China is facing a global crisis of consumer confidence as the country’s food safety watchdog acknowledged this week that almost a fifth of the domestic products it inspects fail to reach minimum standards. Following a number of contamination scandals in the US, the world’s biggest exporter is struggling to prove that it can match quality with quantity.In the first half of 2007, 19.1% of products made for domestic consumption were found to be substandard, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement on Tuesday. Among products made by small firms, the failure rate was nearly 30%.
Control freaks the world over, including most recently Tony Blair, have called for the introduction of a Chinese style Internet, where the World Wide Web is tightly regulated and free speech stifled on the whim of a government censor.
Beijing has deployed some 1,000 missiles targeting Taiwan and the sea-lanes surrounding the island, with 50 to 100 being added annually. But Taiwan is not worried or deterred in pursuing its own different way of life, not because its mentor and protector the U.S. provides an “impenetrable shield” against Beijing’s missiles, but because Taiwan’s people have refrained from provoking Beijing.
The Chinese authorities in an area of Beijing have begun implanting digital chips into dogs in a bid to cut down on the number of unregistered dogs. Chips the size of a rice grain are being injected into the necks of dogs in a pilot project in the Xicheng district, Xinhua news agency reports.
The chip contains details of the dog’s breed, birth, inoculations and owner.
