Stories related to: China

In the wake of the pet-food poisoning scandal, some of the biggest U.S. food manufacturers—Tyson and Mission Foods—have banned Chinese ingredients. But since China is the world's biggest supplier of the flavorings, vitamins and preservatives that are used in virtually all processed foods, the bans may be impossible to uphold, the LA Times observes. More »

Tolls are literally taking a toll in China, where thrifty motorists try to steer around the tollbooths cropping up on the country's highways. An infrastructure boom has created 40,000 kilometers of new toll roads since 1990, and drivers are doing anything—from faking toll-exempt plates to making long detours on back roads—to avoid the pricey fees. More »

Young, rural women in China are killing themselves at startling rates. In a country whose overall suicide rate is double the American, suicides are shooting up among young wives caught between the promise of modernizing cities and the traditional subservience of women that persists in the countryside. "Whenever their dreams and reality don't match, they attempt suicide," says a nonprofit worker. More »

A Chinese-American engineer could get up to 35 years for trying to funnel classified U.S. defense technology to China. A federal jury in California convicted 66-year-old Chi Mak, a naturalized citizen who worked for an Anaheim defense contractor, of conspiring to send top secret plans for submarine propulsion technology to Chinese authorities over several years. More »

Add cyanuric acid to the list of industrial chemicals found in the contaminated pet food that killed thousands of dogs and cats. Like melamine, it was used by Chinese animal feed producers  to fake higher protein content in their wheat and rice products, the New York Times reports. More »

American drugmakers are on the lookout this week for another in the growing list of potentially deadly Chinese exports. This time, it's diethylene glycol, a sweet-but-toxic chemical that masquerades as glycerin in common medications like cough syrup and that has already killed almost 400 people—many of them children—in Panama.  More »

More than 8,000 deaths of cats and dogs that may be linked to melamine-tainted food have been reported to the FDA in the two months since the pet food recall. The statistics come as the FDA tries to assure Americans that the tainted protein concentrates, also fed to hogs and chickens, aren't a human health threat. More »

Chinese authorities have jailed the head of a company accused of selling pet food makers  the melamine-contaminated gluten that's killed thousands of cats and dogs. The detention of Mao Lijun suggests Beijing is eager to cooperate with the FDA investigators currently on its turf, after initially disavowing any gluten sales to the U.S. at all. More »

As Taiwan threatens to go on the offense against China, the U.S. is wincing at the island's growing arsenal. Last month Taipei announced a missile program to hit Chinese sites, to the candid disapproval of Steven Young, the top American diplomat there. "The focus should be on defensive weapons, not on offensive weapons," he says. More »

Stung by recent scandals over tainted food exports, a small group of Chinese beekeepers is trying to sweeten up local honey production. They're throwing out standard practices, like using antibiotics to treat their colonies, and pushing natural options. But the old guard is using violence in its attempts to prevent change and has even physically attacked high-end competitors. More »

A new breed of journalist is evolving out of China’s censored media: the web-based hired gun. The Washington Post reports on freelance muckrakers who investigate corruption the mainstream press can't touch and post the results on their sites. They're paid—if meagerly—by the aggrieved parties. More »

Hugo Chávez said yesterday he will pull Venezuela out of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, institutions the leftist leader blames for contributing to poverty in Latin America. Venezuela will also take control of foreign oil projects previously run by multinational companies, some U.S.-based, in a bid to use control over oil to influence world politics. More »

The compound that tainted pet food and is being blamed for hundreds of pet illnesses and deaths is a commonly used additive in animal feed in China, reports the New York Times . The coal derivative melamine, used in plastics and fertilizers, is nitrogen-rich, which triggers tests for protein content. More »

The U.S. is so wrapped up in the Middle East that it's sacrificing chances to improve relations with Asia, leaving China to dominate the region, Newsweek 's Fareed Zakaria contends. "Beijing has become remarkably adept at using its political and economic muscle in a patient, low-key and highly effective manner," he writes. More »

After a year of high excitement and higher prices, Chinese artists are hot at influential European fairs. But the bubble may have grown too fast, and Portfolio's Alexandra Wolfe reports on speculation that it's about to burst. One curator says Chinese art is "a consumer category, not a collector category.” More »

It's spring in China, and calls for democracy are in bloom, the New York Times reports. Articles are about the need for political reform are being published—even encouraged—and leaders are promising openness. But the outburst of rhetoric has more to do with the political calendar than with an inclination toward change. More »

The chemical which contaminated over 100 brands of pet food—with disastrous results for dog and cat lovers—may have been intentionally added by Chinese manufacturers in an effort to fudge nutrition ratings on their rice protein and wheat gluten. "That's still a theory, but it certainly seems to be a plausible one," the FDA’s chief vet says. More »

China is finally joining the international outcry over genocide in Darfur—and it’s down to Hollywood clout, not Washington’s. Long one of Sudan’s closest protectors, China is suddenly calling on the government to accept UN peacekeepers. The reason, reports the Times : Mia Farrow and Steven Spielberg are leading a charge to tie the Beijing Olympics to the country's policies on Sudan. More »

China is rethinking a major medical cash cow: providing organ transplants for Westerners on overcrowded waiting lists at home. "Transplant tourism" has been a particularly popular option in Israel, where insurers are required to pony up  for overseas operations. But health officials recently ruled that organs should not be given to foreigners when not enough are available for Chinese citizens. More »

Expect floods, droughts, fires—and resulting starvation, conflict, and mass migration—as climate change becomes more pronounced, says a U.N. report released today. And expect the poor to get hit the hardest, as deserts get drier, deltas flood more often, and small islands are overwhelmed. More »