A Hong Kong health official made a rare public complaint yesterday about China taking five days to explain why a massive pork recall was ordered just across the border in Shenzhen.
The pork recall last weekend caused a big health scare in the territory, which imports much of its pork and other food from China.
Hong Kong officials first found out about the massive pork recall last Saturday through media reports, Eddy Chan (陳育德), deputy secretary of the Health, Welfare and Food Department, told lawmakers.
"At that time, we had not received any notification from Shenzhen about the reason behind the operation," Chan said.
He complained that a formal letter explaining why the pork was being recalled finally arrived from Shenzhen on Thursday -- five days after the recall began.
"They forwarded the reasons to us rather late," Chan said.
He said Shenzhen officials recalled the pork because they feared that some pigs might have been infected with the swine-borne illness streptococcus suis, which recently killed 39 people in Sichuan Province. But he said Shenzhen reported the pork tested negative for the bacteria.
Hong Kong Health Secretary York Chow (
Communication between Hong Kong and the mainland has long been a sore spot between the two sides. It became an issue of extreme concern for Hong Kong after the 2003 outbreak of SARS.
Yesterday, some lawmakers urged Hong Kong officials to be tougher on their mainland counterparts.
Legislator Vincent Fang (方剛) said, "Sometimes being nice is not going to be useful. If you just say maybe our measures are better than yours, they won't listen to you."
Fang suggested that Hong Kong station health experts on the mainland could quickly check out reported problems.
Meanwhile, the territory's residents were told not to buy eels from China after tests yesterday confirmed the presence of a suspected cancer-causing chemical in the imports.
Eleven of 14 eels from China tested this week were found to contain malachite green, Chow told legislators yesterday.
Malachite green is a chemical used to treat parasitic infections at fish farms. It has been been banned in the US and the EU.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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