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Shark Fin Washed In Hydrogen Peroxide Sold To Unwitting Consumers

Posted: 07/15/2014 1:28 pm

shark finWhile there is a growing social stigma attached to consuming shark fin in China, it is by no means banned. Animal rights activists like Yao Ming have had some measure of success persuading diners to pass on the expensive dish, but there may be a easier way to discourage consumption: to expose the health risks of eating improperly prepared shark fin.

A recent raid by the South China Sea Customs Police found a shark fin processing ring that has been noted for its use of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is dangerous and can act as a carcinogen when consumed.

shark fin

The fins were first purchased in bulk, and their dark skin removed. As a way to eliminate the smell, the fins were then immersed in industrial hydrogen peroxide. After drying in the sun, they were packaged without even being washed.

The South China Sea Food and Drug Inspection Bureau seized 384 kg of shark fin on June 19 and made five arrests related to the ring, reports Southcn.

Hydrogen peroxide is mainly used as a bleaching agent for paper, pulp and textiles, but has served as a host of other uses including medicinal, as a rocket propellant, and as an explosive.

High concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, such as more than 40%, are considered hazardous according to US regulations and can lead to cancer.

Photo: Southcn, asia society

Haohao
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[Photos] A Whole Mall in China Dedicated to Fake Brand Names

Posted: 07/11/2014 9:03 am

A brand name makes things better, doesn’t it? Why buy generic when you can put your trust in a prestigious, well-known brand?

A vacant retail space in Chengdu, Sichuan, agrees. But it seems no well-known brands have decided to rent space in the mall yet, so the mall went ahead and used the next best thing: fake brand names and logos.

So to help draw attention to the vacant retail lots still awaiting their first client, the 300 meter long street is adorned with brand names that seem oddly familiar.

Not pictured are a sign with the “M” logo from McDonald’s turned upside down into a “W”, and a fake version of Pizza Hut called “Pizza Huta”.

When contacted by a reporter, the sales office for empty retail lots passed the buck by explaining the signs were already hanging there when they first tried selling them. When questioned, the property developer explained their motives:

In waiting for these stores to be rented, fake signs are hung to create a business ambiance for the contractor. Once these lots have been rented out, these signs will be taken down.

Ambiance: it’s only ever a fake brand name away.

Photos: People’s Daily Online

Haohao
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That Corn Sold On The Street In China? It Is Drenched In Harmful Additives

Posted: 07/10/2014 4:53 pm

Whenever you’ve waited for the bus, you’ve likely caught a whiff of the sweet aroma of corn wafting towards you from a pot over at the the newspaper stand. The mystery lingers: how can something only prepared with boiling water look and smell so good?

After a Henan man got sick after eating three ears of corn in a row, a reporter from the Henan Economic Report went in search of the answer, and it’s not pleasant: streetside boiled corn is prepared with artificial sweeteners and additives.

The reporter said vendors readily confessed to using food additives to prepare boiled corn. Their enthusiasm to disclose the information was based on the fact they consider this an “open secret” that everyone already knows about. One vendor offered this immensely quotable sentence:

There are most definitely additives used in boiled corn.

Another vendor even gave the name of the food additive market that is popular among vendors. It turns out artificial sweeteners are available for purchase at 30 to 45 yuan each at the Wankelai Foodstuff market. One store owner says artificial sweeteners are big business, and that she sells four to five bottles a month:

What it mainly does is make it more fresh, and helps preserve it longer in which the longer it cooks, the more sweet it smells.

Another store manager said:

This is an additive that can increase sweetness. It is 50 times sweeter than white sugar. Many peddlers will buy this in cases of 25 or 50kg.

Li Chunqi, a botany professor at the Henan Agricultural University, says that using excessive amounts of this food additives or using them for a long period of time will harm human health. Furthermore, Li says it is against the law add sweeteners or additives to raw foods.

If you still have the urge to eat sweet corn in China, you can try and identify which corn has been coated in additives. Apparently “fake corn” will wrinkle when cool, and has a decidedly “gummy” texture. Of course, you could always buy corn at the supermarket and make it at home.

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See the Transformers in Person at Canton Tower in Guangzhou

Posted: 07/5/2014 4:24 pm

transformers statues canton tower

Can’t get enough Transformers? Come on down to the Canton Tower in downtown Guangzhou! Starting from today until September 30, the CGI-likeness of several characters from the latest installment of the Transformers franchise will be on display in the form of metal statues.

The characters include fan-favorites like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, along with tyrannosaurus rex Grimlock for the first time in statue form.

transformers statues canton tower

Anyone looking for “More than Meets the Eye!” could likely do so with a watching of the current movie that features this blatant product placement:

Photos: Foshan Daily, Weibo

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Dongguan Counterfeiters Sold 19 Tons of Fake, Inedible Salt Over Two Years

Posted: 07/3/2014 8:58 am
fake salt dongguan counterfeit industrial table

Industrial salt found in the production base in Shuikou Village in Dongguan’s Dalang Town.

We previously told you about fake salt sold in Guangzhou, and now it appears Dongguan has become the latest place where industrial salt is being unscrupulously sold as consumable table salt.

According to a report by Yangcheng Evening News on July 2, a salt production base in Dalang Town’s Shuikou Village was raided by police and several other government agencies on June 29 and 30. Inside, they found 18.8 tons of fake, inedible table salt.

The salt is actually industrial salt first imported from Jiangxi Province, and then packaged at the shoddy production base described by the newspaper as “filthy and stinky”. It was then sold to local markets and small restaurants in Dongguan packaged as refined iodine table salt, the report said.

One insider told the newspaper that the production base has been manufacturing fake salt for more than two years. The base was closed to the public and guarded against outsiders during the day, with security particularly tight when several trucks transported the salt to nearby farmers markets.

Even officials from the Dongguan Salt Bureau, the official government institution in charge of regulating table salt, were shocked at the production base’s sophisticated counterfeit operation. The packaging of the salt was almost exactly the same as authentic table salt, and each bag of the fake table salt even came with a date of production and a label.

Industrial salt is not fit for human consumption. Some industrial salt contains sodium nitrate that may result in deaths.

Related:

Photos: Yangcheng Evening News 

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That Awesome Story About a Child Defacing a Chinese Passport Isn’t True

Posted: 06/4/2014 1:28 pm

passport defaced china chinese national child draw onOne particular Chinese social media story has gotten a lot of attention lately from news outlets worldwide: a Chinese national gets stuck in South Korea because his four year-old son doodled all over his passport.

Those children! While we can’t stay mad at such innocent precociousness, there’s a valuable lesson to be learned here in trying to better take care of one’s own passport. Why can’t more news stories have morals to them?

It turns out, however, that this story may not be true at all. Purveyor of video games and fan boy mediator Kotaku recently pointed out that there are several anomalies seen in the photo of a passport defaced by a child that bring its authenticity into question, such as:

  • all key identification (name, passport number) completely eradicated
  • passport photograph also altered to hide identity
  • ink lines retain same pixel width throughout
  • ink drawings retain a flat plane inconsistent with the bending of the paper in a three-dimensional space (a la MS Paint)
  • no smearing on a document with a gloss covering
  • ink markings fly off right side of page into space
  • immaculate detailing of a flower judged too advanced for a four year-old child

Have a look for yourself:

passport defaced china chinese national child draw onThese all appear to be good points, though that last one seems a little harsh; after all, we are talking about Chinese children. Are children from other parts of the world able to detain their parents at customs with such artistic bombastic aplomb? We suppose we’ll need to allow an independent international body like UNICEF to settle that issue.

Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft points out the story may have been inspired by a similar case published earlier this year in which a Chinese man was also detained in South Korea when his passport was defaced by his son.

But if that is the case, and this story is proven to be a hoax, then how will people of the world learn this important life lesson?

Photos: Kotaku

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Meet master swindler, Liu Bin

Posted: 05/22/2014 8:00 am

There seems to be a similar narrative behind every official or military officer impostor story: they all profess an air of authority and have the trappings to back it up, including rote quotations of Party lines and plain clothing. Liu Bin is no exception.

A Hunan native, Liu was living under not just one fake identity as a military officer in Shenzhen, but also as a member of the special forces and as a policeman, and maintained each of his fake identities until he was busted.

More than 10 women were his victims, among which several gave birth to his sons. Later (in an appalling twist), he sold one of his own sons for over RMB 30,000 ($4,810), Shenzhen Evening News reported on May 21.

One of the fake stamps Liu used

An investigation into Liu revealed a long list of criminal acts including fraud worth a total of RMB 1.5 million ($240,630), child trafficking, and forgery of an array of official documents, identities and stamps, some of which were inscribed with “Shenzhen People’s Government”, “Shenzhen Municipal Police Department”, “Central Military Commission’s Guangdong Command”. It’s unknown how Liu managed to get a hold of these too-real-to-be-fake stamps and documents.

Along the way, from 2006 until his capture this year, almost no one questioned or doubted his identity as he claimed himself to be the younger brother of Liu Yong, the commander of the Shenzhen Military Garrison. Both shared the same surname Liu, according to an earlier report by Nanfang Metropolis Daily. In various occasions, he was able to peddle his credibility and connections for financial gain. He accepted bribes and kickbacks in return for a number of favors: waiving a physical check-up when enlisting into the military, selling the military position of a paramilitary hospital’s vice president, pulling strings to help someone open an internet cafe, and helping people avoid criminal charges.

In one of his cases in which Liu tried to ditch one of his girlfriends surnamed Zhou, he forged an elaborate court verdict by a Shenzhen intermediate court and falsely sentenced himself to prison to avoid the woman. In the verdict, it said that Liu was found guilty of committing bigamy and was sentenced to two years and six months in prison. For this, Zhou was given a year to pay financial compensation of RMB 1 million to the “first wife”.

Liu was officially charged with child trafficking, defrauding and forging state documents and stamps on May 19 by the Longguang District Court of Shenzhen.

Home page and content photo credit: Nanfang Metropolis Daily 

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China, land of the fake… policeman?

Posted: 09/13/2013 11:00 am

China is a country known for its fake designer products, but what about fake police? Apparently the the answer to that question is also yes: China has officially been able to counterfeit law enforcement.

A man dressed as a policeman, complete with a real pistol, was arrested on August 22 in Shenzhen’s Longhua New Area at a family home after his planned robbery heist went wrong, according to a report out yesterday by Shenzhen Daily (via the Daily Sunshine).

The fake policeman, identified only as Zhang, visited the home of a husband and wife on the pretext of investigating illegal pyramid schemes, and claimed to be from a department in Hubei Province.

At the time only the wife, who remains unidentified, was at home — though she soon called her husband in secret after becoming suspicious of Zhang.

Returning home immediately, the husband told Zhang that he wanted local police officers to be present during any questioning, at which point Zhang became nervous and attacked the couple.

A nearby officer rushed to the scene after hearing calls for help from the wife and seeing that she was covered in blood. Meanwhile, the husband continued battling Zhang inside the home.

Officer Zou Yongsheng said afterwards (according to a translation by the Daily): “I went up the stairs with my gun. When I ran to the third floor, I heard someone moving quietly above me, so I jumped to the upper landing.

“Zhang saw me and started running upstairs. After running for two floors, I caught him. Later, we found that he had dropped the pistol on the fourth floor.”

Zhang confessed later that he was using the outfit and pistol to rob people, though it is unclear if he had robbed anyone previous to this incident. It is not uncommon in China to see civilians sometimes dressed as police officers, and foreigners can easily mistake them for genuine policemen.

The Daily also added: “He said he bought the pistol because he wanted to take revenge on his wife after she had an affair. Zhang said he later bought the uniform because he didn’t want to be bullied by others.”

Following the incident, local residents are being advised to always ask to see ID from police officers before allowing them into their homes. That goes for expats living in Shenzhen, too.

In related “fake” news of an equally controversial nature, The Nanfang reported yesterday that an expat bar in Shenzhen has come under fire for “fake” terrorists in a fancy-dress party to mark the anniversary of 9/11.

Photo credit: Shenzhen Daily

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Toothpaste at hotels the latest item to be faked

Posted: 08/8/2013 11:00 am

Guangzhou police led an operation with police in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan and Guangxi provinces that in the past week busted a criminal gang that was producing, packaging and distributing fake toothpaste for hotels, Nandu Daily reports.

The gang was using 22 locations to produce the mini toothpaste and 125 people were arrested on suspicion of being part of it. Among them, 31 are currently under criminal detention. Police say the criminal gang did over 20 million yuan of business.

The alarm was first raised in early June by the food and drugs department of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau. They discovered that warehouses in Baiyun District’s Taihe Village and Longcun Village were producing toiletries without a license.

They later discovered that the warehouse on 22 Yunmei Street, run by a man named Mr. He, had been operating illegally since January 2011. They also discovered that he had been distributing his ware to five provinces, which sparked the nationwide investigation.

It then emerged that Mr. He was using his contacts in other provinces to distribute fake tubes of mini toothpaste to hotels around the nation. He and his accomplices now face jail time.

In 2011, Stan Abrams of China Hearsay kindly reminded China watchers not to use the words fake and counterfeit interchangeably. However, it appears that this gang was guilty of distributing both fake and counterfeit products.

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Fake chicken wings appear in Guangzhou with a “gummy” texture

Posted: 08/16/2012 10:36 am

It seems not a day goes by without some kind of food scare, which many foreigners have cited as a primary reason to leave China.  Just this year, we’ve heard stories of gutter oil being re-used, bamboo shoots being washed in toilet water, and bad pork being sold in the PRD.  Now we learn this: some chicken wings being sold in Guangzhou might be fake — and dangerous.

The Yangcheng Evening News interviewed a Guangzhou citizen named Mr. Gu, who lives in Panyu District.  He told the paper he bought fake chicken wings at the Qinghe market in Panyu a couple of weeks ago.

According to the paper, Mr. Gu purchased a big bag of chicken wings for RMB20, which came from Weifang in Shandong Province. A few days later, Mr. Gu’s mother cooked the chicken wings for about 20 minutes but they found the colour hadn’t changed.  When Mr. Gu took a bite, he found them hard to chew.  He felt they had been cooked long enough, but they stir-fried them for another 10 minutes just to be sure.  Again, after taking a bite, he found they had a “gummy” texture and were hard to swallow.

Still, Mr. Gu and his family ate the wings, but felt sick the next day.  He then became suspicious about what he had eaten, so he called the manufacturer’s phone number listed on the bag of wings.  Unfortunately the person who answered the phone claimed to have no relationship with the manufacturer, and knew nothing.

The paper learned that several people have complained about the quality of the wings at Qinghe market.  One expert told the paper the wings Mr. Gu purchased are not “fake”, per se, but poor quality wings injected with water and gelatin to appear meatier.  Further, the man said these poor quality wings are common, and usually sold to fast food restaurants or market stalls.

The reporter from the paper went to the market undercover, and found several stalls selling the Weifang-produced wings.  Shop sellers said the wings are “very popular” and they have sold several bags of them.  The reporter also tried to call the manufacturer’s phone number, but the woman who answered said she was just a shop clerk and had nothing to do with the manufacturing company.

The good news in all of this? The paper went to several popular supermarkets in Guangzhou and couldn’t find any Weifang-produced wings on sale.  Still, best to use caution: be careful where you choose to eat, and carefully inspect chicken wings before buying them.

 

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