Zut Alors!

China sucks some more.

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:16:00 -0700

U.S. Identifies Tainted Heparin in 11 Countries
By GARDINER HARRIS
The New York Times
Published: April 22, 2008

WASHINGTON — A contaminated blood thinner from China has been found in drug supplies in 11 countries, and federal officials said Monday they had discovered a clear link between the contaminant and severe reactions now associated with 81 deaths in the United States.

a Chinese official disputed the assertion that the contaminant found in the drug, heparin, caused any deaths and insisted that his country’s inspectors be allowed to inspect the American plant where the finished heparin vials were made. He said any future agreement to allow American inspections of Chinese firms should be reciprocal.

“We don’t have a strong evidence to show that it is heparin or its contaminant that caused the problem,” said the official, Ning Chen, second secretary at the Chinese Embassy.

Mr. Chen said that illnesses associated with contaminated heparin had occurred only in the United States, which he said suggested that the problem arose in this country.

Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s drug center, said that German regulators uncovered a cluster of illnesses among dialysis patients who took contaminated heparin. She said Chinese officials had conceded that heparin produced in their country contained a contaminant, though they say it was not connected to the illnesses.

“Heparin should not be contaminated, regardless of whether or not that contamination caused acute adverse events,” Dr. Woodcock said. “We are fairly confident based on the biological information that we have had that this contaminant is capable of triggering these adverse reactions.”

The dispute is a sign of growing tensions between China and the United States over the safety of Chinese imports. China has in recent years exported poisonous toothpaste, lead-painted toys, toxic pet food, tainted fish and now, contaminated medicine.

Bills to require far more aggressive inspections of Chinese products and companies are being proposed by members of Congress. Hearings are scheduled for Tuesday in the House and Thursday in the Senate.

China has lurched between defensiveness and cooperation on issues of product safety. Last year, it initially blocked the F.D.A. from investigating tainted pet food and accused foreign forces of exaggerating the issue. Then in July, China said that it had executed its former top food and drug regulator for taking bribes and promised reforms.

The F.D.A. sent a warning letter on Monday to Changzhou SPL, the Chinese plant identified as the source of contaminated heparin made by Baxter International in the United States. It warned that the plant used unclean tanks to make heparin, that it accepted raw materials from an unacceptable vendor and that it had no adequate way to remove impurities.

Heparin is made from the mucous membranes of the intestines of slaughtered pigs that, in China, are often cooked in unregulated family workshops. The contaminant, identified as oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, a cheaper substance, slipped through the usual testing and was recognized only after more sophisticated tests were used.

The F.D.A. has identified 12 Chinese companies that have supplied contaminated heparin to 11 countries — Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States. Deborah Autor, director of compliance at the F.D.A.’s drug center, said the agency did not know the original source of all the contamination or the points in the supply chain at which it was added.

Officials have discovered heparin lots that included the cheap fake additive manufactured as early as early as 2006, although a spike in illnesses associated with contaminated heparin began in November and persisted through February, officials said.

Separately, the Government Accountability Office will release a report on Tuesday showing that the F.D.A. would need to spend at least $56 million more next year to begin full inspections of foreign plants. It would need to spend at least $15 million annually to inspect China’s drug plants every two years, which is the domestic standard.

Bush administration officials have acknowledged problems associated with poor inspection of overseas plants and have plans to improve the situation. But President Bush’s budget does not provide the F.D.A. with funds to hire more inspectors.

At its present inspection pace, the F.D.A. would need at least 27 years to inspect every foreign medical device plant that exports to the United States, 13 years to check every foreign drug plant and 1,900 years to examine every foreign food plant. [Emphasis mine, profound evil theirs.]

Proposals circulating on Capitol Hill would increase the agency’s financing and charge domestic and foreign manufacturers fees to pay for inspections.

“Even the Bush administration seems to understand the potential peril that these foreign firms pose, but they offer only vague plans to address the problems and they refuse to spend more than a fraction of the money needed to protect the public,” said Representative John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who leads the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The F.D.A. has announced plans to open inspection offices in three Chinese cities, but the agency has yet to get permission from the Chinese government. Mr. Chen said any inspection agreement should be reciprocal. “Will the U.S. government accept the Chinese F.D.A. to set up in the United States?” he said.

Dr. Woodcock said the Chinese had agreed to test heparin lots before allowing them to be exported. But Dr. Moheb Nasr, director of the drug agency’s office of new drug quality assessment, said that the Chinese test might not be sensitive enough to identify the contaminant.

Dr. Woodcock assured patients, however, that all heparin supplies in the United States had been tested with the most sensitive assays and had been found to be uncontaminated.

Scientific Protein Laboratories and Changzhou SPL said the company regretted the agency’s decision to send a warning letter that, it said, did not reflect the company’s current safety practices. The company said it had no way of detecting a contaminant present in heparin supplies throughout China.

Baxter International, which bought heparin ingredients from SPL and sold the finished drug in the United States, said that its tests confirmed that the contaminant could cause illness. It disputed the F.D.A.’s analysis that its product was linked with 81 deaths, saying it had identified only 5 in which its product “may have contributed to the adverse outcome, though there is not yet enough medical data available to draw a firm conclusion that the reaction caused the death.”

Deaths linked to the drug may have been concentrated in the United States because American doctors may be more likely to use large, quickly infused amounts of the drug, said drug officials. Also, the F.D.A. may track serious side effects better than its counterparts abroad.

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Wikileaks Rocks.

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:38:14 -0700

Wikileaks releases over 150 censored videos and photos of the Tibet uprising

From Wikileaks

Original link: http://wikileaks.cx/wiki/Wikileaks_releases_over_120_censored_videos_and_photos_of_the_Tibet_uprising

Wikileaks Press Release
Tuesday March 18, 2008 updated Monday March 24, 2008

In the last week Wikileaks has released over 150 censored photos and videos of the Tibet uprising and has called on bloggers around the world to help drive the footage through the Chinese internet censorship regime — the so called "Great Firewall of China"

The transparency group's move comes as a response to the the Chinese Public Security Bureau's carte-blanche censorship of youtube, the BBC, CNN, the Guardian and other sites carrying video footage of the Tibetan people's recent heroic stand against the inhumane Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Wikileaks has also placed the collection in two easy to use archives together with a HTML index page so they may be easily copied, placed on websites, cd's, emailed across the internet as attachments and uploaded to peer to peer networks.

Censorship, like communism, seems like a reasonable enough idea to begin with. While 'from each according to his ability and to each according to his need' sounds unarguable, the world has learned that these words call forth a power elite to administer them with coercive force. Such elites are quick to define the needs of their own members as paramount. Similarly 'from each mouth according to its ability and to each ear according to its need' seems harmless enough, but history shows that censorship also requires an anointed class to define this "need" and to make violence against those who continue talking. Such power is quickly corrupted.

The first ingredient of civil society is the people's right to know, because without such understanding no human being can meaningfully choose to support anything, let alone a political party. Knowledge is the driver of every political process, every constitution, every law and every regulation. The communication of knowledge is without salient analogue. It is living, unique and demands its rightful place at the summit of society. Since knowledge is the creator and regulator of all law, its position beyond law commands due respect.

James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and other Enlightenment framers of the US Bill of Rights understood this well when they began the First Amendment's constitutional protections of speech and of the press with 'Congress shall make no law....'.

As knowledge flows across the world it is time to sum great freedoms of every nation and not subtract or divide them. Let us then unite in common purpose for the surest way to protect the freedoms of any nation is to protect the freedoms of every nation.

See

Censored Tibet March 2008 protest photos (120 photos on a single page)
leak:tibet-protest-photos.zip (120 photo archive)
Censored Tibet March 2008 protest videos - display (35 flash videos on page)
Censored Tibet March 2008 protest videos - FLV format (Flash archive)
Censored Tibet March 2008 protest videos - AVI format (AVI/mpeg4 archive)

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GCHQ Confirms Violent Riots Staged By Chinese

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:59:59 -0700

PLA agents instigated unrest to justify crackdown

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, March 27, 2008

Britain's GCHQ spy agency has confirmed the fact that Chinese People's Liberation Army agents posing as monks staged violent riots in Tibet in order to justify a brutal crackdown, but that the demonstrations have now escalated beyond Beijing's control.

According to a report in today's Epoch Times, "GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer."

Fearing that legitimate demonstrators would become more active in the months leading up to the Beijing Olympics, Chinese authorities planned to create a pretext to crush the movement by instigating violence that would sour global opinion towards the Tibetans.

According to the report, GCHQ's geo-positioned satellites in space were able to obtain images proving that the Chinese had infiltrated agent provocateurs into Lhasa. PLA agents posing as monks were responsible for setting fire to buildings and killing non-ethnic Chinese citizens as well as police in an attempt to demonize the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan freedom movement.

However, according to the report, "What the Beijing regime had not expected was how the riots would spread, not only across Tibet, but also to Sichuan, Quighai and Gansu provinces, turning a large area of western China into a battle zone."

Though the report seems to explain why images showed supposed Tibetans protesters inexplicably burning their own villages, it has to be cautioned that Epoch Times is a traditionally pro-Tibetan news outlet and there's no doubt that propaganda is being used by both sides.

It's probable that Chinese PLA agents instigated some of the violence but the fact that young Tibetans are engaging in violence completely of their own accord is largely accepted.

As the report points out, many of the Dalai Lama's supporters are "young, unemployed and dispossessed and reject his philosophy of non-violence, believing the only hope for change is the radical action they are now carrying out"

On a personal note, having visited Tibet myself and experienced some less than cordial interactions with the Tibetan people, it has to be said that they are certainly not deserving of the angelic tag some quarters of the media lavish upon them - being tribal, aggressive and spiteful towards foreign visitors as well as hostile towards tourists from the Chinese mainland.

As we reported on Monday, former Chinese Communist Party official Ruan Ming was the first to accuse China of staging the violent riots in order to demonize Tibetans in the eyes of the international community, justify a brutal paramilitary police crackdown and force the Dalai Lama to resign.

"The demonstration on March 10 was meant to be peaceful. You can see from the pictures that the demonstration was all monks," he explained, adding that the CCP carefully introduced violent unrest in order to "deceive the world".

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7.2-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes China

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:20:36 -0700

Friday, March 21, 2008

BEIJING (AP) -- A major earthquake struck a sparsely populated region of western China early Friday. Some houses collapsed, but there were no injuries, state media reported.

The 7.2-magnitude quake hit at 6:33 a.m. (2233 GMT Thursday), about 140 miles southeast of the city of Hotan in southwest Xinjiang province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A spokesman for China's Earthquake Administration said it was a 7.3 magnitude quake. There were no reports of injuries, he said, and the area is sparsely populated.

There were four aftershocks in the region, ranging from 5.0 to 5.2 magnitude, according to a notice on the Web site of the administration.

The earthquakes occurred around the towns of Ahqan and Bostan, just north of the Kunlun mountains, with a total population of around 13,400 people, according to Chinese state media.

China's state-run television channel, CCTV, said that some houses had collapsed, but that no one was hurt.

Dale Grant, a USGS geophysicist, described the area as "very seismically active," but said Friday's temblor was the biggest there on record.

Xinjiang is a predominantly Muslim region with a culture that is distinctly different from that of China's ethnic Han majority.

China's Earthquake Administration said the last earthquake in the Hotan area struck in 1992, with a magnitude of 5.9.

In 2003, a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing some 240,000 people.

Why couldn't this quake've hit harder, and only where the bastard politicos hang?

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Last Foreign Reporters Forced From Tibet

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:19:17 -0700

By LILY HINDY
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 20, 2008

NEW YORK -- China forced the last remaining foreign journalists out of Tibet on Thursday, and stepped up restrictions on Internet and radio reports from people within the country, a media watchdog said.

Georg Blume, a correspondent for German newspapers Die Zeit and taz, and Kristin Kupfer of the German EPD news agency, left Thursday after being confronted by an official who threatened to cancel their Chinese visas, Reporters Without Borders said.

Earlier this week, Economist correspondent James Miles and a group of 15 Hong Kong reporters also were forced out.

"If they don't have anything to hide, then why are they making foreign journalists leave? It's clear that they don't want any witnesses," said Vincent Brossel, who heads Reporters Without Borders' Asia desk.

Beijing has warned foreign tourists and journalists to stay away from a huge expanse of territory across four provinces, acknowledging that last week's anti-government protests have spread far beyond Tibet's borders.

The protests, led by Buddhist monks, started peacefully but erupted into rioting on Friday, drawing a harsh response from Chinese authorities. The Chinese crackdown has drawn worldwide attention on the country's human rights record, threatening to overshadow Beijing's attempts to project an image of unity and prosperity in the lead-up to the Olympic Games in August.

The German left-leaning daily taz posted a story on its Web site protesting Blume's expulsion.

"Apparently the Chinese government cannot tolerate any further Western witnesses in Tibet. That is, for us, no real surprise - the position of the People's Republic on press freedom is well known," wrote Reiner Metzger, the newspaper's deputy editor.

Reporters Without Borders said Chinese authorities are using "jamming stations" to block radio broadcasts out of Tibet and have asked Internet cafe owners to increase the surveillance of their clients.

The group also obtained a message it said was being sent to Tibetans living outside of Tibet from the "Internet Surveillance Bureau," which said: "It is forbidden to post news about Tibetan events ... anyone infringing on this ban will have their IP address sent to the police who will take the necessary steps."

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Nobel Laureates Condemn China on Tibet

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:18:29 -0700

By CARLEY PETESCH
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 20, 2008

NEW YORK -- Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and 25 other Nobel laureates on Thursday condemned the Chinese government's violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters and called on Beijing to exercise restraint.

"We protest the unwarranted campaign waged by the Chinese government against our fellow Nobel laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama," the group said in a statement released by Wiesel.

Wiesel told The Associated Press that the group wanted renewed negotiations between China and the Dalai Lama, who won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.

"The latest events are dramatic and the main thing is to stop the present oppression, persecution and violence," Wiesel said.

"I don't understand the Chinese hierarchy there," he added. "Why are they afraid of Tibet?"

Led by Buddhist monks, protests had begun peacefully in Lhasa early last week but erupted into rioting on March 14, drawing a harsh response from Chinese authorities.

The crackdown drew worldwide attention to China's human rights record, threatening to overshadow Beijing's attempts to project an image of unity and prosperity in the lead-up to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.

Wiesel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, said he is close friends with the Dalai Lama and that the Tibetan leader has repeatedly said he is not asking for a sovereign independent Tibet. "All he wants is religious and cultural autonomy," Wiesel said.

That autonomy, the statement said, "is fundamental to the preservation of the ancient Tibetan heritage."

When asked what he would do if the Chinese did not agree to talks, Wiesel said: "If they don't agree and the violence goes on we will have to ask for more, maybe the reconsideration of the Olympics ... but we are not there yet."

Wiesel said it was not the time for the international community to take actions such as boycotts. But he said pressure for peace and dialogue is needed until we "hear reports from the Tibetan themselves that all has been restored and the prisons are opened."

Tibetan exile groups have claimed that 80 people were killed during the protest and its aftermath, while Beijing maintains that 16 died and more than 300 were injured.

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China says dumplings "sabotaged", probably in Japan

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:16:04 -0800

by Nick Macfie and Guo Shipeng
Feb 28, 2008

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese-made dumplings which made 10 people sick in Japan were sabotaged, most probably in Japan, China's security and quality watchdogs said on Thursday.

No one has died from the poisoned food but the case has prompted frenetic media coverage in Japan following a series of health scares over Chinese products ranging from pet food and toys to toothpaste.

"Chinese police have come to the conclusion that it was not a food safety incident caused by pesticide residues but a special case of sabotage," Yu Xinmin, a senior official with the Ministry of Public Security, told a news conference.

"After comprehensive, careful investigation and tests, we believe there is little chance that methamidophos (a pesticide) was put into dumplings in China," said Yu, deputy director of the ministry's criminal investigation bureau.

Japanese police have said that it was highly unlikely that the sabotage happened in Japan, citing the fact that methamidophos was strictly banned there and the packages of some of the problematic dumplings remained intact.

But Yu said Chinese tests showed that the pesticide could have seeped into the dumplings from outside the package, contrary to the results from similar tests by Japanese police, and suggested that the methamidophos could have been shipped into Japan from abroad.

Police questioned 55 people at the Chinese producer in the northern province of Hebei who might have been able to taint the dumplings but they were all cleared of suspicion, Yu said.

Japanese and Chinese investigators earlier said the plant was "very clean and well-managed", finding no harmful chemicals in samples and no abnormal operations.

No problems were detected either from the factory gate to Japanese ports, Yu said, adding that he was sorry Japanese police had not given his colleagues consistent cooperation and had released inconclusive investigation results to the media.

Yu said Chinese police would continue to work with their Japanese counterparts to find out the truth.

The poisoning is a delicate matter for Sino-Japanese ties, sensitive at the best of times over Japanese wartime atrocities in China.

China had taken "resolute" actions to investigate the incident in a responsible manner, Wei Chuanzhong, vice head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, told the same news conference.

"It's because we don't want an isolated incident to affect the overall interests of bilateral relations and hurt the friendship between the two peoples," Wei said.

"We might have become a bit hypersensitive after the dumpling incident...we should return to a rational and normal thinking and not be misled by mistaken information."

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China Party boss killing likely to worry Beijing

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:17:30 -0800

by Guo Shipeng and Benjamin Kang Lim
Wednesday, February 13, 2008

BEIJING (Reuters) - A police chief in north China shot dead a senior local Communist Party official and a woman before killing himself, fanning speculation of a seamy corruption scandal that has drawn huge interest and is likely to alarm Beijing.

Wang Zhiping, deputy Party chief of Hohhot, capital of the northern region of Inner Mongolia, and a female tax official were found dead in his office on February 5, Caijing magazine said.

Wang, 54, a former soldier, was gunned down by Guan Liuru, police chief of Hohhot's economic development zone, Caijing said in a report on its Web site (www.caijing.com.cn) on Wednesday.

"An investigation team from the Ministry of Public Security has been sent to Hohhot," said the report, which was republished by major news portals, including state news agency www.xinhuanet.com.

A Hong Kong-based rights watchdog, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, also reported the scandal which is likely to alarm officials in Beijing obsessed with stability and their own clean image.

Guan's motive was not immediately known.

China has seen a series of violent crimes involving senior officials in recent years as corruption becomes a rampant problem, one that the Party says will threaten its own survival if not curbed.

In September 2007, Duan Yihe, former head of the local legislature in Jinan, capital city of the eastern Shandong province, was executed for blowing up his mistress with a car bomb.

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3 companies indicted over contaminated pet food

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:28:29 -0800

February 6, 2008
By DAVID TWIDDY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Two Chinese businesses and a U.S. company were indicted Wednesday in the tainted pet food incidents that killed potentially thousands of animals last year and raised worries about products made in China.

Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co.; Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products Arts and Crafts I/E Co.; and Las Vegas-based ChemNutra Inc. were charged in two separate but related indictments.

The U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received consumer reports suggesting 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs died after eating food contaminated with the toxic chemical melamine.

U.S. Attorney John F. Wood said authorities haven't been able to substantiate all those reports, but "as for pet deaths, we think it's in the thousands."

One of the indictments charges Xuzhou Anying Biologic, located in China's Jiangsu Province, and Suzhou Textiles, in Suzhou, China, with 13 felony counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce and 13 felony counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce.

The indictment also names Mao Linzhun, Xuzhou's owner, and Zhen Hao Chen, Suzhou's president.

ChemNutra and company owners Sally Quing Miller, a Chinese national, and her husband, Stephen S. Miller, were charged with 13 misdemeanor counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, 13 misdemeanor counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce and one felony count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Each of the felony counts against the Chinese defendants is punishable by up to three years in prison, according to the indictment. The misdemeanor charges against ChemNutra and its owners are each punishable by up to a year in prison, while the felony conspiracy count carries a maximum sentence of five years.

The indictments allege that Suzhou Textiles, an export broker, mislabeled 800 metric tons of tainted wheat gluten manufactured by Xuzhou to avoid inspection in China. Suzhou then did not properly declare the contaminated product it shipped to the U.S. as a material to be used in food, the indictment says.

It also says the shipment was falsely declared to the Chinese government in a way that would avoid a mandatory inspection of the company's plants.

"The defendants intended to deceive the Chinese government in addition to consumers," Wood said.

According to the indictment, ChemNutra picked up the melamine-tainted product at a port of entry in Kansas City, then sold it to makers of various brands of pet foods. The indictment alleges that Xuzhou added the melamine to artificially boost the protein content of the gluten to meet the requirements specified in Suzhou's contract with ChemNutra.

Wood said adding the melamine, which would allow it to pass chemical inspections for protein content, was cheaper than actually adding protein to the gluten.

He added that prosecutors aren't alleging that the Millers and ChemNutra knew that the product was toxic, only that they were aware the product had been shipped into the U.S. under false pretenses and failed to notify their customers.

"Millions of pet owners remember the anxiety of last year's pet food recall. These indictments are the product of an investigation that began in the wake of that recall," Wood said.

Steve Stern, a spokesman for ChemNutra, said the Millers "deny the allegations by the Justice Department in the strongest of terms and look forward to the opportunity to prove their innocence at trial. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Miller had any intent to defraud or knowledge of any wrongdoing."

Wood said the Chinese government is cooperating with the investigation and shut down Xuzhou shortly after its connection to the melamine scare was discovered last year.

In addition, Chinese officials signed an agreement in December increasing inspections on a number of products, including pet food ingredients, Wood said.

"Since this issue came to light, steps have been taken to protect consumer safety," Wood said.

He added that Chinese authorities took Linzhun into custody at the time his company was shut down, but he said he didn't know if Linzhun was still in custody.

The U.S. doesn't have an extradition treaty with China, meaning there's no legal way to force China to hand over Linzhun or Chen, Wood said. But federal authorities have alerted Interpol and other law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for them if they leave China.

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China Looking Into Tainted Dumplings

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:55:59 -0800

January 31, 2008

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese export safety authorities said Thursday they were investigating a company that made insecticide-tainted dumplings that sickened 10 people in Japan.

The frozen dumplings made by Tianyang Food Processing were contaminated with traces of an organic phosphorus insecticide called methamidophos, which caused severe abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhea, Japanese officials said.

China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which oversees export safety, said it had heard the news and was "paying great attention to it."

"We have quickly gotten in touch with the Japanese side to get a detailed understanding of the situation," the AQSIQ said in a statement posted on its Web site. "We have already started an investigation and will release the results in a timely manner."

Telephone calls to Tianyang and its parent company, Hebei Foodstuffs Import & Export Group, were not answered on Thursday.

The reputation of China's exports have suffered the past year after a number of potentially deadly chemicals were found in goods ranging from toothpaste to toys to a pet food ingredient.

It declared a four-month quality and safety improvement campaign which ended in December a success.

Japanese health officials said they suspended imports of all products from Tianyang and were conducting a nationwide survey of any additional dumplings-related health problems.

Japan's Health Ministry has also ordered the dumplings' importer and distributor, JT Foods Co. Ltd. - an affiliate of Japan's largest tobacco company - to recall the tainted dumplings. JT Foods had distributed 13 tons of dumplings each in the prefectures (states) of Chiba and Hyogo, the ministry said.

"I'm afraid that there was a rather loose safety awareness on the Chinese side," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said at a regular news conference Thursday. "Now the problems have occurred, we urge China to closely investigate what exactly is going on."

Three people in Hyogo and seven in Chiba near Tokyo were sickened, some of the seriously including a 5-year-old girl who regained consciousness after falling into a coma, the ministry said.

Traces of methamidophos were found in the dumplings, their containers and the patients' vomit, it said.

Japan has in recent months been hit with its own slew of domestic food safety scandals involving recycled red bean filling, mislabeled meat and the use of out-of-date milk, cream and eggs in a popular brand of cream puffs.

In 2000, Snow Brand Milk Products Co. shipped old milk and sickened more than 14,000 people, the country's worst-ever outbreak of food poisoning.

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