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SINO DAILY
Viral post inflames public anger in China vaccine scandal
By Ben Dooley
Beijing (AFP) July 24, 2018

China's persistent food and drug safety problem
Beijing (AFP) July 24, 2018 - Chinese authorities are scrambling to defuse public outrage over a safety scandal involving rabies vaccines, just one of a string of food and drug scares to hit the country in recent years.

Despite the country's stunning growth over the past four decades, many consumers in the world's second-largest economy still live in fear of consuming toxic food or dangerous or ineffective medicines.

Following are some of the biggest scandals to emerge over the past decade:

July 2018: The Chinese manufacturer of the blood pressure medication Valsartan, which is widely used in the United States and Europe, launches a global recall after the active ingredient is found to have been tainted by a cancer-causing substance.

March 2016: Authorities detain 130 people over the improper storage and transport of millions of dollars worth of mostly expired vaccines, including shots for polio, rabies, hepatitis B and flu. More than 350 government officials are eventually fired or demoted.

April 2012: Police in the eastern province of Zhejiang detain 22 people for making medicine containing chromium, a toxic raw material produced from scrap leather.

July 2012: High levels of a cancer-causing toxin which comes from mould are detected in infant formula from Ava Dairy. The company's production is halted and its formula recalled.

September 2011: Thirty-two people are arrested over the sale of cooking oil made from discarded oil taken from gutters, which was found to contain carcinogens.

November 2011: Authorities break up a ring that made and sold fake medicines -- some using animal feed. More than 65 million medicine tablets are seized and 114 people arrested.

March 2011: Cancer-causing chemicals -- fed to pigs to produce leaner meat -- are found in live pigs. More than 113 people, including 77 government employees, are eventually jailed in relation to the scandal.

December 2010: Fruit vendors in Shanghai complain of burning skin after touching oranges later found to have been dyed with a toxic orange wax.

December 2010: Six people are detained after wineries in northern Hebei province are found to have added sugar, food colouring and artificial flavouring to create knockoffs of famous wines. Several wineries are shut and bottles pulled from shelves.

September 2008: In China's most explosive recent incident, around 300,000 children fall ill, many with renal failure, and six are killed by milk powder laced with the chemical melamine to give the appearance of higher protein levels. Melamine is usually used to make plastic.

Several top executives with Chinese dairy giant Sanlu receive long prison terms and two get the death sentence. The affair also spurs China to pass a new law on additives, strengthen regulatory coordination on food safety, and restructure the agency in charge of food and drug supervision.

July 2008: Four children die and dozens of others fall ill after receiving damaged vaccines in the northern province of Shanxi, but reports only emerge two years later. Local officials at the time had denied a link between the sick children and the vaccines.

June 2007: Several countries recall Chinese-made toothpaste found to contain a chemical used in automobile antifreeze for vehicles. Also that month, US importers of Chinese toys issue recalls after some are found to be coated with toxic lead paint. Similar products are later banned in several other countries.

March 2007: Pet food in North America and around the world is recalled after animals start dying in large numbers. The problem is eventually traced to wheat and rice derivatives from China that were used as ingredients and to which melamine was added.

China's newest product safety scare burst onto the public consciousness when an obscure essay alleging corruption in the pharmaceutical industry become an internet sensation, exposing widespread anger and distrust after a string of scandals.

The furore over alleged shady dealings by a major vaccine producer has shattered already fragile trust in regulators and illustrated the rising frustrations of China's increasingly sophisticated consumers.

News that pharmaceutical company Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology had fabricated records and been forced to stop manufacturing rabies vaccines was first reported more than a week ago.

But it exploded on social media over the weekend, fuelled by a viral essay alleging decades of malfeasance by the company including the bribery of officials to allow low-quality products onto the market.

The origin and veracity of the mysterious post remains unverified, but it touched off a cat-and-mouse game as China's aggressive censors scrambled to prevent its dissemination.

However the damage was done. Millions of angry users shared the essay and other information on product-safety problems in a rare public airing of a touchy national issue.

The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) said last week the problematic rabies vaccine had not left Changsheng's factory, but the company admitted it had shipped a separate sub-standard vaccine.

That vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) was found by regulators to fail quality standards -- but the company revealed that it sold 250,000 doses to Shandong province last year.

As the pressure mounted, further revelations have emerged. Authorities in the northern province of Hebei announced Monday that nearly 150,000 people had received sub-standard DPT vaccines made by another firm, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products.

The problems have rekindled already deep fears over domestically made medicines and driven worried parents online to swap information on obtaining imported vaccines.

"I don't trust the vaccines here anymore," a woman who gave only her surname Zhou told AFP as she waited with her young daughter at a pediatric clinic in Beijing on Tuesday.

Zhou said she was willing to pay for imported products rather than accept those offered for free by the government.

Hong Kong clinics said they have seen a surge in demand for children's vaccines.

- Damage control -

The government has gone into damage control, with the CFDA saying there was "absolutely no need" for foreign vaccines because China already has a "comprehensive" system for ensuring quality.

Authorities have announced a series of investigations and vowed that heads would roll for any negligence.

In a sign of the high-level unease, President Xi Jinping -- on a trip to Africa -- weighed in Monday, calling the vaccine company's actions "vile in nature and shocking", according to state media.

One reason product safety is such an explosive issue is that children have been among the victims of the worst Chinese scandals of the last decade, including a massive 2008 scandal over milk and baby formula tainted by the chemical melamine, which gives the appearance of higher protein levels.

The adulteration killed six infants and left tens of thousands hospitalised, rocking China's dairy sector and leading to a regulatory shake-up.

"This time, it deals with babies, and the volume is a lot. That's why people are concerned with it," said Scarlett Pong, president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Hong Kong, where wealthier Chinese parents often travel to access foreign medicines.

Experts say Chinese authorities are gradually improving supervision, but the country's vastness and lack of openness means it will remain a long-term battle.

"I think whoever comes up to be the political leader in the future, they will have to fulfil the demands from the public. The world is much more open now, citizens know a lot of things," Pong said.

- Deja vu -

The CFDA announced late Sunday that it had ordered all production stopped at Changchun Changsheng and police have opened a criminal investigation, detaining its chairwoman and four subordinates for investigation.

Jilin province, where the company is based, said Tuesday it also would open a corruption investigation into government officials involved.

But many jaded consumers have heard it all before.

"The problem is who is doing the investigation," said one angry commentator on the Twitter-like Weibo microblogging platform.

"If you're just investigating yourself, what kind of results will come out?"

Following a previous major vaccine scare in 2016, officials detained more than 200 people, promising to plug what Premier Li Keqiang described at the time as "many regulatory loopholes".

But some social media users this week have pointed sardonically to Sun Xianze, the official in charge of food safety during the 2008 milk scandal.

Sun was later promoted to deputy director of the CFDA, with responsibility for drug safety, where he worked until February.


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China News from SinoDaily.com


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SINO DAILY
Hong Kong academics warn of 'political battleground' at universities
Hong Kong (AFP) July 24, 2018
Pro-democracy Hong Kong academics say they have been sidelined from city universities for their political views as fears grow that education is increasingly under pressure from Beijing. Although semi-autonomous Hong Kong enjoys rights unseen on the mainland, including freedom of expression, there are growing concerns those liberties are being squeezed as China's tolerance for dissent diminishes. A former member of a top decision-making body at one of the city's leading universities described the ... read more

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