CHINA! Authorities Arrest Hundreds Over RAT MEAT Scam

Chinese authorities have broken a major crime racket that passed off more than $AU1 million in rat as mutton. Police have arrested 900 suspects since January for selling and producing fake or tainted meat products, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

During the crackdown, police discovered one suspect, surnamed Wei, had used additives to spice up and sell rat, fox and mink meat at markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province. Despite persistent efforts by police, “food safety crimes are still prominent, and new situations are emerging with new characteristics”.

Food safety and environmental pollution are chronic problems in China and public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly. In April, many consumers lost their appetite for poultry as an outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu virus spread in China :: Read the full article »»»»

CHINA Cracks Down On PORN!

More than fifty websites, blogs and microblog accounts have been shut down over the past week in China, not a huge number right?  it is if your a pornster in China, in it’s latest round of crackdowns on online porn the government’s State Internet Information Office - SIIO – said the websites were closed for posting pornographic images, articles, films, amateur videos, online ads for prostitutes.

The SIIO was setup in May 2011, and is the  online branch of the überpowerful State Council Information Office, the communist states censorship office. China’s Internet, with the world’s largest number of users – more than 450 million – is a booming industry, attracting investors and government agencies hoping for a stake in online revenues through licensing and regulation.

The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said Tuesday that nearly 1.8 million websites had been checked since the launch of the campaign, and 2,195 cases of dissemination of online pornography have been dealt with.

The office received more than 160,000 porn-related tip-offs from the general public and paid out about more than $AU75,000/¥500,000 to around 5oo informants. Companies and government departments also joined in the campaign. As part of the sting, China Mobile organized 20 employees – mothers of teenagers – to assist with monitoring and reporting mobile sites :: Read the full article »»»»

CPLA War Ships Dock in Sydney

Three impressive war ships from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will spend the next four days docked in Sydney. The ships are arriving in Sydney this morning for a brief stop-over on the way to China. They are returning from a mission to combat pirate activities in the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and the Horn of Africa :: Read the full article »»»»

China: Feathered Tyrannosaurus Rex

Palaeontologists in China have uncovered a species of giant feathered dinosaur that was an ancient relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Scientists have known for over a decade that some small dinosaurs had bird-like feathers. But a report in the journal Nature says the new species of tyrannosaur, which was 9 metres long and weighed about 1.5 tonnes, provides direct evidence of the existence of gigantic feathered dinosaurs and has implications for early feather evolution.

The theropod, which was an ancient relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex, was 40 times larger than any previously known feathered dinosaur. It has been given the name Yutyrannus Huali, a combination of Latin and Mandarin, which means “beautiful feathered tyrant”. Read the full article »»»»

CHINA: Teen Sells Kidney For iPhone

Five people in the southern China province of Hunan have been arrested and charged with intentional injury in the case of a teenager who sold a kidney so he could buy an iPhone and an iPad. The five included a surgeon, who removed a kidney from the 17-year-old boy in April last year. The boy, identified only by his surname Wang, now suffers from renal deficiency, the government-run Xinhua News Agency quoted prosecutors in Chenzhou city, Hunan province as saying.

According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, one of the defendants received about 220,000 yuan, $US35,00 to arrange the transplant. He paid Wang 22,000 yuan and split the rest with the surgeon, the three other defendants and other medical staff. The report didn’t say who received or paid for the kidney. Read the full article »»»»

China’s High-end European Label

Karen Maley has a superlative piece on China’s sale addiction and Beijing’s Tax Breaks for Exporters, she writes. While European political leaders are praying that China will use some of its massive $US3.2 trillion foreign reserve stockpile to buy bonds of debt-strapped eurozone countries, Beijing is busy thinking up strategies for tightening its hold on important European markets.

China has been deeply worried that the spreading recession in its largest export market, the European Union, will crimp demand for its goods. In January, China’s exports to the region slumped 3.2 per cent from a year earlier, as European consumers tightened their belts and cut spending. Even though China successfully boosted its exports to emerging markets, such as Brazil, the country still saw its total exports fall by 0.5 per cent over the year to January, the first decline in more than two years.