An increase in the cost of feed coupled with a drop in the supply of pigs due to disease has made pork a top priority for the Chinese government. Pork is the most important staple meat for China’s 1.3 billion people. Any sustained interruption in supply would be a major political problem for the country. Premier Wen Jiabao provided confirmation of the crisis when he made a weekend visit on May 28, 2007, to a market in Shaanxi Province.
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50,000 Residents without Clean Water for 5 Days
On January 7, 2008, water pollution caused by the discharge of industrial waste led to the shutdown of a water company. 50,000 residents in Chikan Town, Kaping City, Guangdong Province, went without water until the water supply finally resumed on January 11, 2008.
The electroplating workshop of at nearby company started discharging industrial waste into the river via a hidden duct, 100 meters from the intake pipe of the Chikan Water Plant. Residents waited in long lines for tanks of water transported from out of town. Others tried to hang on by cooking with bottled water and doing their laundry in the Chikan River.
Source: Xinhua, Janaury 12, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2008-01/12/content_7409587.htm
China Reform Foundation Report: Urban Resident’s Grey Income as High as 4 Trillion Yuan
On June 11, Wang Xiaolu, the Vice Director of the National Economic Research Institute of the China Reform Foundation, released a report about "grey income," the income that is never officially reported. He found that the urban population has "4.4 trillion Yuan (0.55 trillion $US) of grey income that is not accounted for in China’s national statistics."
Chinese Transfer Billions from Savings and Borrow Billions to Buy Stock
Chinese households have been pouring billions of RMB in savings into the stock market. In May 2007 alone, they transferred more than 278.4 billion RMB ($37 billion) from household savings accounts to stock trading accounts. As a result, Chinese banks are facing their biggest challenge since 1949.
China Tightens Organ Transplant Tourism
On July 19, 2007, Southern Weekly, a newspaper based in Guangzhou, published a headline article "China’s ‘Organ Transplant Tourism Decreases.’" The report stated that the number of organ donors has dropped sharply this year and that China has profited enormously from organ transplants. It also stated that China’s Minster of Health openly admitted that the China has used organs from executed prisoners. It is hard to explain the sharp drop in organ donors.
Foreign Owned Companies Ranked Poorly in Fulfilling Social Responsibilities in 2006
China Machinery Industry Federation, a government sponsored trade association, reported the results of an investigation conducted in 2006 on foreign companies investing in China. The investigation revealed that many of the world’s top 500 companies doing business in China failed to fulfill their social responsibilities. Southern Weekly conducted the 2006 investigation ranking foreign companies investing in China for social responsibility.
Party School Article Discusses Foreign Corporations’ Evasion of Corporate Social Responsibility
The May 2007 issue of Zhejiang Provincial Party School’s Data Communication discussed how foreign-owned companies evade their corporate social responsibility in China, and proposed counter-measures to address the problem.
Pork Safety Concerns Chinese Consumers
Chinese consumers are worried about the unhealthy ingredients added to their daily food. This worry is reflected in a recent Internet BBS posting about unethical pig feeding and the heated discussion it caused in Internet forums across China.