Japan Warns About Toxic Smog From China

via Japan Times:

"Authorities will urge residents to stay indoors if the level of toxic smog spreading to Japan from China is expected to exceed twice the maximum limit set by the central government, officials said."

Japan Detains Chinese Fishing Boat

via Reuters:

The boat, registered in Zhejiang province in eastern China, was found in waters near Goto, in Nagasaki prefecture in southern Japan, Xinhua said. The captain was being taken ashore following questioning.

In recent weeks Japanese military planes have scrambled numerous times against Chinese planes approaching airspace over the islands. Chinese planes have also shadowed Japanese planes elsewhere over the East China Sea.

The Chinese fishing fleet are ranging further and further offshore as fishing stocks near the Chinese mainland are depleted. Their presence in Japanese territory and in disputed waters is contributing to friction between the two Asian economic powerhouses, whose maritime borders are not defined.

In a similar case in late December, Japanese authorities stopped a fishing boat registered in the Chinese coastal province of Fujian, and detained its captain.

India, China and others continue to buy gold

The Bastiat Collection (2011); originally from the second series of Economic Sophisms (1848)

There is nothing that is not pretended by the writers in favor of protection to be established as an aid to the working classes — there is positively no exception, not even the custom house. You fancy, perhaps, that the custom house is merely an instrument of taxation like property taxes or the toll bar! Nothing of the kind. It is essentially an institution for promoting the march of civilization, fraternity, and equality. What would you be at? It is the fashion to introduce, or affect to introduce, sentiment and sentimentalism everywhere, even into the toll gatherer's booth.

The custom house, we must allow, has a very singular machinery for realizing philanthropical aspirations.

It includes an army of directors, subdirectors, inspectors, subinspectors, comptrollers, examiners, heads of departments, clerks, supernumeraries, aspirant supernumeraries, not to speak of the officers of the active service; and the object of all this complicated machinery is to exercise over the industry of the people a negative action, which is summed up in the word obstruct.

Observe, I do not say that the object is to tax, but to obstruct. To prevent, not acts that are repugnant to good morals or public order, but transactions that are in themselves not only harmless but fitted to maintain peace and union among nations.

And yet the human race is so flexible and elastic that it always surmounts these obstructions. And then we hear of the labor market being glutted.

If you hinder a people from obtaining its subsistence from abroad it will produce it at home. The labor is greater and more painful, but subsistence must be had. If you hinder a man from traversing the valley he must cross the hills. The road is longer and more difficult, but he must get to his journey's end.

This is lamentable, but we come now to what is ludicrous. When the law has thus created obstacles, and when in order to overcome them society has diverted a corresponding amount of labor from other employments, you are no longer permitted to demand a reform. If you point to the obstacle you are told of the amount of labor to which it has given employment. And if you rejoin that this labor is not created, but displaced, you are answered in the words of the Esprit Public, "The impoverishment alone is certain and immediate; as to our enrichment, it is more than problematical."

This reminds me of a Chinese story, which I will relate to you.

There were in China two large towns, called Tchin and Tchan. A magnificent canal united them. The emperor thought fit to order enormous blocks of stone to be thrown into it for the purpose of rendering it useless.

On seeing this, Kouang, his first mandarin, said to him, "Son of Heaven! This is a mistake."

To which the emperor replied, "Kouang, you talk nonsense."

I give you only the substance of their conversation.

At the end of three months the celestial emperor sent again for the mandarin, and said to him, "Kouang, behold!"

And Kouang opened his eyes, and looked.

And he saw at some distance from the canal a multitude of men at work. Some were excavating, others were filling up hollows, leveling and paving. And the mandarin, who was very cultivated, said to himself, They are making a highway.

When another three months had elapsed, the emperor again sent for Kouang and said to him, "Look!"

And Kouang looked.

And he saw the road completed, and from one end of it to the other he saw here and there inns for travelers erected. Crowds of pedestrians, carts, litters, came and went, and innumerable Chinese, overcome with fatigue, carried back and forth heavy burdens from Tchin to Tchan, and from Tchan to Tchin. And Kouang said to himself, It is the destruction of the canal that gives employment to these poor people. But the idea never struck him that their labor was simply diverted from other employments.

Three months more passed, and the emperor said to Kouang, "Look!"

And Kouang looked. And he saw that the hostelries were full of travelers, and that to supply their wants there were grouped around them butchers' and bakers' stalls, shops for the sale of edible bird nests. He also saw that, the artisans having need of clothing, there had settled among them tailors, shoemakers, and those who sold parasols and fans; and as they could not sleep in the open air, even in the Celestial Empire, there were also masons, carpenters, and slaters. Then there were officers of police, judges, fakirs; in a word, a town with its suburbs had risen round each hostelry.

And the emperor asked Kouang what he thought of all this.

And Kouang said that he never could have imagined that the destruction of a canal could have provided employment for so many people; for the thought never struck him that this was not employment created but labor diverted from other employments, and that men would have eaten and drunk in passing along the canal as well as in passing along the highroad.

However, to the astonishment of the Chinese, the Son of Heaven at length died and was buried.

His successor sent for Kouang, and ordered him to have the canal cleared out and restored.

And Kouang said to the new emperor, "Son of Heaven! You commit a blunder."

And the emperor replied, "Kouang, you talk nonsense."

But Kouang persisted, and said, "Sire, what is your object?"

"My object is to facilitate the transit of goods and passengers between Tchin and Tchan, to render carriage less expensive, in order that the people may have tea and clothing cheaper."

But Kouang was ready with his answer. He had received the night before several numbers of the Moniteur Industriel, a Chinese newspaper. Knowing his lesson well, he asked and obtained permission to reply, and after having prostrated himself nine times, he said, "Sire, your object is, by increased facility of transit, to reduce the price of articles of consumption, and bring them within reach of the people; and to effect that you begin by taking away from them all the employment to which the destruction of the canal had given rise. Sire, in political economy, nominal cheapness—"

The emperor: "I believe you are repeating by rote."

Kouang: "True, Sire; and it will be better to read what I have to say."

So, producing the Esprit Public, he read as follows:

In political economy, the nominal cheapness of articles of consumption is only a secondary question. The problem is to establish an equilibrium between the price of labor and that of the means of subsistence. The abundance of labor constitutes the wealth of nations; and the best economic system is that which supplies the people with the greatest amount of employment. The question is not whether it is better to pay four or eight cash for a cup of tea, or five or ten taels (Chinese money) for a shirt. These are puerilities unworthy of a thinking mind. Nobody disputes your proposition. The question is whether it is better to pay dearer for a commodity you want to buy, and have, through the abundance of employment and the higher price of labor, the means of acquiring it; or whether it is better to limit the sources of employment, and with them the mass of the national population, in order to transport, by improved means of transit, the objects of consumption, cheaper, it is true, but taking away at the same time from many of our people the means of purchasing these objects even at their reduced price.

Seeing the emperor still unconvinced, Kouang added, "Sire, deign to give me your attention. I have still the Moniteur Industriel to bring under your notice."

But the emperor said, "I don't require your Chinese journals to enable me to find out that to create obstacles is to divert and misapply labor. But that is not my mission. Go and clear out the canal; and we shall reform the custom house afterwards."

And Kouang went away tearing his beard, and appealing to his God, "O Fo! Take pity on thy people; for we have now got an emperor of the English school, and I see clearly that in a short time we shall be in want of everything, for we shall no longer require to do anything."

Frédéric Bastiat was the great French proto-Austrolibertarian whose polemics and analytics run circles around every statist cliché. His primary desire as a writer was to reach people in the most practical way with the message of the moral and material urgency of freedom. See Frederic Bastiat's article archives.

You can subscribe to future articles by Frederic Bastiat via this RSS feed.

Copyright © 2012 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided full credit is given.

China’s claim: ‘indisputable’

Water dispute: China’s claim over sea ‘indisputable’ 

 
The Philippines renamed the South China Sea to the West Philippine Sea.

China responded:

“The action of the Philippine side will not change the fact that China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea including Nansha Islands and Huangyan Island, and their adjacent waters.” --- Hong Lei, spokesman of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

India and China will resume military exercises

India and China will resume military exercises, at the earliest possible date, after a gap of four years.


article

Japan arrests Chinese activists after landing on disputed isle

Japan to China: Get off my islands! 

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook unknowingly appears in a CCTV documentary

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook unknowingly appears in a CCTV documentary while in Shanghai earlier this year.

article>>> Billionaire Facebook Couple in Chinese Documentary

China Up, Japan Lower

Rising China Bests a Shrinking Japan

China passed Japan in 2010 to become the world's second-largest economy after the U.S., a historic shift that has drawn mixed emotions in the two Asian powers: resignation tinged with soul-searching in long-stagnant Japan, pride but also caution in an ascendant China wary of shouldering new global responsibilities.


WSJ Article

NYTimes: Chinese Company Said to Be Buyer of Hummer

GUANGZHOU, China — General Motors has reached a preliminary agreement for the sale of its Hummer brand of large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks to a machinery company in western China with ambitions to become a carmaker, a person familiar with the Chinese government approval process said Tuesday.

read>>> NY Times article

94 Die in Panama From Tainted Medicine

A top Panamanian prosecutor said tests show at least 94 people have died from taking medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol since July 2006 and that 293 more deaths are under investigation.

Prosecutor Dimas Guevara said Wednesday that people have continued to die this year even though the tainted medicine was pulled from shelves in October.

Previously Panamanian authorities had confirmed only 51 deaths from the medicine.

A chemical commonly found in antifreeze and brake fluid, diethylene glycol was used in cough syrup, antihistamine tablets, calamine lotion and rash ointment made in a Panama government laboratory.

Investigations revealed the chemical was made by a Chinese company that fraudulently passed it off as 99.5 percent pure glycerin, a sweetener commonly used in drugs, to a Spanish company. That company sold it to Panama's Medicom SA, which sold it to a government laboratory.

read::: 1010wins


related -

http://www.fda.gov/oc/history/elixir.html

Excerpt:

Sulfanilamide, a drug used to treat streptococcal infections, had been shown to have dramatic curative effects and had been used safely for some time in tablet and powder form. In June 1937, however, a salesman for the S.E. Massengill Co., in Bristol, Tenn., reported a demand in the southern states for the drug in liquid form. The company’s chief chemist and pharmacist, Harold Cole Watkins, experimented and found that sulfanilamide would dissolve in diethylene glycol. The company control lab tested the mixture for flavor, appearance, and fragrance and found it satisfactory. Immediately, the company compounded a quantity of the elixir and sent shipments—633 of them—all over the country.

The new formulation had not been tested for toxicity. At the time the food and drugs law did not require that safety studies be done on new drugs. Selling toxic drugs was, undoubtedly, bad for business and could damage a firm’s reputation, but it was not illegal.

Because no pharmacological studies had been done on the new sulfanilamide preparation, Watkins failed to note one characteristic of the solution. Diethylene glycol, a chemical normally used as an antifreeze, is a deadly poison.

Yahoo caught providing information against Blogger

Yahoo caught providing information against Blogger

The Little Engine That Could Poison

by Christian Warren

FOR decades, Thomas the Tank Engine and his fellow trains have been teaching children important life lessons. Now the plucky locomotives — especially the haughty and sometimes naughty James the Red Engine — are serving up important lessons about regulating environmental poisons in the global economy.

Last week, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that a toy maker, RC2 Corporation of Oak Brook, Ill., was recalling some 1.5 million Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys because their bright red or yellow coatings contain lead.

NYTimes article

read also::: Made in China Inc. blog article - Thomas the Tank - RECALL

China Food Safety Issue Not Hurting Sales

SHANGHAI -- Controversy over the safety of Chinese food products is grabbing headlines around the world, but multinational companies which sell food from China said the issue was not threatening their business.

Executives attending an international food industry conference in Shanghai this week urged China to allay public fears by strengthening its regulation of the sector.

The News - International

WP: "Cause for Concern In Chinese Bulbs?"

...Most of us buy garlic at a supermarket. We don't know what kind it is, how fresh it is or where it's grown. But there's a good chance it comes from China, which produces 75 percent of the world's supply...

Garlic is the United States' biggest fresh-vegetable import from China, which sent us 138 million pounds of it worth more than $70 million last year. We also get small amounts from Mexico, Argentina and about 15 other countries. We eat a lot of garlic -- about three pounds per person a year.

Although most of our fresh garlic comes from halfway around the world, it's cheaper than garlic grown in California...

Washington Post article

UPDATE: FDA Warning Expands List of Contaminated Toothpaste from China

Introduction: FDA has found a poisonous chemical, diethylene glycol (DEG), in certain toothpastes imported from China. The agency increased its scrutiny and testing of imported toothpaste and dental products after receiving reports in late May 2007 of contaminated Chinese dental products found in several countries, including Panama.

Q: Why are consumers being warned about toothpaste?

FDA is strongly warning consumers to avoid using any toothpaste labeled as made in China because we have found levels as high as 3-4% of a poisonous chemical, diethylene glycol (DEG), in Chinese toothpaste.

Q: What is diethylene glycol, or DEG?

Diethylene glycol (DEG), also known as "diglycol" is a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze and as a solvent. It does not belong in toothpaste even at small concentrations.

The agency is warning consumers to avoid using tubes of toothpaste labeled as made in China and, through an import alert, is stopping all suspect toothpaste from entering the United States.

FDA continues to investigate this problem and will take further action, as appropriate, to address this important public safety issue.

List of Toothpaste Products FDA has identified the following brands of toothpaste from China that have been found to contain a poisonous chemical called diethylene glycol (DEG). The products typically are sold at low-cost, "bargain" retail outlets.

Manufacturer: Goldcredit International Enterprises LTD Products: (MainStar America, Selective Imports, Donnamax)

Dr. Cool Coolmint Superdent Coolmint Cooldent Coolmint Cooldent Spearmint Cooldent Fluoride Everfresh Assortment BrightMax DentaPro Dentakleen Dentakleen Junior Brand - Strawberry Dentakleen Junior Brand - Blueberry

Manufacturer: Gold Credit International Trading Co LTD Products:

Bright Max Peppermint Flavor Clean Rite Toothpaste Clean Rite Toothpaste Kit Oralmax Extreme Action Kit Oral Bright Fresh Spearmint Flavor DentaKleen DentaKleen Junior DentaPro Manufacturer: Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals Co. Ltd. Product: (Gold City Enterprises/New Star, Miami, FL)

ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste ShiRFresh Toothpaste ShiRFresh Mint ShiRFresh Ice Mint Manufacturer Shanghai Light Industrial Products: Freshh Spearmint (Following up with Mandalay International, Ogden, UT)

MFR Unknown: Crescent Toothpaste (Dollar Ocean #4, Wheaton, MD and H&Y Trading Co, Capitol Heights, MD) Naturabella nino Dusanzo (Certejenas Inc., Cidra, PR)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FDA has identified the following counterfeit products:

Manufacturer: Unknown

counterfeit toothpaste falsely packaged as "Colgate," manufactured in South Africa counterfeit tooth gel falsely packaged as "Colgate," manufactured in South Africa (may not contain DEG)

Flaw in the ointment

It was perhaps inevitable that at some stage China would trip, given the speed at which it hurtles towards economic supremacy. That fall, in the glare of the world's media, has come with the humiliating revelations that fake food and medical ingredients have been exported, triggering mass poisonings in the West. With the Beijing Olympics just over a year away, Chinese officials have been forced into frantic damage control.

Brisbane Times

BBC News: Mass rescue of 'slaves' in China

More than 200 people, including 29 children, have been rescued after working as "slaves" in brick kilns in central China, state media reports.

Tens of thousands of police moved in on the kilns in Henan province, arresting 120 people, Xinhua news agency said.

They acted after media reports claimed that children were being forced to work in kilns in neighbouring Shanxi province, Xinhua said.

BBC

Related-

Telegraph

The Washington Times: Inside the Ring by Bill Gertz

China arming terrorists

New intelligence reveals China is covertly supplying large quantities of small arms and weapons to insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, through Iran.

U.S. government appeals to China to check some of the arms shipments in advance were met with stonewalling by Beijing, which insisted it knew nothing about the shipments and asked for additional intelligence on the transfers. The ploy has been used in the past by China to hide its arms-proliferation activities from the United States, according to U.S. officials with access to the intelligence reports.

Some arms were sent by aircraft directly from Chinese factories to Afghanistan and included large-caliber sniper rifles, millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and components for roadside bombs, as well as other small arms.

The Washington Times

First Business: Trade Tensions with China

First Business Morning News asks - "Does counterfeit Colgate, the latest tainted product from China, add pressure to growing trade tensions?"