prison as well.

Sources include:

News.Yahoo.com

NaturalNews.com

JudicialWatch.org