Star Anchor in Corruption Probe

CCTV anchor Rui Chenggang was detained by authorities on Friday

The corruption net has widened in China to include a well-known anchor from China Central Television.

Rui Chenggang was taken away by the authorities on Friday from the CCTV premises, leaving his Economic News co-anchor Xie Yingying to host the show on her own that evening.

The routine camera angles continued, with shots of Rui's empty seat, though his microphone was there. Seems like no one in the control room knew how to deal with Rui's sudden departure.

In addition to taking away the 36-year-old, prosecutors also rounded up Li Yong, deputy director of CCTV's financial news channel and an unnamed producer.

This trio isn't the only group of people from CCTV caught up in investigations -- other high-profile figures at the state media have also been detained, including senior executive Guo Zhenxi last month.

Interestingly auditors found over 1 million yuan in Rui's office, but it was unclear if the money was related to his detention. Perhaps he was planning to take it to Brazil where he had planned to cover Chinese President Xi Jinping's trip to South America and the BRICS summit? Too much speculation at this point.

After Guo was taken away in early June, there were rumours Rui was implicated into the investigation into Guo, but Rui denied this. Instead he continued to host his show and even posted pictures on his Weibo account interviewing Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on June 3.

If Rui is formally arrested, this will signal the downfall of one of China's most prominent young rising stars. He is fluent in English and apparently has a taste for Ermenegildo Zegna suits, and drives a Jaguar.

A biography on the CCTV English-language website said Rui had interviewed more than 30 heads of state, and more than 300 top executives of Fortune 500 companies.

In 2005 then Yale University President Richard C. Levin nominated Rui to be a Yale World Fellow, and Levin even wrote the introduction to the anchor's book called Life Begins at 30, on China's economic rise.

Two years later Rui gained notoriety when he used his blog to campaign the government to remove a branch of Starbucks from the Forbidden City in Beijing. It was later replaced with a Chinese cafe.

In 2010 Rui became the subject of Internet mockery over a comment he made when US President Barack Obama called for questions from the Korean news media at a Group of 20 summit meeting in South Korea.

"I'm actually Chinese, but I think I get to represent the whole of Asia," he said.

The next year he point blank asked then incoming US Ambassador to China Gary Locke, "I hear you flew here coach. Is that a reminder that the US owes China money?"

Locke replied it was standard practice for American diplomats and other American officials to fly economy.

In some aspects, Rui's character may represent China today -- ambition, conniving, patriotism, and hubris.

Piggybacks, Planking and Plazas...

Would you piggyback your boss like this guy?

A few quirky China stories caught our eye this week --

An official in Jiangxi province was sacked when pictures surfaced of him getting a piggyback ride because he didn't want to ruin his designer shoes.

He didn't want to get his shoes soaked while inspecting the search for children missing during a flood due to heavy rains in the area.

The man is Wang Junhua, vice director of an unspecified government office in the city of Guixi. The poor guy who had to carry his boss was Ding Xianbao, a clerk.

We wonder if Ding was given a promotion for his troubles...

George Hood shows his planking skills at the Forbidden City

Then there was an ex-US Marine who came to Beijing to show people how to plank. It's a great exercise to build muscles in your abs -- or do you not know where they are?

You have to support yourself on your toes and your forearms and hold it there -- 30 seconds is a good start.

But for 56-year-old George Hood, it was four hours and one minute, beating his previous record of three hours and seven minutes. People cheered him on at the China National Convention Center.

"This was the biggest and most rewarding opportunity I've ever been presented with," Hood said two days after the event. "This probably surpasses my son's graduation. We captivated a whole country."

He even got Soho China co-founder Pan Shiyi and Gary Locke, former US Ambassador to China to get planking -- for a mere 10 minutes.

To break his own record, Hood trained for four hours a day for six months by doing an hour of cardio, two hours of planks, 150-200 pushups and 2,000 ab exercises.

How did he plank for over four hours without giving in? Hood listened to music, including Christian music, rock 'n' roll and ballads.

Better start planking again...

And finally we are thrilled to hear US politics has a way of giving China the finger. It may not have the financial muscle to overturn the trade imbalance but it can do this: The House Appropriations Committee voted to rename the road in front of the Chinese Embassy as "Liu Xiaobo Plaza", after the Nobel Prize-winning dissident who is serving an 11-year sentence for "inciting subversion of state power".

In future all correspondence from the Chinese Embassy will have to give its address at Liu Xiaobo Plaza. We wonder if the embassy is pondering whether it should move or not.

And we hope Liu is in his cell in Jinzhou, Liaoning province, laughing upon hearing this latest news. The US has not forgotten him.

Parting Shots

Gary Locke making one of his final speeches in Beijing as US Ambassador

US Ambassador to China Gary Locke left Beijing today after two-and-a-half years in the post.

Many Chinese citizens were taken with him, from carrying his own bags to using coupons to buy Starbucks coffee.

But during his time in Beijing, his diplomatic skills were put to the test twice.

First was in February 2012 when Wang Lijun, Bo Xilai's former right hand man fled to the US Embassy in Chengdu and may have requested for political asylum but was denied and forced to surrender to security officials.

Then in April that year blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng made a daring escape from house arrest and fled to the US Embassy in the Chinese capital. Locke may have bungled this incident as he left Chen behind in the hospital and wasn't able to get in contact with him again nor promise security.

Nevertheless, in the end Chen and his family were able to fly to the United States, thus defusing a possible conflict with China as then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting China.

In his farewell remarks to a group of young Chinese, Locke encouraged the mainland to accept more criticism within and outside the country.

"China should have the national self-confidence to withstand the media scrutiny that most of the world takes for granted," he said. Locke also stressed the importance of rule of law and human rights.

However, a Chinese state media outlet seemed too pleased to see Locke leave.

China News Service is the second-largest news wire service after Xinhua and it didn't hesitate to call the Chinese-American a "yellow-skinned white hearted banana man".

In addition to using a number of racist descriptions of the ambassador, China News Service said: "Mr Locke not only does not understand the writing of his ancestors, but also failed to understand Chinese law. He particularly likes to gesticulate profusely and criticize indiscriminately Chinese domestic affairs".

"Every time US officials visited China, Mr Locke would send a report and talk up China's so-called human rights and Tibetan issues, suggesting to US officials to use the opportunity to pound China," it said.

"If your ancestors had known about [your professional record], they would have thrown you out of the house."

The news agency even accused Locke of exploiting Beijing's horrible air pollution as a publicity stunt.

And China claims it is using its soft power to influence the world? This commentary is hardly diplomatic -- in fact it gives a schizophrenic view of the mainland as a two-faced country that tries to give a modern and fresh impression, but in fact is vile and black-hearted.

Being racist is somewhat amusing as Locke is ethnically one of them, but the Chinese don't see it that way. If you're American with a Chinese face, you're considered American...

Is this the real face China wants outsiders to see?

Zaijian, Mr Locke

Gary Locke with his family when they first arrived in Beijing

US Ambassador to China Gary Locke has tendered his resignation and will leave the post in January to join his family in Seattle.

He was in the job for two years and it must have been interesting for the third-generation Chinese-American to see his grandparents' homeland.

Locke quickly endeared himself to the ordinary Chinese when he was spotted flying economy class, carrying his own luggage and trying to pay his Starbucks coffee with coupons.

But his tenure quickly escalated into international news -- twice.

He endeared himself to the Chinese for being humble

The first was in November 2011 Locke visited Chongqing where he met the then party chief Bo Xilai. Three months later Bo's right hand man Wang Lijun fled to the US consulate in Chengdu and told of the story of a murder that implicated Bo and evidence of corruption in the hopes of receiving asylum in return.

In the end there wasn't enough justification for the US to take him in and this led to Bo's downfall which we saw a few months ago.

Then last May blind activist Chen Guangcheng managed to escape illegal house arrest in Shandong and fled to Beijing and sought refuge in the US Embassy.

This created a huge diplomatic crisis for the US, as then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was about to arrive for scheduled talks and didn't want this incident to anger the Chinese.

At first the embassy didn't want to confirm Chen was there, but in the end said it accepted him on humanitarian grounds and medical assistance.

He will be forever remembered in helping Chen Guangcheng

Perhaps Locke's misstep was leaving Chen alone in a Beijing hospital to get his foot looked at because he broke it while escaping; as a result Chinese security stepped in, and Chen was unable to contact the embassy, nor were US diplomats able to see him. This made Chen anxious and felt abandoned, even betrayed.

In the end negotiations were made for Chen and his family to go to New York.

Some speculated that Locke is leaving because of the increasingly bad air quality in Beijing, but the consulate denies this. Nevertheless his family has already moved back to Seattle and so it would only be a matter of time before he rejoined them.

So what's next for Locke? Surely he won't be out of the headlines for long.