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BIZCHINA / Center
Foreign media criticized for fabricating food reports
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-03 17:54
A senior Chinese official has lambasted foreign media for fabricating
scares over Chinese food products.
Some foreign media had viciously sensationalized product quality problems
and food scares concerning a small number of Chinese goods or companies,
said Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng.
Some media fabricated safety problems in campaigns to block imports of
Chinese goods, which he described as de facto trade protectionism, he
said.
Gao said some foreign media reports told of Chinese boys as young as six
growing moustaches and girls aged seven growing breasts after eating
hormone-tainted food.
He also said some media had branded China-made products "killers".
"We welcome impartial media reports as they will help us seek truth from
the facts and take appropriate measures to rectify problems."
"Like other governments around the world, the Chinese government pays
great attention to safety and when problems occur, we never shirk, but
deal with them responsibly after finding the facts," Gao said.
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The government has long been cracking down on fake, low-quality and
unsafe products, but it was almost impossible to eradicate them as a
small minority of local companies lacked social responsibility.
The government had taken measures to tackle product safety problems,
including blacklisting firms that exported unsafe products, he said.
In July, the government revoked the business licenses of Xuzhou Anying
Biotechnology Development Company, in eastern Jiangsu Province, and
Binzhou Futian Biotechnology Co Ltd, in neighboring Shandong Province,
for exporting melamine-tainted wheat protein that ended up in pet food in
the US.
Gao said the quality of Chinese products was improving steadily. A survey
showed that 94 percent of Chinese vegetables were up to standard in terms
of pesticide residue in the first half, 12 percentage points higher than
in 2003.
Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said in a statement posted on the website of
the Ministry of Commerce that more than 90 percent of Chinese imported
products were good and safe.
Bo hoped all the parties could treat China-made products objectively,
fairly and rationally and would not let problems affect normal trade.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan, China's biggest food
importer, said in July that 99.42 percent of the imported food from China
in 2006 met safety standards, trailing 99.38 percent of the European
Union and 98.69 percent of the US.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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