Agencies, BEIJING
China faces a global challenge to maintain consumer confidence in its products following a series of health scares, a senior EU official said yesterday, adding that Beijing must be more cooperative.
China should provide more samples of bird flu viruses found in the country, as well as samples of genetically modified (GM) produce, to better help the bloc protect its own citizens, EU Director-General for Health and Consumer Protection Robert Madelin said.
"The challenge for China is to maintain global confidence in its products, and the way to do that is for the regulatory authorities to be very open and very cooperative," he told a news conference in Beijing.
"[This] is exactly what we have been suggesting in areas like GM, to share samples, so that the enforcers in Europe feel like we're getting good cooperation," Madelin said.
In the most recent scandal, US consumers have been alarmed by a spate of pet deaths blamed on tainted wheat gluten and rice protein exported from China, as well as reports of toxins and disease in other Chinese exports.
A Chinese-made medicinal ingredient has also killed at least 100 people in Panama, a New York Times report said.
China has not approved commercial growing of GM rice, but some environmental groups have said it has already made its way into the food chain.
In response, China said yesterday it was willing to work with the world community on improving food security as it responded to growing concerns about the safety of edible Chinese exports.
"The Chinese government attaches great importance to the security and safety of food ... We have conducted efforts to set straight the order of the market," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) told reporters. "We stand ready to work with the international community and to explore international cooperation on food security."
China was already involved in cooperation with the US, the EU, Japan and South Korea on strengthening food security, she said.
Jiang also said China was looking into unspecified individual cases and would release the results of these investigations to the public.
US media reported on Sunday that China was the top violator of US food safety standards, with US authorities last month rejecting 257 Chinese food shipments -- far more than from any other country.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
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.
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
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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