kunming log

A collections of recent China articles of interest

Just a quick update with some links to a few news articles that I have found of interest in the last few days. I didn't dig for anything here, just ran across them on the front page of a few websites I visit regularly.

I am not going to pretend that I really understand 100% what is really going on here, but whatever it is its been heating up lately.

With out further ado, below are the articles in no particular order.

Enjoy!

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China: 7 U.S. meat importers banned

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Chinese food inspectors have banned meat products from seven U.S. companies from being imported into their country after finding a range of contamination issues in shipments checked on Saturday, according to China's official news agency Xinhua.

The suspension of meat imports from the American companies -- including Tyson Foods -- comes just weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would hold all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace and eel shipments arriving from China until they are tested for residuehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifs from drugs not approved by the U.S. for use in farm-raised fish.

Source: CNN

Carving Plight of Coal Miners, He Churns China

IT is not easy to forget an encounter with Zhang Jianhua’s sculptures of Chinese coal miners; that is, if one is lucky enough to see them.

Many of the life-size works depict miners sitting on the ground in their black rubber boots wearing looks of sheer fatigue. Some stare blankly into the distance or prop up their heads with both hands, their faces fixed in nameless agony.

Source: New York Times

Collection of information relating to the recent speeches of President Hu

There is a bunch of things here, for example:

CPC recruits 12M members in five years
The Communist Party of China (CPC) recruited 11.85 million members from 2002 to 2006, an average of 2.37 million per year, according to the organization department of the CPC Central Committee.

Official: Transparency key to public faith
A senior official has urged local governments to be more open and transparent, saying their attempt to block media coverage of negative incidents was "too naive".

Hu stresses scientific development
President Hu stressed the importance of implementing the scientific concept of development, promoting social harmony and building a well-off society.

Progress and problems mark elections
Democracy is making big strides in rural politics but corruption and vote-rigging plague some village elections, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said. Vote-buying Scandal

Source: China Daily

China Bars U.S. Trip for Doctor Who Exposed SARS Cover-Up

BEIJING, July 12 — A Chinese doctor who exposed the cover-up of China’s SARS outbreak in 2003 has been barred from traveling to the United States to collect a human rights award, a friend of the doctor and a human rights group said this week.

The doctor, Jiang Yanyong, a retired surgeon in the People’s Liberation Army, was awarded the Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award by the New York Academy of Sciences. His army-affiliated work unit, Beijing’s Hospital 301, denied him permission to travel to the award ceremony in September, Hu Jia, a Chinese rights promoter who is a friend of Dr. Jiang’s, said Thursday.

Source: New York Times

A Chinese Reformer Betrays His Cause, and Pays

BEIJING, July 12 — Zheng Xiaoyu once ranked as one of the most powerful regulators in China. He rose from modest beginnings to help create and lead Beijing’s version of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

But last March, locked up in the Qincheng Prison here, he wrote a short confession. “Why are the friends who gave me money all the bosses of pharmaceutical companies?” he wrote in his letter, entitled How I Look on My Mistakes. “Obviously because I was in charge of drug administration.”

Source: New York Times

For 2 Children, Ban of a Drug Came Too Late

BEIJING — While visiting relatives a year ago, Du Haipeng, 5, came down with a sore throat. Doctors prescribed a Chinese antibiotic, Xinfu. The boy’s reaction to the drug was so violent, he had to be taken to a nearby hospital.

“I remember clearly that I was shearing sheep when I got a call from my sister and her husband,” said Du Xinglong, 36, Haipeng’s father. “When I rushed to the hospital my son had already fallen into a coma.”

Source: New York Times

To Beijing Games, Bring Your Own

American athletes who normally sling a duffel bag over their shoulders for event travel may opt to lug a steamer trunk as they begin descending upon China in advance of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games — or the B.Y.O. Olympics.

Bring Your Own Crest. This go-to item is important for gymnasts who prefer a pearly Mary Lou Retton-sized smile for a Wheaties box pose instead of the nasty side effects from the recent batches of Chinese toothpaste tainted with a poison found in antifreeze.

Source: New York Times

posted by Aki @ 7:54 AM