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."
Economy/Resources - 273. page
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.
Fifty-Five Common Foods in China Are Toxic
A report has surfaced and been widely reprinted on Chinese official websites and Blogs naming 55 kinds of toxic food in China, ranging from daily rice, flour, vegetables, meat, eggs, and fruits to famous seasonings and gradients, formulations, etc. [1, 2] Vegetables laced with very toxic residual pesticides have been labeled as "harmless" and widely sold.
The Government Steps In to Curb Inflation
The price of basic essentials increased dramatically in China last year. Food prices climbed more than 18%, while the price of pork soared 50%. Families with low incomes, numbered in the hundreds of millions in China, spend between 30% and 50% of their income on food for the table. The Chinese government is stepping in to introduce heavy fines for retailers and producers if they increase the price of basic necessities.
Source: BBC, January 10, 2008
Chinese government website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7180442.stm
http://wj.yaw.com.cn/Get/gzdt/154208428.htm