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03/27/2009   Source: China.org.cn

About 80 families are to file a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson claiming the company’s products have harmed their children. Their lawyers say they will submit cases to grass-root courts in Beijing at the beginning of April.

“We are considering class action lawsuits because of the huge number of victims involved,” said Cui Baoyu, a member of the legal support group. The group said it plans to start proceedings in Beijing because most of its clients come from the city. The group will ask people to provide products, purchase receipts and children’s medical records.

Cui said the group will also send lawyers to other cities, or ask local professionals to provide guidance. “We have more than 50 lawyers in the group,” said Cui, “and the group continues expanding as more lawyers from all over the country ask to join every day.”

China’s inspection departments released contradictory results following tests carried out on Johnson & Johnson products last week.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said on March 20 that all 26 Johnson & Johnson baby bath products it tested met the country’s regulations on cosmetic formaldehyde.

But one batch number (B081210A/20111209) was found to contain a small amount of 1,4-dioxane, an as yet unregulated substance used in cosmetics both in China and the United States, according to AQSIQ.

The following day, the State Food and Drug Administration said it had failed to find contamination by either formaldehyde or 1,4-dioxane in checks it carried out on 14 Johnson & Johnson baby bath products sold under the company’s Shanghai brand.

FDA spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said on Thursday that AQSIQ examined a batch of the finished products of the company, while the FDA’s result was based on the formula of the products. “The results are not contradictory,” said Yan. But she admitted FDA could not be sure chemicals were not added during production. FDA is conducting “further investigations” on harmful materials, according to Yan.

Since both departments have ruled the company’s products safe, the parents’ group plans to ask medical institutions to conduct allergy tests to try to find a correlation between their children’s allergic symptoms and the products.

China raised the export rebate on 3,800 items to maintain growth, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) said Friday.

It was the sixth increase since last August when the government decided to raise refunds in an attempt to tackle slumping exports amid the global financial crisis.

The export rebate for the textile and garment, iron and steel, non-ferrous metal and petrochemical items will be effective April 1, according to the departments.

The tax rebate for textile and garment items would be 16 percent.

A special item, CRT televisions, would have a 17 percent of tax refund.

“It was an extraordinary measure taken under extraordinary conditions,” said Zhao Yumin, a researcher with the Ministry of Commerce.

He said slumping exports presented the Chinese government with unprecedented challenges. The refund increase underscored the government’s resolution to maintain economic growth and secure employment.

China’s exports plummeted 25.7 percent year-on-year in February, the worst decline in more than a decade, as global demand deteriorated amid the deepening recession.

Although previous data showed some signs of economic recovery, the economic outlook remained uncertain as profits of China’s major industrial enterprises contracted 37.3 percent year-on-year during the first two months of 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

Bai Jingming, economist with the Ministry of Finance said more refunds meant enterprises could retain more cash in hand and they could use that money to restructure their business and improve production technology.

The SAT said last week that the actual export tax rebate in the first two months increased 20.8 percent year-on-year to 66.7 billion yuan (9.77 billion U.S. dollars).

Experts said nearly all Chinese exports had a 17 percent export rebate during the Asian financial crisis. Compared to that, China still has room for further rebate increases.

03/17/2009  Source: Xinhua

China’s Ministry of Public Security issued a circular Tuesday outlining prohibited activities for officials, to implement the government’s calls for clean and honest administration.

Leading public security officials at all levels should not go to entertainment venues to meet with lower-level offices or individuals, according to the circular.

It banned public security officials, who are considered China’s law enforcement personnel, from gaining benefits for themselves or others during the course of case investigations, project bids or government procurement.

They should not accept bribes in the form of cash, marketable securities or stocks.

The circular said misconduct could result in suspension, demotion or legal penalties.

03/13/2009  Source: www.chinaview.cn

The National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, on Friday expressed strong indignation and opposition to a European Parliament resolution on Tibet.

“We are strongly indignant with and opposed to the act that intervenes in China’s internal affairs, damages China-Europe relations and hurts the Chinese people’s feelings,” the NPC Foreign Affairs Committee said in a statement.

Regardless of China’s repeated stern representation, the European Parliament, stirred up by a few of its members, insisted on approving a resolution on Tibet, which distorts the facts and again encourages the Dalai Lama’s separatist practice, in an attempt to internationalize the Tibet-related issues,” said the statement.

Tibet is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory and Tibetan affairs are purely China’s domestic affairs, the statement said, adding that any foreign government and organization does not have the right to intervene in China’s internal affairs.

The Tibet Autonomous Region has achieved economic development, national unity and social harmony and people there have been living and working in peace since the democratic reforms 50 years ago, the statement said.

Over the past few years, the Chinese central government has carried out a number of contacts and dialogues with patience and sincerity with the Dalai Lama’s representatives.

However, as the Dalai Lama has not stopped his separatist activities, no substantial progress was made through the dialogues.

Dalai Lama’s Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People, under the veil of claiming autonomy, actually seeks political independence for Tibet and runs against China’s Constitution. It will be inevitably opposed by all the Chinese people, the statement said.

The Dalai Lama claimed that rather than seeking for “Tibet independence “, he only asked for “high degree of autonomy” and “genuine autonomy” and insisted on “nonviolence”.

However, Dalai Lama’s so-called “genuine autonomy” aimed to restore his reign in Tibet that integrating religion and state, and establish a supposed “greater Tibet area” which covers nearly a quarter of China’s territory. The so-called “greater Tibet area” does not exist in history, nor does it have an actual ground

The claim also asked the Chinese central government to withdraw armies and all the non-Tibetans from the “greater Tibet area”. The essence of these claims is advocating “Tibet independence ” or meant for “gradual or covert Tibet independence,” the statement said.

03/09/2009   Source: www.chinaview.cn

China’s parliament put the draft food safety law high on its agenda last year after a milk contamination scandal caused widespread panic and public grumbles, top legislator Wu Bangguo said Monday.

The legislature “further” revised the draft Law on Food Safety based on “in-depth investigations and studies and a wide range of opinions” after the exposure of tainted products by the country’s leading diary producers with Sanlu Group in Hebei Province at the epicenter, according to Wu.

The revisions underlined strengthened oversight and management on food safety by stipulating the establishment of a food safety commission by the State Council to coordinate and guide food safety work, said Wu, when delivering a work report to the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC).

The NPC Standing Committee, with Wu as its chairman, endorsed the Law on Food Safety last month after four readings. It goes into effect on June 1, 2009.

As another result of the revisions following the milk scandal, the law also stipulates a ban on all chemicals and materials other than authorized additives in food production, saying that “only those items proved to be safe and necessary in food production are allowed to be listed as food additives.”

In the tainted dairy products scandal, which left six infants dead and almost 300,000 sickened, melamine, often used in the manufacture of plastics, was added to milk products to deceive protein test.

The law also prohibits any claim related to prevention or cure of illness on tonic food label and instruction leaflets.

The booming industry of tonic food boasts an estimated annual output value of 100 billion yuan (14.62 billion U.S. dollars) in China.

Beijing-based dairy producer Sanyuan bought Sanlu Group earlier this month with 616.5 million yuan (90 million U.S. dollars) at an auction.

03/03/2009 Source: Asia Legal News

A new state security law has taken effect in Macau to punish crimes of treason, secession or subversion against the Chinese government.

BBC News reports it also punishes what it calls “preparatory acts” of these crimes, and the theft of state secrets.

Rights watchdogs have criticised the ambiguous, catch-all language of the law.

Democrat legislators have said the law in Macau is intended by China to set an example for less pliant Hong Kong.

The Chinese government says the law is to fulfill Article 23 of the Basic Law governing the return of the former Portuguese colony of Macau and former British colony of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty.