China has passed its first food-safety law, and established a cabinet-level commission to oversee it. The idea is to create a national set of food-safety standards under one regulator and put more legal liability on China’s 500,000 food producers.
How effective it is and whether it will reassure consumers whose confidence has been left in tatters [...]
Entries from February 2009
February 28, 2009
China Passes Food-Safety Law
February 27, 2009
China To Get A Muni Bond Market
In the wake of the Asian financial crisis a decade ago, China dabbled with issuing local government debt to fund local projects. Come another financial crisis, and the idea is being dusted down again.
Officials have reportedly been discussing a tentative plan to sell some 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) of bonds through the Finance Ministry [...]
February 26, 2009
China Strikes Back At Christie’s For Auctioning Two Historic Bronzes
Christie’s is going to find itself wading through a lot more red tape in China following its sale of two Qing dynasty bronzes in the Paris auction of the late Yves St. Laurent’s art collection.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage will subject the auction house to close scrutiny whenever it seeks to bring in or [...]
February 25, 2009
Japanese And South Korean Families Ship Out Of Shanghai
The press officer at the South Korean consulate in Shanghai was unable to answer a question from the FT’s Patti Waldmeir about South Korean companies retrenching their presence in the city and emptying out Little Korea because her own job had just been cut and she was being recalled home.
An amusing anecdote, but she is [...]
February 24, 2009
Work Starts On New Chengdu-Lanzhou Railway
Work has started on a new high-speed rail line between Chengdu and Lanzhou. When completed in 2014/2015 it will cut travel time between the Sichuan and Gansu provincial capitals from 20 hours to four.
As well as being a shovel-ready infrastructure project to set free stimulus yuan–the line will cost 62 billion yuan ($9 billion), state [...]
February 23, 2009
A Typical Couple Of Days
The last couple of days encapsulate modern China. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up her visit with an exhortation to her hosts to keep buying U.S. treasury bonds, and an online chat with netizens. A gas blast at one of China’s hitherto safest mines in a industry riddled with dangerous ones killed more [...]
February 23, 2009
Another Tainted Food Scare
China Daily reports that 70 people in Guangdong have been sickened after eating pork contaminated with the steroid clenbuterol, an illegal animal feed additive used to reduce the fat content of meat. The tainted pork was sold in Guangzhou and the pigs it came from raised in Hunan.
Eighteen months ago, more than 300 people in [...]
February 23, 2009
Drought Receding On North China Plain
The extensive irrigation drive and light rain and snow falls have relieved the three and a half month drought in the wheat fields of the North China Plain. Heavier and widespread rains are in the forecast across the eight affected provinces. The agriculture ministry took its emergency drought level down a stage on Friday, after [...]
February 23, 2009
Death Toll Mounts In Shanxi Mine Blast, 3 Officials ‘Sacked’
The number of confirmed dead is now 74 with 114 injured, 26 seriously. An unknown number may still be trapped underground. There is some confusion over whether rescue efforts have stopped.
China Daily is reporting that three officials at the mine have been removed from their posts in the wake of the blast, quoting a source [...]
February 22, 2009
Latest Mine Blast Kills More Than 40
Another black day for China’s deadly coal mines. More than 40 miners have died and dozens remain trapped following a pre-dawn blast at a mine in Gujiao City in Shanxi province. Xinhua reports that 340 miners had escaped but some were badly hurt. Despite efforts to improve safety, China’s mining industry remains the world’s deadliest. [...]
