That makes it hard to argue that People’s Daily has committed ‘wrongful appropriation’ or violated any actual law. For its purposes, this was all cherry picked from some nebulous public domain.

Within the context of journalism, the whole reason people harp on plagiarism is that it is somehow more honest to attribute the source of these words (arguable) and that being so forthcoming is an essential part of a media outlet’s integrity and credibility.

Since People’s Daily has neither intergrity nor credibility, I’d say it’s safe.

No s**t! It took a Lao wai a years worth of uncovering information that is publicly accessible in china to string together that Wen baobao is a Daddy Warbucks zillionaire!

Now I know that Chinese “reporters” don’t go there if they want a future in china but what’s really scary is seeing now what the CCP thugs are going to do to roll back that sort of info that was previously researchable! Goodbye sunshine!

So: Two cases in the past decade? How does that constitute an “explosion” in plagiarism and fabrication by the NYT exactly?

It doesn’t, which is why their own statement is pure fabrication, of course.