Mystery Meat in China Has Been Disgustingly Demystified

And you thought the UK horsemeat scandal was bad!  Get an eyeful of this:

More than 900 people have been arrested in China for selling fake or tainted meat in the last three months, state media say.  Officials say they uncovered almost 400 such cases and seized more than 20,000 tonnes of fake meat. In one case, the suspects made fake mutton from foxes, mink and rats after adding chemicals, state media said.

I'm pretty sure the thing is actually worse than this.

Photo Essay: Worldly Possessions in China

Fascinating.

Is Everything You Think You Know About China Wrong?

Hardest hit: Tom Friedman.  Here's part of it:

The disconnect between the brewing troubles in China and the seemingly unshakable perception of Chinese strength persists even though the U.S. media accurately cover China, in particular the country's inner fragilities. One explanation for this disconnect is that elites and ordinary Americans remain poorly informed about China and the nature of its economic challenges in the coming decades. The current economic slowdown in Beijing is neither cyclical nor the result of weak external demand for Chinese goods. China's economic ills are far more deeply rooted: an overbearing state squandering capital and squeezing out the private sector, systemic inefficiency and lack of innovation, a rapacious ruling elite interested solely in self-enrichment and the perpetuation of its privileges, a woefully underdeveloped financial sector, and mounting ecological and demographic pressures. 

I TOLD YOU SO.

PSA: Tainted Chinese Vinegar

So far the casualties number 11 dead and 120 sickened in Xinjiang from vinegar tainted with antifreeze.  Good grief.  

Public Service Announcement: Honey Laundering

Watch out for honey from China or India.  Don't eat the stuff -- it might be tainted with heavy metals and illegal antibiotics and lead (!).  Trouble is, there's honey laundering going on -- it's been adulterating some honey sold in the US.  Chinese and Indian honey is banned in Europe.  Be careful out there, honey fans!  See if you can't find a good farmers market and get some local honey.  Here's a link to the National Honey Board.  I'm miffed -- I do love me some honey butter.

Quirky Asia Files: Exploding Chinese Watermelons

To absolutely nobody's surprise, the phrase "overdoses of growth chemicals" is involved.  Haven't I told you never to buy or eat food products from China?  I must say, though, I'm tickled by this take on it: "whistle-blowing watermelons."

Reason # 87644872622 Not to Buy Chinese Products -- Asbestos in the Baby Powder

This time it's baby powder contaminated with asbestos. Good grief.

You can add this to the previous baby milk disaster as part of China's consumer war on babies. Or not. I only wish it were satire.

The standing PSA of this blog? Don't buy food or personal care items from China! From poisoned dumplings to poisoned toothpaste, the lesson seems to be: if the thing even comes close to your body, make sure it's not made in China or has components sourced from the same.

Oh, check it out: the news story (sort of) appears on the CCTV website. Notice how the circumstances are -- and are not -- described.

Toxic Chinese Eggs Discovered in Hong Kong

Eggs tainted with poisonous melamine have been found in Hong Kong. Origin of the eggs? China, source of the current melamine-tainted milk scandal.

How many times do I have to say it? NEVER EAT ANYTHING FROM CHINA.

Euro Notes and Schadenfreude Alert: the EU-rocrat, the Chinese Milk, and the Kidney Stone

I can't make this stuff up if I tried. Just go here and read it all.

MM Blog wishes Mr. Mandelson a full and speedy recovery from his kidney ailment, but I can't help saying, well, sir, that's what you get for supporting a rotten Chinese milk industry that has sickened people around the world, including 53,000 children in China alone (and that's just the number that's being reported).

Even if Mandelson's kidney stone had nothing to do with his Chinese milk stunt, you have to admit that the circumstances are too perfectly coincidental not to cause a snicker or two.

Satire Alert: "A Happy Day in the Life of an Ordinary Chinese Person"

This is hilarious. The Chinese original was translated by Professor Christopher Hughes of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Here's a piece of it:

I pick up the toothpaste with its slight traces of the chemical Triclosan and let it react in my mouth with the chlorinated tap water to produce carcinogenic Trichloromethane. I always eat well in the morning and after using the carcinogenic toothpaste I wipe my face with the Benzidine contaminated towel, have a cup of Melamine polluted milk, eat some fried bread sticks (youtiao) cooked in diesel, dipped in some chile source dyed with Sudan Red, added to a bowl of duck egg gruel with poison rice and egg with large amounts of Lead Oxide, not forgetting of
course to add some condiments made with chemical ingredients.

Taiwan: Authorities Seize 10 Tons of Tainted Milk Powder from China

The tainted milk powder is being blamed in the death of one baby and in the illness of hundreds in China. Taiwanese authorities have seized some 10 tons of the powder that had been exported to Taiwan. A recall is now underway as well, since some of the powder had already been distributed to various cities including Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung.

So much for "the milk of human kindness."

This is the latest in a long, depressing, and -- quite frankly -- frightening pattern of tainted, dangerous, toxic, or outright lethal food products produced in and exported from China. Moral of the story: for goodness sake (and for health's sake), don't eat anything from China!

UPDATE: AP reports that 400+ babies are sick from the toxic milk powder. The NY Times is reporting that the babies are suffering from kidney problems and that Chinese authorities have detained 19 people.

Quirky Asia Files: Some Pro-Tibet Flags Are Made in . . . China

I can't make this stuff up.

Oh, and there's more:

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.

Japan: 10 People Poisoned by Chinese Dumplings

The dumplings contained insecticide.

This is only the most recent report in a long, depressing, and frankly terrifying list of dangerous Chinese-made food products.

Moral of the story: Please don't eat food imported from China!

Oh, this is a terrible tale, isn't it? I'm very fond of dumplings. The best ones, though, are really the ones you make yourself (start with ground pork, minced water chestnuts, lots of green scallions, LOTS of fresh ground ginger... and NO INSECTICIDE PLEASE.)