News: July 2005 Archives

China is angry over a test of its green tea exports that turned up alarming levels of pesticides. But rather than turning to its agricultural practices and limiting the use of pesticides, China is attacking the testing methods used to detect the pesticides in the first place.

Let me say this bluntly: China practices atrocious environmental responsibility, and the Communist government in charge there cares nothing about mass use of pesticides, industrial pollution, or the safety of the food supply. Some of the most toxic food products in the world are found in China. I know, I've been there and I've seen it first hand.

This is why you should consider sourcing your green tea from somewhere other than China. Get it from an organic source, some place that doesn't spray it with pesticides. It's more expensive, of course, but it's also safer for your health.

Green tea is a nutritional supplement with phenomenal health-enhancing properties. It boosts healthy body function in so many ways that it's hard to imagine any person who wouldn't benefit from taking some. But if your green tea is contaminated with pesticides or other substances (such as fluoride, another toxic chemical frequently found in green tea), you may be doing more harm to your health than good. So always check the sources of the foods and nutritional supplements you purchase. And don't trust food products or nutritional supplements from China. Until the nation cleans up its act, it's probably the most highly contaminated place in the world for producing foods. (Even the Chinese largely agree with this, by the way. It's just a fact of life in China.)

Original source: News Target

By Deliang

It is very important to know the truth of a situation. Many of us have had the experience of being cheated. This is because we did not know the truth; as a result, we paid prices that were too high. Not knowing the truth will cause us to erroneously evaluate the alternatives and make wrong decisions.

I recently went to dinner with students from the Taiwan Donghai University, and met a former student who is in the import-export business. He disclosed some facts to us that were quite shocking. He asked us if we knew why the material costs around the globe were rising, yet product prices are falling. It is because the supply is greater than the demand. Why is the supply greater than the demand? This is because many less expensive products sold all over the world are “Made in China.” We thought that China’s low labor costs were the reason. As a matter of fact, this is not the case.

By Tim Luard (BBC NEWS)

More than a decade after the end of the Cold War, spies are back in the news.

But instead of hardened KGB agents lurking on street corners in dark glasses, the spy stories appearing in the Western press recently have been about fresh-faced Chinese students.

Some are said to be engaged in research at respected foreign establishments, while others are enrolled as bright young business trainees in major Western companies.

Their mission - or so the reports allege - is to use fair means or foul to gather technological and commercial intelligence that will help speed China on its way to becoming the next global superpower.

>> Read the complete article

China's beer industry, one of the largest in the world, has defended itself against reports that 95 percent of its bottled beer contains formaldehyde, a cancer-causing agent.

Industry officials said the chemical -- commonly used to preserve dead bodies or as a disinfectant -- plays a part in the brewing process but that the level in Chinese beer is within acceptable standards, the China Daily said.

"Consumers need to know that the formaldehyde in beer is a different type from that in household chemicals, and this confusion has scared people greatly," Xiao Derun, director of the China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association's beer branch, was quoted as saying.

Trouble began brewing on July 5 when the Beijing-based newspaper The Global Times printed a letter claiming to be from a beer inspector saying many Chinese breweries were using formaldehyde as an additive.

The managers of an illegal coal mine in China concealed the bodies of miners killed in a gas explosion earlier this month, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Officials at the mine in the central province of Shanxi reported that 19 miners had died on 2 July, but 36 were actually killed, Xinhua said.

>> Read the complete article

The leader of an underground Chinese church is due to appear in a Beijing court on Thursday, accused of illegally printing more than 200,000 Bibles.

Cai Zhuohua, along with his wife and two other church members, has been charged with "illegal business practices", his lawyers have said.

The Protestant pastor has already been in detention for 10 months.

Although Bibles are not illegal in China, only one firm is permitted by the state to print them.

The country's Christians are also only allowed to worship in state-approved churches, although many people prefer to attend underground or "house" churches such as Pastor Cai's.

Mr Cai's lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, conceded that he was not optimistic about the verdict for the three detainees.

>> Read the complete article