Tag: China

China Erects Monument for Monkeys Killed in SARS Research

Agence France-Presse reported in October that China had erected a monument in honor of 38 rhesus monkeys who died as part of researcher into the SARS virus.

According to AFP the 16 ton granite monument was erected outside an animal lab at Wuhan University in the Hubei province, and carries an inscription written by SARS researcher Sun Lihua,

For lab animals that have died for the health of humans. In special memory of the 38 rhesus monkeys that devoted their lives to SARS research.

Source:

China erects monument for SARS monkeys. Agence France-Presse, October 4, 2004.

U.S. Once Again Sets Bad Example with Shrimp Duties

While it calls for developing nations to open up their markets, the United States this month imposed duties of shrimp from Vietnam and China of 93 percent 112 percent respectively.

The duties will hit Vietnam especially hard as shrimp exports account for two-thirds of that country’s exports and 2 million people are employed in the industry.

The U.S. Commerce Department ruled that the two countries were exporting shrimp to the United States at below market prices. This is the standard dumping claim which the United States has repeatedly used to enact protectionist measures against competitors.

Rather, shrimpers in Vietnam and China tend to fish shrimp on large farms and, of course, labor costs in Vietnam and China are significantly lower than in the United States, allowing those two countries to sell shrimp cheaper. That’s not dumping, that’s comparative advantage. (Ironically, the U.S. shrimp industry complains about use of antibiotics, which is odd since that is an objection other countries frequently offer against U.S. beef and other products).

Even if the dumping claim were true, under the logic of the free trade principles that the United States pushes other countries to adopt, it shouldn’t matter. If China and Vietnam want to sell shrimp below market prices that would be rather foolish of them, but it would be a great boon to American consumers.

Source:

US slaps duties on Asian shrimps. The BBC, July 6, 2004.

Shrimp Duties May Shake The. Associated Press, July 5, 2004.

U.S. Withholds $34 Million from the UN Population Fund

The United States this month announced it would withhold $34 million allocated to the United Nations Population Fund for the third year in a row.

Under the provisions that the UN Population Fund money is allocated, it cannot be given to the agency if the State Department determines that there is a direct link between the UNPF and China’s practice of coercive abortion as part of its one child policy.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said of the withheld funds,

These Chinese programs have penalties that amount to coercion. THerefore we feel, by funding these programs, we would be indirectly helping the Chinese to improve their management of programs that result in coercive abortion, and that’s prohibited by our law.

Sources:

US cuts UN funds in abortion row. Jill McGivering, The BBC, July 17, 2004.

U.S. Blocks Aid to U.N. Population Fund. Barry Schweid, Associated Press, July 16, 2004.

China Offers Aid to Parents of Girls In Efforts to Stem Sex Imbalance

One of the major side effects of China’s one-child policy has been the widespread use of sex-selective abortions by couples who want to have male children. As a result, China has one of the most unbalanced sex ratios in the world and in the next couple decades could wind up with tens of millions more adult males than adult females of marrying age.

In an effort to rein in that problem, Knight Ridder reports that China is offering financial aid and support to families who have one or more daughters. Knight Ridder quotes Fujian province official Bai Pian as saying of the incentive plan,

According to tradition, most parents after having two daughters still want to have a boy. But the government wants them to stop. So that’s why it started the ‘Caring for Girls’ action plan.

The plan offers free education all the way through college for girls in such families as well as direct support, such as financial aid to help build a house or seed money to start a business.

Source:

China encouraging parents of girls. Tim Johnson, Knight Ridder Newspapers, July 8, 2004.

India On Pace to Become Most Populous Country

For World Population Day this month, a number of news outlets noted that India is currently on target to surpass China as the most populous country in the world by 2035. But a lot of the reporting typified the sort of errors that the media have long made about population growth. As an example, consider The Scotsman’s take on population growth in China compared to India (emphasis added)

According to figures produced for the United Nations World Population Day, which falls today, China is currently the world’s most puoplous country with 1,289 million, followed by India with 1,069 million, and the US third a long way behind with 292 million.

The main reason is that India has never followed China’s Draconian “one child” policy. At the height of the birth control campaign by the Chinese communist government couples who stopped at one child were given preferences in education, healthcare, housing, and jobs. Couples who produced an “out-of-quote” child could be fined or lose access to education or other privileges.

Though the policy has been softened, the impact of the period when it was applied most harshly is now being felt.

“Between the 1960s and the 1980s, China experienced one of the most rapid declines ever recorded in a national population. In just 15 years, the number of children a woman would expect to have fell from about six to just over two,” says Professor Nancy E. Riley, an expert on population and social change in China at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.

As a democracy India has not been able or willing to use coercion, though it has tried persuasion. A study called India Project by a team of experts from the London School of Economics, led by Professor Tim Dyson, estimates that on current trends India’s population will touch 1.4 billion by 2026, 1.5 billion by 2036 and could approach 1.6 billion by 2051.

It’s truly amazing that a newspaper can produce such pathetic reporting.

First, the reporter emphasizes that China’s total fertility rate has fallen, supposedly due to coercion there, and gives the impression that India has not see comparable gains because it is unwilling to adopt a one-child policy. But in the same period, without any coercion, India’s total fertility rate fell 42 percent. The current rate is 3.1 and falling. That was a very impressive feat, but one you would never know about from reading The Scotsman.

Second, The Scotsman attributes the large decline in fertility from the 1960s to the 1980s to the one-child policy. But since the one-child policy wasn’t instituted until 1979, it’s ridiculous to attribute all of the drop to the one-child efforts. In fact, the bulk of the large drop in fertility in China occurred before the one-child policy was instituted. The TFR in China fell from 6 in 1970 to 2.8 in 1979, all without the draconian policies that The Scotsman asserts is singularly responsible for the decline.

Third, The Scotsman sets up a classic false dichotomy that just won’t go away. In this world, countries have only two choices — dictatorship and declines in population growth or democracy and increases in population growth. But the countries with the lowest total fertility rates in the world are democracies — countries like Italy and Spain.

Reporters might actually want to look at the data instead of simply inserting every population story into the same erroneous molds.

Source:

India to overtake China as most populous nation. Ian Mather, The Scotsman, July 11, 2004.

China Slaughters Thousands of Civet Cats in Wake of New SARS Case

Despite warnings from the World Health Organization that it would likely be counter-productive, Chinese officials move forward in early January with the slaughter of thousands of civets after a new case of SARS was discovered.

After discovering the first confirmed case of SARS in China in six months, authorities in the southern Guandong province ordered the mass slaughter of all civet cats. In all, somewhere between 4-10 thousand civits were killed.

The animals were slaughtered by drowning, electrocution, incineration and, in some reported cases, clubbing to death. Officials in the Guandong province announced there would be a $12,000 fine for anyone who was found trying to hide the animals. The civet cat is sold as a food delicacy in some parts of China.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said the slaughter was premature and likely to be counter-productive. According to the WHO, the connection between civets and human cases of SARS has still not been definitively proven, although WHO concedes that civets do contract a disease that appears to be very similar to SARS.

Moreover, the WHO warned that if civets are carriers of SARS, methods of killing them like clubbing could end up potentially exposing more people to the disease than simply letting the animals live.

Ignoring the criticism, Guandong authorities supervised the January slaughter which also apparently spread to other animals, including badgers and rats.

Sources:

China steps up SARS civet cull. The BBC, January 9, 2004.

WHO criticises China cull plans. The BBC, January 5, 2004.

China follows Mao with mass cull Tim Luard, The BBC, January 6, 2004.