"My whole goal is just to play hard right now. I've been travelling and playing non-stop, but I want to play as much as I can right now. It has been a slog but I did well here last time, so I'm just fighting as hard as I can," said Gatto, who tied 15th last year.

"My short game has been awesome the past two days. My driving has not been so good, so I've had to play smart and really battle out there."

Stolz, who tied 11th at the Thailand Open, nailed 17 straight pars before bogeying his last hole, the ninth.

"I've been hitting it really well tee to green, but just getting frustrated that I'm not scoring better," said Stolz, who won the 2004 Michelin Championship at Las Vegas while playing on the PGA Tour.

"I deserved more because I only missed three greens, but I just couldn't putt. I've been putting okay from close in, but just not getting any bonuses."

A sunny Anthony Summers shot a best-of-day 64, a remarkable improvement on an opening 76 that left the Aussie completely despondent.

"I had already asked the hotel if I could have a late check-out today. I've been playing well so yesterday was a total shock – I putted atrociously," Summers said. "Today, I putted better but the main difference was I just hit so many irons close to the flag."

The Midea China Classic is the eighth of 10 OneAsia events in the circuit's second season. The tournament purse has doubled to US$1 million on the OneAsia platform due to the continued sponsorship support from the Midea Group for the sixth consecutive year.

The Midea China Classic is being showcased on OneAsia's television platform with live coverage for four hours a day across all four tournament days, and broadcast to over 260 million homes in more than 40 countries.

Full coverage of the event is available internationally on ESPN Star Sports, Jupiter Golf Network, SBS Golf Channel, Fox International, Network Ten, Sky Sports NZ, ESPN3 and America One in the USA, ViaSat and Bloomberg Television among others in Europe.

Midea China Classic, OneAsia

Leading second-round scores – par 71

135 – Stephen Dartnall (AUS) 66-69

136 – Wu Kangchun (CHN) 67-69, Mitchell Brown (AUS) 70-66

137 – C.J. Gatto (USA) 67-70, Andre Stolz (AUS) 65-72, Brad Kennedy (AUS) 65-72

138 – Stephen Allan (AUS) 67-71, Ashley Hall (AUS) 68-70, Steve Jeffress (AUS) 66-72

139 – Liang Wenchong (CHN) 68-71, Kang Ji-man (KOR) 69-70, Simon Yates (SCO) 70-69, Matthew Millar (AUS) 67-72, Matthew Griffin (AUS) 65-74

140 – Bae Kyu-tae (KOR) 71-69, Anthony Summers (AUS) 76-64, Scott Arnold (AUS) 71-69, Kim Yeong-su (KOR) 70-70, Jamie Arnold (AUS) 69-71

141 – Huang Mingjie (CHN) 73-68, Wu Weihuang (CHN) 69-72, Henry Epstein (AUS) 67-74, Bang Doo-hwan (KOR) 71-70, Daniel Fox (AUS) 68-73, Kim Felton (AUS) 70-71, Steven Jones (AUS) 71-70

142 – Yuan Hao (CHN) 69-73, Panuphol Pittayarat (THA) 70-72, Heath Reed (AUS) 75-67, Kim Sung-yoon (KOR) 73-69, Jason Norris (AUS) 69-73, Eom Tai-kyung (KOR) 69-73

Selected scores:

143 – Stephen Leaney (AUS) 71-72, Li Chao (CHN) 70-73

144 – Zhang Lianwei (CHN) 71-73

146 – Michael Hendry (NZL) 71-75, Kurt Barnes (AUS) 74-72