Doing business in China: October 2008 Archives
By Robert J. Saiget | Agence France Presse | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
October 29, 2008
Wal-Mart said Tuesday it had pulled a major brand of eggs from its stores in China, as concerns rose that an industrial chemical found in Chinese dairy products was in the nation's wider food chain.
The announcement by the US retail giant came after authorities in Hong Kong said eggs from the same Chinese producer had been found to contain melamine, the chemical at the heart of a scandal in China over contaminated milk.
"Over the past few days, we pulled this brand of eggs off shelves in all our outlets in China," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mu Mingming told AFP.
Wal-Mart's move was the first major recall of eggs in mainland China over melamine fears, but Mu emphasised this was a precautionary measure and that the products from the Hanwei group had not yet been found to be contaminated.
Most other major supermarket chains in China, including France's Carrefour, said they had issued no such recall.
Four babies died of kidney failure and 53,000 fell ill in China this year after drinking milk or consuming dairy products laced with melamine.
The chemical was apparently mixed into watered-down milk to give it the appearance of having higher protein levels.
The scandal, which erupted last month, has led to a spate of recalls and bans on import of Chinese dairy products around the world.
The revelation in Hong Kong that melamine was also in eggs has led to questions over whether the chemical, which is normally used to make plastics, had been mixed into livestock feed and contaminated China's wider food chain.
By MIN LEE | Associated Press Writer | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
October 26, 2008
HONG KONG - The discovery of excessive levels of the industrial chemical melamine in Chinese eggs has prompted Hong Kong authorities to expand testing to include meat products imported from China, a senior official said Sunday.
The move follows the announcement late Saturday that Hong Kong testers had found 4.7 parts per million of melamine in imported eggs produced by a division of China's Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group. The legal limit for melamine in foodstuffs in Hong Kong is 2.5 ppm.
Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said the melamine may have come from feed given to the chickens that laid the eggs.
"The preliminary opinion experts have given us is that there is a problem with the feed," Chow told reporters Saturday.
The egg results have prompted officials to expand food testing to meat imports from China, Chow told reporters Sunday. He said Hong Kong officials will step up checks of eggs imported from China.
Calls to Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group, based in the northeastern port city Dalian, Sunday went unanswered.
In an earlier egg-related food safety scare in Hong Kong and China, the banned cancer-causing industrial dye Sudan Red was used to color egg yolks.
By Edward Wong | The New York Times
October 17, 2008
The first sign of trouble was powder in the baby's urine. Then there was blood. By the time the parents took their son to the hospital, he had no urine at all.
Kidney stones were the problem, doctors told the parents. The baby died on May 1 in the hospital, just two weeks after the first symptoms appeared. His name was Yi Kaixuan. He was 6 months old.
The parents filed a lawsuit on Monday in the arid northwest province of Gansu, where the family lives, asking for compensation from Sanlu Group, the maker of the powdered baby formula that Kaixuan had been drinking. It seemed like a clear-cut liability case; since last month, Sanlu has been at the center of China's biggest contaminated food crisis in years. But as in two other courts dealing with related lawsuits, judges have so far declined to hear the case.
Tainted infant formula is the latest in a long string of food and drug safety problems that have exposed corruption and inefficiency among China's regulators. But the problem goes well beyond the inability of regulators to police a huge, dynamic economy. Companies that produce shoddy goods rarely face financial penalties from the legal system, run by the Communist Party.
Some lawyers and judges are making great efforts in China to establish the power of the courts. Still, courts often remain passive pawns in the party's efforts to handle big disputes behind closed doors.
"I felt myself falling apart when he died, and my wife even avoids thinking about it now," the baby's father, Yi Yongsheng, 30, said by telephone from the city of Xian, where he works menial construction jobs to send money home. "I don't place too much hope in the lawsuit. I just want to ask for justice."
Chinese officials, under pressure to promote fast rates of economic growth and to enforce social stability, routinely favor producers over consumers. Product liability lawsuits remain difficult to file and harder still to win, especially if the company involved is state-owned or has close connections to the government.
Officials also view high-profile lawsuits as a potential political threat and go to great lengths to silence the plaintiffs rather than allowing the wheels of justice to turn. In the milk crisis, officials in several provinces have put pressure on many involved, including parents, lawyers and judges, to drop the issue, said legal scholars and lawyers who have volunteered to help the parents.
By BBC News
17 October 2008
JAMES MILES
Correspondent for the Economist
"It was mainly a psychological difference, we had been widely flouting the rules before, leaving Beijing to report in the provinces without seeking advance approval as was officially required.
"So when the new regulations were introduced, we were still travelling just as much but without the fear of the knock on the door by the police, without the need to change from hotel to hotel to remain under the radar screen.
"But we were still frequently encountering local officials who either didn't know or said they didn't know about the new Olympic regulations or were determined to ignore them.
"There was one remarkable incident, shortly after the new regulations were introduced early last year, when I went to Henan province.
"As I expected, I was stopped by local officials. But I called the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, and remarkably, the local officials apologised to me and disappeared, leaving me with startled villagers who said this was the first time they'd ever managed to openly speak with foreign journalists.
"But since then, I've encountered the same kind of difficulties as before the regulations. A few days ago, I was out in the western region of Xinjiang, and was detained for several hours by local police.
"There are key parts in the country that remain very difficult to get into, and the most obvious one is Tibet. Tibet wasn't mentioned specifically in the Olympic regulations, in theory they apply to the whole of China, but orally Chinese officials said Tibet remained excluded and we still had to seek permission."
MICHAEL BRISTOW
BBC correspondent
"These rules were a small step forward in that they allowed foreign reporters to legitimately travel across China without first getting permission.
"But, like many rules and laws issued by the Chinese central government, they weren't always implemented properly.
"In fact, the Chinese authorities, whether in some far-flung village or in central Beijing, would simply ignore the rules if it suited them.
"They often intimidate foreign reporters - by detaining them or following them in unmarked cars - which prevents us doing our jobs.
"I was hassled by the authorities in Sichuan while trying to report on the grief of parents who lost children during the earthquake.
"And, like other foreign news organisations, under these rules the BBC was not welcome to roam Tibetan areas asking questions."
SHIOZAWA EIICHI
Reporter for the Japanese agency Kyodo News
"After the rules were introduced, we didn't need to get local government permission to travel to places, so that made my life a lot easier.
"Before, if we had no permission, we feared getting caught by the police. Once the rules came in, we could relax. Now we have to take care again.
"It's sometimes easier for me than it is for American or European reporters in China, because I am Asian and can sometimes pass for being Chinese.
"That means I can go to places that others would not be able to get to because they would be detected. Last week I went to Xinjiang.
"One bad aspect of the regulations was that it made it more difficult for us to interview local officials.
"Before the Olympic reporting rules, they would often organise events that would allow us to meet them.
CALUM MACLEOD
China correspondent for USA Today
"After the rules came in, they said we could organise things ourselves, which was not always easy."
"The biggest beneficiaries of these rules were TV and radio journalists because they require more people and equipment to do their jobs, and so are more visible.
"For the print media, it's easier to be less conspicuous.
"In the past, the rules stated that all foreign journalists needed approval before interviewing people outside Beijing and Shanghai, but these rules were largely ignored.
"What the new regulations did, in effect, was to legitimise reporting activities that were already taking place.
"Even while these rules were in place, I've still been detained in local areas and had my reporting restricted by officials who did not know the rules or did not care about them.
"But, as foreign journalists, it did mean we had a piece of paper to show them.
"We need these very minimal rules to be continued - and extended to China's own journalists."
BARBARA LUETHI
Asia correspondent for Swiss Television
"These rules looked good on paper, but they weren't implemented properly.
"In Beijing, when I was stopped I could pull out the rule booklet and tell the police I was allowed to be there.
"Or I could call the Foreign Ministry and they would tell the police to let you go.
But this didn't work in the countryside. When I went to a village to do a story, I would be stopped anyway. My tapes would be confiscated and would be taken to the police station.
"When the Olympics arrived, despite the new rules, the Chinese government was so nervous that they tightened up control or made new rules.
"The authorities would also threaten interviewees. They would not stop me, but this was another tool to control us."
Local journalists were not affected by the change in regulations, but they, too, face restrictions in their work, especially when working for state-run news sources.
Chinese journalist working for state-run media
(who wishes to remain anonymous)
"The government's attitude towards the media has always been on a need-to-know basis.
"Officials feel that if they have something to say, they hold a press conference. They have no need to answer journalists' questions individually. They don't work to the media's timings.
"The Olympics itself will not bring changes overnight, regardless whether its for the foreign or domestic media. It is just one among many things that will only change gradually.
"The government has done things differently for the Olympics, but I can't say whether they will regress or keep improving things after the Games.
"All I can say is, I haven't seen much change in how I do my job."
By Dona Pazzibugan | Philippine Daily Inquirer
October 15, 2008
MANILA, Philippines -- A fourth locally available dairy product made in China was found to be tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, the Bureau of Food and Drugs announced Wednesday.
Lotte Strawberry Snack Koala Biscuit tested positive for melamine, which damages the kidneys when ingested in large quantities or over a prolonged time.
The three dairy products found to be tainted with melamine and banned from sale were Greenfood Yili Fresh Milk and Mengniu Drink (both of which come in packages with Chinese characters), and Jolly Cow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk 1 liter.
By RADIO FREE ASIA
07 October 2008
Lawyers in China are warned against taking on cases related to a widening scandal over tainted milk.
Chinese lawyers have slammed a government directive banning them from taking on cases related to the contaminated milk powder scandal, which has killed at least four infants and sickened tens of thousands with kidney problems.
Members of the country's nascent legal profession condemned moves from government legal affairs bureaus to ban attorneys from taking on cases related to the scandal, which surfaced after infant milk formula made by New Zealand-invested Sanlu Group was found to be laced with the industrial chemical melamine.
"The Beijing Lawyers' Association called a meeting with several of its serving officer members and the justice department to discuss the milk powder cases," Beijing-based lawyer Li Jinglin said.
"At that meeting, those in charge said they had received a very clear message from the Hebei provincial lawyers' association that we should not involve ourselves in Sanlu-related cases."
"At the time I thought this demand was preposterous. Chinese citizens have the right to engage the services of any lawyer within China's borders that they choose," Li added.
Sanlu Group is headquartered in Shijiazhuang, in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing.
'Unbelievable'
"This is unbelievable," Zhang Yuanxin, a practicing attorney and serving officer in the Xinjiang Lawyers' Association said.
"It appears that the actions of certain departments in government have set back the professional development of the legal profession," he said. "They have stripped ordinary citizens of their right to sue, and they are interfering in the affairs of the judiciary. This should not be tolerated."
Lawyers said Chinese citizens had the right to file civil lawsuits in cases of wrongdoing or negligence.
"The job of a lawyer is to act as a representative on behalf of citizens, to help them win justice...They have a duty to file lawsuits on behalf of victims, and they have a right to do this under law," Zhang said.
When the scandal broke in September, lawyers immediately formed voluntary groups to offer legal assistance to distraught and angry parents whose children had drunk the tainted milk, often offering their services free of charge to those on low incomes.
Since then, they have reported being ordered not to touch melamine-related cases, and they have declined to answer any questions on the subject.
By Associated Press - via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
October 07, 2008
Vietnam finds 23 tainted milk products imported from China
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Melamine contamination has been found in 23 milk products imported into Vietnam from China, officials said Tuesday, intensifying consumer worries about tainted milk products.
Five more products tested positive for the industrial chemical, which is usually used in making plastics and fertilizers. So far authorities have found 23 contaminated products after testing 400 samples of milk and milk products, Vietnam's vice minister of health Cao Minh Quang said.
About 300 tons of products, mostly imported from China, have been recalled, said the ministry's chief inspector, Tran Quang Trung.
"Milk and milk products contaminated with melamine have been brought under control," Quang said. "Our top priority is to protect the health of people, especially children."
Many Vietnamese customers have already stopped buying milk and milk products after reports of contaminated milk emerged.
"I have stopped buying milk for my 3-year-old son. Now we have to find other kinds of food to feed him," said Nguyen Mai Huong, 33, a state employee. "There are too many kinds of milk, and we don't know which one is safe."
Vietnamese dairy farmers are suffering as a result of the milk boycott because factories are refusing to buy milk from them.
Nguyen Thi Mai, a dairy farmer in Phu Dong village just outside Hanoi, said she has had to give away or throw away milk since factories stopped buying it six days ago.
"I don't know what is melamine, but it's killing us," she said.
China pledged to improve food safety Monday and authorities detained six more people in the country's contaminated milk scandal. The head of China's quality watchdog said the country was also stepping up checks on its exports.
Liberia banned imports of Chinese milk products Tuesday amid worldwide concern about tainted milk powder from China.
In a radio announcement, acting Commerce Minister Frederick Norkeh called the ban "a precautionary measure" taken because of what he called reports that the contaminated milk was being shipped to African countries. He did not provide details.
By Agence France Presse | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
October 02, 2008
China is monitoring the chat messages of Skype users and censoring them if they contain sensitive keywords such as "Tibet" or "Communist Party," according to a group of Canadian researchers.
The massive surveillance operation of TOM-Skype, a joint venture between Chinese mobile firm TOM Online and Skype, owned by US online auction house eBay, was alleged by Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto research group.
"TOM-Skype is censoring and logging text chat messages that contain specific, sensitive keywords and may be engaged in more targeted surveillance," the computer security researchers said in a 16-page report.
"These logged messages contain keywords relating to sensitive topics such as Taiwan independence, the Falun Gong, and political opposition to the Communist Party of China," they said.
"These text messages, along with millions of records containing personal information, are stored on insecure publicly-accessible web servers," they said.
The researchers said they were able to gain access to the servers and discover which words attracted the attention of the Chinese authorities.
"What is clear is that TOM-Skype is engaging in extensive surveillance with seemingly little regard for the security and privacy of Skype users," Citizen Lab said.
The report, "Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China's TOM-Skype platform," was published on Wednesday on the website of Information Warfare Monitor, a joint project between Citizen Lab and the SecDev Group, a think-tank on security issues based in Ottawa.
By Peter Harmsen | Agence France Presse | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
September 30, 2008
China knew about the contamination of milk products months ago but covered the scandal up to prevent it tarnishing the Beijing Olympics, according to journalists, rights groups and media critics.
The crisis broke in mid-September, a month after the Olympics, but several Chinese reporters had long known about babies being hospitalised after drinking tainted milk, yet were muzzled by the authorities, the critics say.
An editor at a respected southern China newspaper said that as early as July one of his reporters was investigating how milk powder might have been to blame for children developing kidney stones and falling seriously sick.
"As a news editor, I was deeply concerned because I sensed that this was going to be a huge public health disaster," Southern Weekend news editor Fu Jianfeng said on his blog.
"But I could not send any reporters out to investigate. Therefore, I harboured a deep sense of guilt and defeat at the time."
Fu's blog posting was later removed, although it could be read on some overseas Chinese websites. Fu himself could not be reached for comment.
An estimated 53,000 Chinese children have been sickened after the industrial chemical melamine was added to milk products, and four infants have died.
The first of the baby deaths was on May 1, more than four months before the scandal went public.
Starting with Sanlu milk powder, the scare has gone on to envelop numerous Chinese firms and international companies operating in China, including global giants Cadbury and Unilever.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao vowed over the weekend to work to restore his country's reputation, saying it was facing the problem "candidly".
However, there are claims that Chinese authorities reverted to the familiar practice of squashing the negative news reports, apparently conscious of the damage it would do to the August 8-24 Olympics.
"Several Chinese journalists have said it is becoming more and more obvious that the authorities in July prevented an investigation into the toxic milk coming out so as not to tarnish China's image before the Olympics," said a statement by media rights group Reporters Without Borders.
Sanlu Group began receiving complaints of sick children as early as last December, a recent cabinet probe found in an apparent attempt to shift the blame for the delay.
It also said Communist officials in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, where Sanlu is based, delayed referring the matter to higher authorities for more than a month after Sanlu finally told them of the problem on August 2, six days before the Beijing Games began.
"It is a concern that the first cases appeared early, but were concealed during the Olympics. A perfect environment was needed for the Games," said a Western product-safety expert who asked not to be named.
Despite the World Health Organisation and United Nations raising concerns about the delay in exposing the risks, rights groups say the Chinese government is continuing to silence reporters, suppressing media coverage vital to determining blame and preventing a recurrence.
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