News: November 2007 Archives
By Anita Chang | Associated Press | via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
November 29, 2007
China's last-minute cancellation of a U.S. Navy visit to Hong Kong was not the result of a misunderstanding, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday, adding that ties had been "disturbed and harmed" by Congress' honoring of the Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
Spokesman Liu Jianchao denounced an earlier report from Washington that said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told President Bush the incident was a misunderstanding.
But Liu offered no concrete explanation as to why China barred the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its escort vessels from entering Hong Kong harbor for a planned Thanksgiving visit.
"The report is not in line with the facts," Liu said at a regular news briefing.
He refused to elaborate, but his negative characterization of U.S.-China relations appeared to indicate that Beijing had canceled the visit deliberately in order to register its displeasure over U.S. actions, as it has occasionally with previous Hong Kong port calls.
Liu said "erroneous" actions on the part of the U.S. had "disturbed and harmed" relations.
He pointed to the U.S. Congress' awarding its highest civilian honor to the Dalai Lama last month. Though the Tibetan spiritual leader is lauded in much of the world as a figure of moral authority, Beijing demonizes the monk and claims he seeks to destroy China's sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet.
Also hurting relations were arms sales to Taiwan, an island which China regards as a renegade province, he said.
By Radio Singapore International
November 29, 2007
China has informed Washington that its refusal last week to allow a US Navy aircraft carrier into Hong Kong was a 'misunderstanding'.
This follows a formal complaint lodged by the US Defense Department over the incident.
By USA TODAY
November 28, 2007
The Pentagon issued a formal protest to China on Wednesday over its refusal to permit a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to make a planned Thanksgiving port visit to Hong Kong.
"We are expressing officially our displeasure with the incident," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. He said a Chinese military officer who is Beijing's defense attache in Washington was called to the Pentagon to accept the protest from a Pentagon Asia policy official. Morrell called it an "a formal protest, an official protest, complaint," for refusing port entry for the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying battle group.
By Ben Blanchard and Jason Subler | REUTERS | via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
November 26, 2007
The top EU trade official told China on Monday its reputation was at risk after a series of product safety scandals and that it must do more to tackle the problem.
The comments drew an icy response from a senior Chinese minister.
European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson also said Brussels was getting impatient with Beijing for failing to stamp out counterfeiting and might take the matter to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The hard line reflects growing EU frustration over the bloc's ballooning trade deficit with China and what many firms see as unfair restrictions on their access to China's booming market.
Those issues, along with dismay that China has let the yuan's exchange rate against the euro fall sharply this year, are set to dominate a regular China-EU summit in Beijing on Wednesday.
Mandelson told a meeting on food safety that a rash of recalls of toys, toothpaste and other consumer goods had shaken global trust in China's exports. Beijing had to clamp down on defective goods to restore buyers' confidence.
"While product safety is not a problem restricted to China, it will nevertheless be central to the global perception of China's growing weight as a manufacturer," he said. "China's long-term success depends on its reputation."
While labeling recent Chinese efforts to crack down a "positive first step," he said comments by some officials that 99 percent of China's products were safe was not good enough.
"Europe imports half a billion euros worth of goods from China every day -- so even 1 percent is not acceptable," he said.
PIRACY PROBLEMS
Mandelson also tied worries about safety to what he called the "tidal wave" of counterfeits made in China.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the trade in pirated consumer goods has reached $200 billion a year, equivalent to 2 percent of world trade, with many fakes coming from China.
"Some of those products -- fake medicines, fake car parts, fake aircraft parts -- carry huge risks," Mandelson said, demanding a "clearer demonstration" that Beijing was working to stamp out counterfeiters.
Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi was not amused.
"I am extremely dissatisfied," an angry-sounding Wu, known as China's "Iron Lady," told reporters after Mandelson spoke.
By REUTERS | The New York Times
23 November 2007
Chinese sport officials have warned that world champion hurdler Liu Xiang's achievements will be rendered "meaningless" if he fails to win Olympic gold in Beijing next year, according to the athlete's coach.
"Officials from the State General Administration of Sports once told us if Liu could not win a gold in Beijing, all of his previous achievements would become meaningless," Friday's China Daily quoted Sun Haiping as saying.
"So we have to take everything possible into consideration to keep him in top form."
World record-holder Liu won gold in the 110m hurdles in Athens in 2004 and this year became China's first male track world champion in Osaka, Japan.
Liu, who remains China's best hope of track gold on home soil next year, said he felt the pressure of expectations.
"Much of the time, people don't just want me to win a medal, but to get gold. This kind of pressure is indeed very heavy," the 24-year-old told the Beijing News in a separate report.
"After all, there are currently many outstanding athletes in the 110m hurdles. Any of them could be number one."
Since clocking 12.88 to set the world record in June 2006, Liu has gone from strength to strength, winning nine titles in his last 12 meetings.
GENUINE THREAT
He has been nominated as one of three finalists in the running for the International Association of Athletics Federation's (IAAF) male athlete of the year, alongside America's Tyson Gay and Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie.
But Dayron Robles of Cuba has emerged as a genuine threat to the Chinese hurdler's Olympic title defense, equaling his best time of 12.92 in 2007 and beating a rusty Liu comfortably on home soil at the Shanghai Grand Prix in September.
China's sports ministry has recently ratcheted up the pressure on the country's athletes.
By BBC News
November 20, 2007
The appointment of a Chinese judge to the highest court in the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been blocked by Taiwan in a surprise decision.
Taiwan lodged its objection citing fears of bias and the step forced a meeting on the matter to be adjourned.
China's Zhang Yuejiao was among four candidates nominated to the WTO's seven-member Appellate Body in June.
She would have been China's first judge on the body, which rules on trade disputes between WTO member states.
Beijing regards the island of Taiwan - which has been under self-rule since the end of the civil war in 1949 - as a renegade province which should eventually be reunified with China.
It consistently blocks Taiwanese attempts to join United Nations bodies, but has made an exception for economic organisations such as the WTO.
'Deep concerns'
The Dispute Settlement Body met on Monday in Geneva and one of the items on the agenda was the consideration of the nominations to the Appellate Body.
But then Taiwan asked for that particular item to be removed. Other member states present, including the US, Japan and the European Union, were reportedly taken aback.
With no way out of the impasse, the meeting's chairman was forced to adjourn the talks.
"We have deep concerns on the question of impartiality and qualification of one of the recommended candidates," the Taiwanese delegation said in a statement.
A selection committee had circulated the names of all four nominees to WTO members earlier in the month.
But Monday saw "the first formal opportunity for them to object", an official told Reuters news agency.
By Stephen Wade, AP Sports Writer | Star Tribune Minneapolis-St. Paul
November 16, 2007
Chinese police will deal harshly with social or political demonstrations at the Beijing Olympics, a top security official said Friday.
Chinese police will deal harshly with social or political demonstrations at the Beijing Olympics, a top security official said Friday.
With 28,000 journalists expected to attend, the Aug. 8-24 Olympics offer a rare chance for protesters to express grievances against China's communist government on issues including religious freedom, Tibetan independence and global warming.
Liu Shaowu, deputy director of the Olympic Security Command Center, said security forces would stop any form of demonstration at or around venues. He also suggested that protests deemed threatening would be snuffed out far from Olympic sites.
"As for violating China's sovereignty and encouraging separatists and terrorists, definitely we will not allow that,'' Liu told reporters. "We will deal with that according to Chinese law.''
Liu's comments, made at a rare media briefing on Olympic security, are likely to compound concerns that Beijing will use heavy-handed policing at the games.
Defending the measures, Liu said the protest clampdown at Olympic sites is in line with the Olympic charter, which he said forbids "any form of political, religious or racial demonstration.''
By Associated Press | via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
November 14, 2007
China is stamping return to sender on mail from Taiwan postmarked with a slogan supporting the island's bid to join the United Nations.
Taiwan's post office began putting a "U.N. for Taiwan" postmark on selected items of outgoing mail six weeks ago.
Letters and parcels bearing that slogan and one saying "Taiwan joining the United Nations" were being returned as a protest against alleged independence activities by the government of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, according to Fan Liqing of China's Taiwan Affairs Council.
Liu Te-shun of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council -- the Cabinet-level body in charge of implementing China policy -- said China's action contravened international mail practice.
"It is common for countries to stamp commemorative slogans on mail," he said.
Since their split amid civil war nearly 60 years ago, Taiwan and China have confronted each other angrily across the 100-mile Taiwan Strait.
China regards the democratic island as part of its territory and has threatened to attack if it formalizes its de facto independence
By Anita Chang | The Washington Times
November 13, 2007
The Chinese government has created profiles on thousands of foreign journalists coming to report on next summer's Beijing Olympics and is gathering information on thousands more to put into a database, a top official said in comments published yesterday.
The profiles appeared to undermine promises made by Chinese leaders in 2001, when they were bidding for the games, that the event would lead to greater press freedoms.
The database with information on the 28,000 foreign journalists expected for the Olympics would be a reference for interview subjects, designed to protect them from being tricked or blackmailed by "fake reporters," Liu Binjie, minister of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), was quoted as saying in the state-run China Daily newspaper.
By Anita Chang | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | via CNEWS
November 10, 2007
Outraged Beijing Olympic organizers sought to refute allegations of religious intolerance Thursday, saying Bibles and other religious items for personal use are welcome at next year's Beijing Olympics.
That latitude, however, does not extend to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned eight years ago as an "evil cult" and persecuted mercilessly ever since.
Recent reports by a religious news agency and European media that Bibles would be banned at the Olympics touched off an outcry that prompted a U.S. senator to call the Chinese ambassador for an explanation and a Christian athletes group to protest the "deep violation."
Angry Beijing organizers flatly denied the reports, while the Foreign Ministry said they were likely the work of people who wanted to sabotage Beijing's hosting of the Games.
"There is no such thing. This kind of report is an intentional distortion of truth," said Li Zhanjun, director of the Beijing Olympics media centre. Li said texts and items from major religious groups that are brought for personal use by athletes and visitors are permitted.
A notice on the official Beijing Olympics website explaining entry procedures into the country said "each traveller is recommended to take no more than one Bible into China."
Religious services - Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist - will be available to athletes in the Olympic Village next summer, Li said.
However, those policies do not apply to Falun Gong, reasserting China's determination to marginalize, persecute and eradicate the spiritual movement.
Falun Gong was banned after members staged a massive peaceful protest in 1998 outside government headquarters to demand official recognition. The U.S. State Department says practitioners in China face arrest, detention and possible torture, while members overseas maintain a vigorous campaign of protest against China's government.
By AFP | via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
November 08, 2007
US government authorities on Wednesday recalled 4.2 million units of a toy bead set manufactured in China after warning that it contains a substance that is toxic if ingested.
In addition, nearly 400,000 Chinese-made toys, most of them miniature cars, were recalled for containing unacceptable levels of lead paint in the latest mass recall over safety fears.
Two children slipped into comas after swallowing the Aqua Dot beads, which are manufactured in China and distributed by Spin Master in Toronto, Canada, the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned.
"The coating on the beads that causes the beads to stick to each other when water is added contains a chemical that can turn toxic when many are ingested," it said in a statement of the craft kits sold from April to November.
"Children who swallow the beads can become comatose, develop respiratory depression, or have seizures."
By Daily Press
November 8, 2007
Another recall for excessive lead was announced Wednesday by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. This new recall covers more than 400,000 toys -- all manufactured in China. These products all violate the federal lead paint safety standard.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
November 01, 2007
China will not tolerate unauthorized parades, demonstrations or other gatherings during next year's Olympic Games, a police spokesman said Thursday in a warning to groups hoping to use the Games' visibility to publicize their causes.
''Any group or individual who stages a gathering, parade, or demonstration during the Beijing Olympic Games period must respect Chinese law,'' Public Security Ministry press officer Wu Heping said. ''As to those legal activities, police will protect them according to the law. As for those activities that are illegal, we police will handle them according to the law.''
Chinese law technically permits protests and other similar actions, but they require applications that are almost never approved. Those who dare even make such requests can be subject to surveillance, harassment or arrest, especially if the cause involved is seen to challenge Communist Party authority.
This article was reported by Walt Bogdanich, Jake Hooker and Andrew W. Lehren and written by Mr. Bogdanich | The New York Times
October 31, 2007
MILAN -- In January, Honor International Pharmtech was accused of shipping counterfeit drugs into the United States. Even so, the Chinese chemical company -- whose motto is "Thinking Much of Honor" -- was openly marketing its products in October to thousands of buyers here at the world's biggest trade show for pharmaceutical ingredients.
Other Chinese chemical companies made the journey to the annual show as well, including one manufacturer recently accused by American authorities of supplying steroids to illegal underground labs and another whose representative was arrested at the 2006 trade show for patent violations. Also attending were two exporters owned by China's government that had sold poison mislabeled as a drug ingredient, which killed nearly 200 people and injured countless others in Haiti and in Panama.
Yet another chemical company, Orient Pacific International, reserved an exhibition booth in Milan, but its owner, Kevin Xu, could not attend. He was in a Houston jail on charges of selling counterfeit medicine for schizophrenia, prostate cancer, blood clots and Alzheimer's disease, among other maladies.
While these companies hardly represent all of the nearly 500 Chinese exhibitors, more than from any other country, they do point to a deeper problem: Pharmaceutical ingredients exported from China are often made by chemical companies that are neither certified nor inspected by Chinese drug regulators, The New York Times has found.
Because the chemical companies are not required to meet even minimal drug-manufacturing standards, there is little to stop them from exporting unapproved, adulterated or counterfeit ingredients. The substandard formulations made from those ingredients often end up in pharmacies in developing countries and for sale on the Internet, where more Americans are turning for cheap medicine.
In Milan, The Times identified at least 82 Chinese chemical companies that said they made and exported pharmaceutical ingredients -- yet not one was certified by the State Food and Drug Administration in China, records show. Nonetheless, the companies were negotiating deals at the pharmaceutical show, where suppliers wooed customers with live music, wine and vibrating chairs.
One of them was the Wuxi Hexia Chemical Company. When The Times showed Yan Jiangying, a top Chinese drug regulator, a list of 186 products being advertised by the company, including active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drugs, Ms. Yan said, "This is definitely against the law."
Yet in China, chemical manufacturers that sell drug ingredients fall into a regulatory hole. Pharmaceutical companies are regulated by the food and drug agency. Chemical companies that make products as varied as fertilizer and industrial solvents are overseen by other agencies. The problem arises when chemical companies cross over into drug ingredients. "We have never investigated a chemical company," said Ms. Yan, deputy director of policy and regulation at the State Food and Drug Administration. "We don't have jurisdiction."
China's health officials have known of this regulatory gap since at least the mid-1990s, when a chemical company sold a tainted ingredient that killed nearly 100 children in Haiti. But Chinese regulatory agencies have failed to cooperate to stop chemical companies from exporting drug products.
In 2006, at least 138 Panamanians died or were disabled after another Chinese chemical company sold the same poisonous ingredient, diethylene glycol, which was mixed into cold medicine.
China has an estimated 80,000 chemical companies, and the United States Food and Drug Administration does not know how many sell ingredients used in drugs consumed by Americans.
The Times examined thousands of companies selling products on major business-to-business Internet trading sites and found more than 1,300 chemical companies offering pharmaceutical ingredients. How many others sell drug ingredients but don't advertise this way on the Web is not known.
If the Milan show is any guide, most, if not all, are not certified by China's drug authorities.
By Radio Free Asia
October 30, 2007
A court in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan has convicted of subversion a Tibetan nomad who called for the return of the Dalai Lama at a horseracing festival in August.
Ronggyal Adrak was tried at the Ganzi Autonomous Prefecture People's Court in Dartsedo (in Chinese, Kangding) on Monday, Oct. 29, on charges of seeking to "split" the country and subvert state power during a public meeting Aug. 1 in Lithang county, sources in Lithang told RFA's Tibetan service.
Ronggyal Adrak told the judge from the dock: "When I shouted 'Long live the Dalai Lama' and called for the release of Tibetan political prisoners, I was detained and then formally arrested."
"The main reason was that there is nobody in Tibet who does not have faith in, loyalty to, and the desire to see the Dalai Lama," he told the court. "On the contrary, the Chinese government sends out propaganda saying that the Tibetans inside Tibet have no desire to meet him and have lost faith in him."
"That is wrong, and we have no freedom to say so."
The judge told Ronggyal Adrak that his crimes were "very severe."
Responsible for protest
"You committed the crime of subverting the People's Republic of China. The Dalai Lama, for whom you called for a long life and his return to Tibet, is the same person who is conniving with different foreign leaders and organi-zations to split our country through a variete of means and methods," the judge said.
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