China does not care about “Bush’s legs”

PRAVDA.Ru’s correspondent Andrei Krushinsky reports from Beijing

Today, the Chinese mass media have mentioned an event connected with the Russian-American “chicken war” (Russia’s ban on US-exported poultry is meant hereTwenty tons of imported meat products that do not observe standards havquarantine control department (Nanchang is the province’s administrative center) together with the department for technical inspection of the quality of goods have examined the food kept in the warehouses in the city have been destroyed in the city of Nanchang. Food without quarantine documents was discovered during the inspection. The food without the necessary documents totaled 600 kg, but, in accordance with the legislation in force, the whole batch of 20 tons was destroyed.

Such are the actions of China, which has just entered the WTO. Nothing has been mentioned about the products and the country of origin in the media reports. It is the principle that matters here. In December of 2001, an inspection of South Chinese province of Guangdong discovered the E coli 0157 bacteria in a batch of chicken imported from Atlanta (the USA). This was the same stomach bacillus that was raging in Japan in 1996 (it had probably originated from the USA, where up to 20,000 cases of the disease are treated annually). Again, in accordance with the Chinese legislation, the whole batch of the infected food at the rate of 24.4 tons was destroyed. The USA was informed that no meat products with the mentioned modification will be allowed into China.

Andrei Krushinsky PRAVDA.Ru Beijing

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/03/11/38099.html