China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has learnt that Shanghai customs seized more than 55 tons of fake Jamila-brand seasonings on route to Africa at the city’s Yangshan Port.

Yangshan port

The compound condiments, worth US$102,000, had shabby packaging and claimed to be products from Anhui Qiangwang Flavoring Food Co Ltd, which owns the Jamila brand.

Customs officials suspected the goods were counterfeits after discovering impurities in them on March 21. They contacted the brand owner and confirmed these were fakes.

Jamila has enjoyed a good reputation in African and Southeast Asian markets for nine years with its popular chicken and shrimp bouillon cubes, condiments, and chicken powder.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Shanghai Customs has detained 10 people for allegedly cheating 42 million yuan (US$6.66 million) in export tax rebate by declaring electronic exports at artificially high prices.

Officials said the 10 suspects, all Chinese, have exported electronic goods including capacitors, diodes and massage sticks to Hong Kong through six trading companies since 2009, and the case involving goods valued at 288 million yuan in total is the biggest of its kind in Shanghai.

They purchased value-added tax invoices at a cost about 4.5 to 5.5 percent of an invoice face value and declared export items at prices 10 times higher than their market prices.

During investigations, custom officials found the gang exchanged foreign currencies through underground banks and deposited the money in a Hong Kong bank account. Every time the goods arrived, they used the Hong Kong account to pay the trading companies and obtain export earnings verification forms to apply for tax rebates.

The gang also hired smugglers to bring exported goods back into mainland and export them again and again to defraud tax rebates totaling 42 million yuan from 2009 to January this year.

Shanghai police arrested the 10 suspects on March 29 and they could face jail terms from 10 years to life imprisonment, custom officials said.

China Watch Blog wishes to warn shoppers who want to purchase fruits to beware of this trick used by a fruit seller at one of the shops at the Causeway Bay market.

As yours truly walked up to the shop and was about to pick up a bunch of grapes, the shop keeper in a flash took another bunch of grapes and put it somewhere behind the exhibited fruits, but little did I know that it actually hid a weighing machine.

So, when I handed the man a bunch of grapes, he took it and put it behind the boxes of fruits onto the weighing machine, and you guessed it right. He also included the earlier bunch of grapes he had put there.

So instead of having to pay about HK$20 for the bunch of grapes I picked, he charged me HK$45 for two bunch of grapes, which I was fooled into buying.

When I went to wash the grapes, only then did I realise I had been had.

Be careful of such cheats.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Shanghai police have detained 15 suspects who allegedly lured people into a coffee bar and charged them more than 10 times the original prices in a scam to rip-off unsuspecting victims.

A Shanghai Daily report cited police as saying that most of their victims were men who were tricked into the coffee bar by women they met in online chat rooms, or in and around the coffee bar in busy shopping areas.

The suspects even used threat or force to make the customers pay the bills. A cup of coffee cost more than 100 yuan, according to the police.

Officers said the 15 suspects included the coffee bar owner. They had scammed customers out of more than 600,000 yuan.

One victim, surnamed Liu, said he went to the coffee house in downtown Putuo District on April 12 to see a woman he met online. They were later joined by another woman. In the end, Liu was billed 9,028 yuan for two cups of coffee, some cocktail and snacks.

“One cup of cocktail cost me 860 yuan,” Liu said.

Police raided the coffee bar on April 14 and nabbed the 15 suspects.

The bar owner, surnamed Zhou, conceived the scam to turn around his failing business. He asked his girlfriend to hire young women to seduce men into the bar, police said.

Similar schemes have also been reported in other entertainment venues around Shanghai with victims mostly being newcomers and foreign visitors. Two main offenders were sentenced to 10 years in prison for ripping off 72 customers out of 210,000 yuan.

Also, many other cases have gone unreported because embarrassed foreigners or husbands hushed up the matter, absorbing the losses and rather than allow their family and friends ridicule them over their stupidity.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Chinese police have detained 53 people for their roles in the ongoing toxic gelatin scandal, the Ministry of Public Security said.

They also shut 10 gelatin or capsule manufacturers and seized more than 230 tons of industrial gelatin, a top ministry official was quoted saying in a nationwide teleconference as reported by a People’s Daily report.

Deputy Minister Huang Ming said the ministry will continue to monitor cases in Zhejiang, Shandong, Hebei and Jiangxi provinces to determine where toxic gelatin had been sent.

Industrial gelatin manufactured in Hebei Province and supplied to drug capsule producers may also have been used in food, the Beijing Times reported.

China Watch Blog draws its readers attention to a Hong Kong Standard article today (Apr 19) citing a prominent Heung Yee Kuk member as having admitted that a commercial leisure park he owns has unlawfully occupied a large swath of government land for 18 years without him paying a cent.

Lychee Valley

But Leung Fuk-yuen, a key figure in resistance to a government crackdown on illegal additions to village houses, was quoted by the Standard as saying that he was not directly involved as his brothers managed the park in Tai Tong Lychee Valley, which uses part of Tai Lam Country Park.

“But I’ll comply with whatever the government wants, such as removing unauthorized structures,” said the Standard report quoting Leung, who is chairman of Shap Pat Heung Rural Committee and a Yuen Long district councillor.

The report said that he would not say if he was aware he breached land laws when planting fruit trees and setting up toilets, storage containers, wooden sheds and animal shelters two decades ago.

According to government watchdog the Audit Commission, the leisure park occupies 12,400 square meters, with 4,670 of it government land.

Director of Audit Benjamin Tang Kwok-bun blames the Lands Department for lax enforcement and for failing to act on the case for 18 years.

The auditor wants a comprehensive review of the management of unleased and unallocated government land. For it was also found that 70 percent of the Lands Department’s 494 “urgent” control cases – that means they are a public hazard – exceeded a four-month resolution target. Four cases were even unresolved after more than 10 years.

Tang also criticized the penalties for unlawful occupation offenses, saying they were not tough enough for a deterrent effect. And a lack of regular checks by the Lands Department had allowed many cases to escape detection for many years, he added.

Word from the Lands Department was that its officials accept the criticisms and will “strive to effect policy changes” to resolve “serious issues about land control and unwarranted structures.”

But this is a case of just a slap on the wrist for officials who have been fed by taxpayers money for 18 years, without having done their job at all. Shouldn’t the Lands Department officials be held accountable?

China Watch Blog reports that security expert and Berkeley Varitronics Systems (BVS) CEO Scott Schober wants kids to do well in school – and that means not taking the easy way out and cheating to make good grades.

Mounting technological breakthroughs and the ease with which young people adapt to its use were part of the inspiration that led to the PocketHound, an unobtrusive hand-held device for detecting unauthorized cell phone use in the classroom.

“Students are tempted during exam time to do a quick search on Google for the answer that slipped their mind,” Schober says. “There is also a temptation to text their buddy sitting across the room asking for some assistance. Many students are so proficient at texting they don’t need to look at the keyboard for more than a millisecond. They hide their mobile phone under their desk, between their legs, or in their pocket, making it all the more challenging to catch the culprit.” Cheating on everything from government exams to high school quizzes is becoming prevalent around the world as cell phone subscriptions soar.

The PocketHound slips easily into a pocket or lies concealed in the palm, vibrating when unauthorized cell phone use is detected. It also has a row of blue LED lights that flash at the same time. An integrated multiband antenna is hidden under the label; the internal rechargeable Li-ION battery has a run time of up to 2 hours. The receiver continually scans all cell phone bands and utilizes a sophisticated algorithm constantly sampling the Radio Frequency (RF) noise floor to distinguish real cellular activity vs. ambient RF noise.

Scott N. Schober is President and CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems (BVS), a 39-year-old New Jersey-based company and leading provider of advanced wireless solutions and products for multi-national telecommunications and security markets.

As an experienced software engineer, Schober has developed cellular test instruments used for measuring, optimizing and plotting signal coverage, primarily for the initial cellular build-out throughout the United States. Schober’s recent focus has been development of BVS’ cell phone detection tools, used to enforce a ‘no cell phone policy’ in various venues. These tools are effectively used around the globe to find contraband cell phones smuggled into correctional facilities as well as secure federal facilities and schools.

Schober is a highly sought after security expert for media appearances and commentary. Recent media appearances include Fox Business Channel, Fox News Live and News 12 New Jersey, as well as several radio programs including XM/Sirius radio. He has presented as a subject expert on the topic of cyber security and corporate espionage, as well as cell phone detection and location, at numerous conferences and trade shows around the world.

China Watch Blog reports that Shenzhen’s transportation commission seized three unlicensed “duplicated taxis” on April 6, the first day of a coordinated action against cars that are retrofitted to look like standard red cabs but operate without a license and sometimes charge unusually high fares or give counterfeit money as change.

Commission officers will be divided into 43 teams to conduct organized actions twice a week through April to quell such illegal taxi services.

At Shenzhen Science and Technology Park in Nanshan District on Friday, a red cab with a plate reading “B849W7” raised officers’ suspicions. The vehicle looked old, but the license plate looked new.

Officers intercepted the “red cab” at an intersection of Keyuan Road after confirming the license plate actually belonged to a truck. They found fake taxi plates, fake invoices and fake bank notes in the taxi, which had a fare meter that ran faster than regular meters.

The exact number of duplicated taxis in Shenzhen is unknown, though some drivers claim there are at least 2,000. Because duplicated taxis look similar — or identical — to real taxis, it can be hard for officers to distinguish them without the aid of computerized registration data.

A taxi driver surnamed Zhang criticized the authority’s poor management, though, and said duplicated taxis have disrupted the taxi market and grabbed business from licensed taxi companies.

“It generally costs 30,000 yuan (US$4,760) to 40,000 yuan to retrofit a car into a taxi. If the driver isn’t caught for three months, the driver can get back the investment,” Zhang said. “Yet a driver for a (licensed) taxi company has to pay around 14,000 yuan per month in rent to the company.”

A resident surnamed Zhu described her disconcerting experience with a duplicated taxi. She rode from OCT Bay in Nanshan to her home near Shenzhen Science and Technology Park on March 24. When she got home, Zhu found the change the driver had given her was counterfeit. When she tried to file a complaint via the vehicle number on the receipt, she was told there was no such number on record.

“I feel lucky I came home safely,” Zhu said later. “It is dangerous for a girl at night, alone, to take a taxi. But how could I distinguish the fake one from the genuine?”

City officials have confiscated 45 duplicated taxis this year.

China Watch Blog is puzzled why the Director of Audit in Hong Kong has still not published his reports, and what is causing him to be late this time.

Readers note that in the past the Director of Audit’s reports were mostly published in March and October for many years without fail since 2001. We really wonder why the delay in this year’s report.

A full list of reports grouped by the Director of Audit in the past years.

> Report No. 57, October 2011

> Report No. 56, March 2011

> Report No. 55, October 2010

> Report No. 54, March 2010

> Report No. 53, October 2009

> Report No. 52, March 2009

> Report No. 51, October 2008

> Report No. 50, March 2008

> Report No. 49, October 2007

> Report No. 48, March 2007

> Report No. 47, October 2006

> Report No. 46, March 2006

> Report No. 45, October 2005

> Report No. 44, March 2005

> Report No. 43, October 2004

> Report No. 42, March 2004

> Report No. 41, October 2003

> Report No. 40, March 2003

> Report No. 39, October 2002

> Report No. 38, March 2002

> Report No. 37, October 2001

> Report No. 36, March 2001

> Report No. 35, October 2000

> Report No. 34, February 2000

> Report No. 33, October 1999

> Report No. 33A, September 1999

> Special report, July 1999

China Watch Blog has learnt that Chinese police have seized more than 3,200 tons of a new type of “gutter oil” made from decomposing animal fat and internal organs.

A China Daily report quoted the Ministry of Public Security as saying that more than 100 people suspected of producing the oil were detained in a March 21 food-safety operation that covered two municipalities and four provinces.

Police also closed down 13 underground workshops that were producing the oil. Previously, the phrase “gutter oil” referred to the reprocessing of used oil and even restaurant leftovers, which were then resold as cooking oil.

However, the new strain is made from meat that was past its sell-by date and of low quality, and even rotten animal fat and internal organs, according to the statement.

In October, residents in Jinhua city, East China’s Zhejiang province, told local police that they often smelled a foul odor in an area on the outskirts and suspected that gutter oil was being made there, said the ministry.

After a five-month investigation, police found that the group, led by a man called Li Weijian, was producing illegal oil and had animal carcasses and organs in their workshop, said the statement.

The products were then sold to refiners in the provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu, and the municipality of Chongqing. The oil was then used by restaurants as a base for hotpots, the statement said.

Li’s gang earned more than 10 million yuan ($1.59 million) between January and November 2011, according to the ministry.

Although China launched a nationwide campaign to fight practices such as this in August 2011, several food-safety scandals, including cases involving gutter oil and the illegal addition of pig feed to foodstuffs, still occurred.

So, if you are going for a hotpot meal, you may or may not end up with food cooked in gutter oil. Beware.