SOH News

Edge on China 60 – Headlines from China

In this episode of Edge on China, toxic chemicals found in Chinese food exports, human to human bird flu transmission fears arise, and China forces Miss Tibet out of beauty pageant.

In the latest scare over the safety of Chinese exports, one of China’s largest and most well known food companies has halted exports of all tinned food, after toxic chemicals were found in canned meat products.

Food safety officials in Hong Kong have discovered a banned antibiotic, nitrofurans, in tins of Maling brand pork luncheon meat and pork ribs.

This year has seen massive recalls of Chinese made toys, tyres and food products from the overseas market and the government in Beijing has come under increasing pressure to regulate the safety of Chinese-made products.

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In China, Kong Qiang, the webmaster of the Human Rights Network, published an open letter to Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and Wu Bangguo on the 6th December, asking them to conform with public opinion, to bring Jiang Zemin and the gang of Shanghai to justice.

Kong Qiang is a civil servant at the Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce in Qufu City, Shandong Province.

When interviewed by The Epoch Times, Kong Qiang pointed out, that Falun Gong practitioners who sued Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Liu Jing, Zhou Yongkang in many countries around the world, were a great inspiration to people in China.

He explained that the majority of victims in Jiang Zemin’s persecution are still in China, therefore lawsuit cases against Jiang must be allowed in China.

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Well known Chinese blog personality, Zhou Shuguang, was arrested by public security after reporting on the infamous Yilishen incident in Liaoyang city where the Yilishen company, a pharmaceutical producer, was closed and refused to pay debts to local farmers.

According to reports he was subsequently interrogated, and sent back to his hometown in Hunan province.

Radio Free Asia reported on the 7th Dec, that although the Yilishen incident has been reported widely overseas, and it has something to do with Bo Xilai – the governor, Chinese media have kept silent on the issue and local farmers have been prevented from protesting against their mistreatment.

It is expected that the Chinese authorities will try to cover up the Yilishen incident just as they have with the persecution of Falun Gong and the Tian Anmen Square Massacre in 1989.

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On Friday the 7th of December, the Global Human Rights Torch arrived in Wollongong. It started at the lighthouse with 1982 Commonwealth Games baton relay runner, Geoff Gregory running the first leg.

He then passed it on to Barry and Carolyn Armstrong, who then proceeded to run with the torch to the mall yelling ‘Freedom for China.’ Barry and Carolyn are strong supporters of the Human Rights Torch Relay.

At the mall a few other speakers voiced their support against the human rights abuses in China and then the torch was passed on to Goulburn.

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Fears of human-to-human transmission of bird flu have been raised after the father of a Chinese man who died of bird flu has also been infected with the virus.

The World Health Organization said it could not rule out the possibility that the H5N1 virus had spread from the son to the father.

For the most part, humans have caught the virus from sick birds.

Scientists fear if the virus gains the ability to pass easily between humans, tens of millions of people could die.

A statement on the Chinese ministry’s website said a 52-year-old man in eastern Jiangsu province identified only by his surname, Lu, has been confirmed with the virus, just days after his 24-year-old son succumbed to it on the 2nd of December.

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The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) located in Geneva, Switzerland gave its annual “Housing Rights Violators Award” to countries that most seriously and systematically violated housing rights of its people.

This year, the recipients include China, Burma and Slovenia.

The COHRE said a recent trip to the Chinese capital confirmed an estimate it made earlier this year that 1.5 million people would be displaced by the time the 2008 Games are held.

The Chinese authorities however have denied that the residents in Beijing have been forcibly relocated and treated inhumanely.

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The Future China Forum has announced the formation of a Transient Chinese Government, which has ignited strong responses from the Chinese authorities.

Within only a few hours, human rights activists and violence resistance groups, pledged their support of the transient government asking to be delegated responsibilities.

The “Future China Forum,” are a group dedicated to bringing about a peaceful transition to democracy in China and believe a Transitional Government will expedite the collapse of China’s communist rule.

Earlier this month, the Forum issued a statement criticising the Communist Regime for its control of the media and the Internet, restriction of free speech, civil rights abuses, the persecution of activists, church members, and Falun Gong practitioners.

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China has been blamed for a Tibetan entrant in an international beauty pageant in Malaysia to be expelled from the event.

Tsering Chungtak said that China pressured the competition organisers to replace her “Miss Tibet” sash with one reading “Miss Tibet-China”.

When she refused, she claims, she was told she would have to leave the Miss Tourism Queen 2007 competition.

China governs Tibet as an autonomous region and swiftly clamps down on any suggestion of Tibetan nationalism.

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On December 3rd, 2007, in Zhaotong city of Yunan Province, four primary school students who shared a serving of instant noodles on the way back to school began to show symptoms of food poisoning and died soon after.

After the news spread, Internet bloggers began a new wave of criticism against the safety of food in China.

There were strong calls for the regime to investigate the incident in depth and to publicise the brand name of the lethal instant noodles.

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It’s been reported that Chinese state organisations may be spying on leading British firms and government agencies .

UK intelligence network MI5 has contacted 300 chief executives and security experts at banks and financial institutions to raise the concerns.

It is alleged that UK organisations may suffer a concerted cyber attack to gain commercially-sensitive data.
Zhao Shangse, an official from the Chinese embassy in London, has denied the allegations.
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According to reports from China’s Panshen County, three local policemen have detained and abused two Falun Gong practitioners.

Wang Jie-Ming and Zhang Da-Lin went missing over two weeks ago and after much searching by family members Wang was found under police guard at a local hospital suffering numerous abuse related injuries including bullet wounds, while Zhang is thought to be held and being tortured at Tuwei prison

These cases are representative of thousands of similar abduction and detention cases of Falun Gong practitioners across China who are detained and abused because authorities fear the peaceful practice is becoming too popular and a threat to the power of the Communist Regime.

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The results of the by-election for a legislative seat in Hong Kong were released early Monday morning.

Pro-democracy candidate Anson Chan, Hong Kong’s former Chief Secretary won the election over her rival, the former Hong Kong Chief of Security.
The Electoral Affairs Commission announced the vote count at 3:20 a.m. Monday morning.
Chan believes people in Hong Kong made the right decision and her win is a strong boost for the movement toward Hong Kong’s general suffrage.

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The Well known internet security Company McAfee released its annual report on November 29 stating that the Internet Cold War will be the biggest internet security threat to the safety of the internet to all countries in the future.
The report identified China as the main threat as it will proactively probe into the loopholes in the networks of different countries.
In 2007 80% of large scale cyber attacks on government websites are related to China while the United States Homeland Security and government agencies of Germany, India, Australia and New Zealand are main targets of the cyber attacks.