Xinhua Fights for R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The bumpy road to redemption is where Xinhua Finance Media (Nasdaq: XFML  ) can be found hitchhiking today. The Chinese media company declared a $50 million share buyback and initiatives to regain the confidence of investors who have strayed after reading one too many negative reports on the company.

Obviously, you don't battle back if you weren't knocked down in the first place, and Xinhua went down early. The company went public at $13 a share back in March but never traded above that price. Executive defections, lawsuits, and a spotty first quarter as a public company have weighed heavily on the stock.

The stock is trading at nearly half of its offering price. That makes a buyback an easy decision. Taking funds raised two months ago and using them to buy back nearly twice as many shares as those $50 million were used to acquire by investors is one way to make lemonade.

But Xinhua isn't stopping there. It's moving to improve its corporate governance through moves like committing to having a majority of independent board members, along with a lead independent director.

CEO Fredy Bush also issued a letter to Xinhua shareholders this morning, combating "some particular nasty and misleading press stories recently" about the company's challenges.

This comes at a time when Chinese media stocks should be in high demand. The advertising market is resilient, going by the paid search expansion of companies like Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU  ) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG  ) , as well as the strength in more conventional ad platforms like Focus Media (Nasdaq: FMCN  ) .

This won't make Redemption Road any less bumpy, but it will make it that much more worthwhile if Xinhua is able to get to where it wants to be.

Global Gains lead analyst Bill Mann departs for China, India, and Taiwan on June 2 in search of new investment opportunities in some of the world's fastest-growing economies. Get updates and analysis live from the field by sending Bill an email at BillTrip@Fool.com.

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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz feels that China still offers great opportunities for growth investors, as long as you're buying the right companies. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy.