A Mockery: Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, and Vietnam for a seat at UN Human Rights Council

Pressure Points »

By Elliott Abrams 

Next week, on November 12, new members of the UN Human Rights Council will be elected. Among the candidates are nations that should never be allowed on the Council, and indeed whose presence will make the Council a mockery: Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, and Vietnam.

Perhaps the United States cannot prevent countries with the human rights records of these five from being elected. There are two things we should do, however. First, we should fight, trying to organize resistance to the election of any of these five human rights abusers. Even if they cannot be kept off, a very substantial number of no votes will be a useful embarrassment to them, showing that many countries condemn their records.

Second, we should announce that the United States will vote no on all five. The UN Human Rights Council was created in 2006 because the UN Human Rights Commission was a disgraceful mockery of support for human rights. Under the Bush administration the United States refused to join until the new entity proved itself to be different. In 2009 the Obama administration announced it would seek election, and did join the Council. The announced goal, part of the “new era of engagement” about which President Obama often spoke, was to strengthen both human rights and the Human Rights Council: then-UN ambassador Susan Rice stated at the time that “Those who suffer from abuse and oppression around the world, as well as those who dedicate their lives to advancing human rights, need the Council to be balanced and credible.” The addition of human rights abusers like Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, and Vietnam does not make the Council more credible, and it makes the place more balanced only if the balance is supposed to be between human rights defenders and human rights abusers. If all five of these abusers are elected, the Council will be tilting hard toward abusers. The United States should say so.

China to End Use of Prisoners' Organs for Transplants in Mid-2014

.breitbart

Kidney removal scar/ gbtimes.com

HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - China plans to end its controversial practice of using the organs of executed prisoners for transplants by around the middle of next year, a senior official told Reuters on Saturday.

China is the only country that still systematically takes organs from executed prisoners for use in transplant operations, a decades-long practice that has drawn widespread international criticism.

Beijing said in August it would begin to phase out the practice this month, and health officials have previously said China must stop using dead inmates' organs to "build a positive image that benefits the country."

By mid-2014, all hospitals licensed for organ transplants will be required to stop using organs from executed prisoners and only use those voluntarily donated and allocated through a fledging national system, said Huang Jiefu, former deputy health minister who heads the organ transplant reform.

Read the rest of the story at Reuters.

Taiwan Says China Could Defeat U.S. Allies, Launch Invasion by 2020

breitbart

By Frances Martel 

A report by the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense released this week predicts that China will have developed a “wholly sufficient” military presence near the island to invade by 2020. As the United States is obligated by treaty to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion, this report also predicts China will be able to defeat American forces protecting the island.

According to Reuters, this is the first time the Taiwanese defense ministry has given such a precise deadline for a potential successful invasion. "Over the long-term, it will be wholly sufficient to engage in a war over Taiwan by 2020," the report argues, citing several developments the Chinese military has been endeavoring to fund recently, particularly "long-range precision strike weaponry" capabilities. That calculation takes into account not only the Taiwanese military but any intervening power. It has been years since Taiwan argued that it could unilaterally defeat an invading Chinese army, but concerns of Western intervention have largely kept that threat of violence subdued in past decades.

China's government has officially responded that they have yet to see the full report, but are optimistic about the "momentum of peaceful development" between the two parties, calling talks "beneficial to both sides."

The report comes at a pivotal time in relations between Taiwan and China. Taiwan asserts its sovereignty as the Republic of China, while China views the island as a province falsely asserting said sovereignty and has encouraged talks while not discounting the possibility of using force. The summer was wrought with tension as activists clashed in Taiwan over a potential trade agreement with mainland China that could make the island more economically dependent on what many perceive to be a military threat. 

While the potential for a trade agreement circulated, Taiwan sided with the United States during talks regarding multilateral trade in the South China Sea, calling for freer navigation for trade vessels.

Recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for talks between the two governments, arguing that the division "should be resolved step-by-step" in a negotiating process. Calls on the part of Taiwan for military reinforcements continued nonetheless, however. Deputy Defense Minister Yen Teh-fa, on a visit to the United States earlier this month, called for the United States to send further aid to their defense, describing China as a continued "grave threat." 

The words came as something of a surprise to those following the rise of Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou, who is perceived to be more China-friendly than his predecessors.

Mystery Satellite Movements: What Is China Doing?

Discovery News

By Ian O'Neill 

www.trtenglish.com

Unexplained satellite movements in orbit, secretive payloads, testing of potential anti-satellite technologies and no official explanation — this sounds like the plot of the next James Bond adventure. But this is no 007 movie, this is the storyline of several Chinese satellites that are raising eyebrows in the West.

As reported by veteran space correspondent Leonard David at SPACE.com, no one really knows what China is up to and this has led to speculation in space analyst circles.

ANALYSIS: When the U.S. Hooked Spy Photos from Space

The speculation is focused on the satellites Shiyan-7, Chuangxin-3 and Shijian-15, all of which were launched on the same Long March 4C (CZ-4C) rocket on July 20 (pictured top).

The official word was that the trio carried science payloads. Nothing too strange with that. But then Shiyan-7 (also known as SY-7, or Experiment 7) recently carried out a series of maneuvers with Chuangxin-3 (CX-3) only for it to make a sudden course change to rendezvous with an older satellite, Shijian 7 (SJ-7, Practice 7), which was launched in 2005.

At launch, one of the newest satellites was thought to be equipped with a robotic arm manipulator (although, at the time, space analysts did not know which one) and at the time the Chinese language press specifically mentioned “space debris observation,” “mechanical arm operations” and the testing of “space maintenance technologies,” according to Gregory Kulacki, a senior analyst and China project manager within the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security Program.

NEWS: No Shoot-Down Despite Incoming Satellite’s Toxic Fuel

At face value, this could indicate that China is working on peaceful space debris mitigation technologies. Perhaps the odd maneuvers of Shiyan-7 reveal the development of techniques of orbital debris retrieval? Worryingly, there’s also a flip side to this coin.

“Since space systems are largely dual use, it should not be surprising that there would be interest in the ability to maneuver satellites in close proximity … but neither should there be blithe assumptions that this is necessarily for solely peaceful ends,” Dean Cheng, a research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., told SPACE.com.

In 2007, China made its military capabilities in space abundantly clear. The nation launched an anti-satellite missile that intercepted one of its own satellites. This orbital target practice not only proved that satellites in low-Earth orbit are not safe from surface attack, the action generated around 3,000 pieces of extra space junk in a heavily used altitude — an act that drew heavy international condemnation. The debris from the intercept persist to this day.

NEWS: Declassified US Spy Satellites Land in Ohio

Space is the ultimate “high ground” in military strategy, so China’s provocative act obviously generated a huge amount of concern and no doubt motivated the U.S. to test its own anti-satellite missile on the defunct spy satellite USA-193 in 2008. As the satellite’s orbit was degrading, that successful satellite intercept did not produce the orbital debris that the Chinese test did. Though the official line was that USA-193 needed to be taken out due to the hazardous fuel on board, the strike was an obvious reply to the Chinese test a year earlier.

So are these most recent strange satellite maneuvers another development in anti-satellite capabilities? If so, the US and China will need to make a decision. Do both powers pursue anti-satellite technologies or do they find a way to cooperate in space like the US and Russia did toward the end of the Cold War?

“Major powers can ramp up a competition to damage satellites, or they can arrive at tacit agreements to dampen this competition,” said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Stimson Center and director of its South Asia and Space Security programs. “The United States and the Soviet Union chose wisely. China has yet to choose.”

Source: SPACE.com

Another Chinese child rescued hanging from railings on skyscraper

ITN

China: Four-year-old stuck in window bars rescued by firefighters

ITN

Woman's Breast Implant Explodes After Playing Game For 4 Hours on iPhone

breitbart

By Jon David Kahn

A Chinese woman's breast implant exploded after playing a game (Dragon Summon) on her iPhone while lying on her stomach for four hours. 

According to reports, she was taken to the hospital after experiencing pain in her chest while playing the game in bed. Doctors say that the low quality implant combined with the pressure of laying face down for an extended period of time, caused the rupture. 

No information has been provided as to whether her implant was replaced.  She initially received the implants to raise her self esteem.

On the brighter side, the woman may have achieved a personal high score in Dragon Summon.

Workers in China catch toddler in 5-storey fall

ITN

 

China builds the world's fastest supercomputer Milky Way 2

ITN

The Economist: Why has China snubbed Cuba and Venezuela?

The Economist

XI JINPING'S first visit to Latin America and the Caribbean as China’s president, from May 31st to June 6th, took him tantalisingly close to Beijing’s strongest ideological allies in the region, Cuba and Venezuela. Yet he steered clear of both of them. Instead of visiting Cuba, as his predecessor Hu Jintao did on his first presidential trip to the region, Mr Xi stopped off in an English-speaking Caribbean nation, Trinidad and Tobago, which (as if to rub it in) is only a short hop from Caracas. He then travelled to Costa Rica and Mexico (pictured)—two countries that are at least as much a part of America’s orbit as Cuba and Venezuela are part of the “Beijing Consensus”. Why this snub to two friendly nations that have been lavished with Chinese largesse in recent years, especially at a time when both are struggling to come to terms with the death in March of Hugo Chávez, the Cuba- and China-loving Venezuelan leader?
The short answer is: for simplicity’s sake. Visits to Cuba and Venezuela might well have raised distracting questions when Mr Xi meets Barack Obama in Southern California on June 7th, and neither socialist government was likely to express publicly any offence at being left off the itinerary. The beauty of having a chequebook as thick as China’s is that if you give your friends the cold shoulder, you can always mollify them with money. That may be why, on June 6th, Venezuela’s oil minister announced that he had secured an extra $4 billion from China to drill for oil, in addition to $35 billion already provided by Beijing. Not quite in the same league, but significant nonetheless, the Havana Times reported this week that China was also planning to invest in Cuban golf courses, the island’s latest fad.
However, as our story on Mr Xi’s visit to Latin America points out, he may have had other reasons for picking the destinations that he did. Firstly, he may be trying to respond to Mr Obama’s “pivot” to Asia by showing that China is developing its own sphere of influence in America’s backyard. China’s business relationship with Latin America gets less attention than its dealings with Africa, but in terms of investment, it is much bigger. According to Enrique Dussel, a China expert at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, Latin America and the Caribbean were collectively the second largest recipient of Chinese foreign direct investment between 2000-2011, after Hong Kong. In terms of funding, Kevin Gallagher of Boston University says China has provided more loans to Latin America since 2005 than the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank combined. The visits to Mexico and Costa Rica may also represent a pivot of sorts in terms of the type of economic relationship China has with Latin America. Up until now, China has hoovered up the region’s commodities, importing soya, copper, iron, oil and other raw materials, particularly from Brazil, Chile and Venezuela, while flooding the region with its manufactured goods. But its relations with Mexico, a rival in low-cost manufacturing, have been frosty: China accounts for only about 0.05% of Mexican foreign direct investment, and it exports ten times as much to Mexico as it imports.
But as wages in China have increased and high energy prices have raised the cost of shipping goods from China to America, Beijing may be looking for bases such as Mexico and Costa Rica where it can relocate Chinese factories and benefit from free-trade agreements with the United States. This idea thrills the Mexican government, but does it pose an immediate threat to Venezuela and Cuba? Probably not: China will continue to need their staunch ideological support over issues like Taiwan, for one thing. But it does suggest that China’s economic interest in the region is broadening, especially along the Pacific coast. If that proves to be the case, Cuba and Venezuela, deprived of the charismatic Chávez to court Beijing on their behalf, will have to work hard to stay relevant.

World's oldest primate fossil discovered in China

ITN

Abandoned newborn baby rescued from sewage pipe in China

ITN

China construira el edificio más alto del mundo con 838 metros

microsiervos

Si todo va según los planes, el Sky City de la ciudad de Changsha alcanzará los 838 metros de altura, se construirá en tan solo siete meses mediante unas técnicas especiales y requerirá el trabajo de unos 19.000 especialistas. Además, será un edificio altamente sostenible:

Sky City, según un diseño de Broad Sustainable Buildings

La técnica de diseño y construcción de estos rascacielos que han depurado en la empresa BSB incluye una eficiencia energética tremenda: consumen una quinta parte que un edificio convencional en calefacción y aire acondicionado, gracias a un revestimiento cuádruple en las paredes externas.

Primero construyeron un hotel de 30 plantas en 15 días, y como la ingeniería del asunto parece estar dominada, ahora planean levantar el rascacielos más alto del mundo en menos de tres meses.

Para superar el reto el plan consiste en erigir una gigantesca torre de 200 plantas en 90 días, lo cual equivale a crear un millón de metros cuadrados de espacio útil, todo ello interconectado por 104 ascensores para que la gente suba y baje. El coste del mega-proyecto podría rondar los 600 millones de dólares, aun así menos de la mitad que la construcción del Burj Khalifa de Dubai –actualmente el más alto del mundo– o la cuarta parte que la Torre Shanghái, la segunda más alta.

Respecto a la altura en sí, que en este tipo de cosas es lo que finalmente cuenta, la idea es que alcance los 838 metros, justo diez metros más que el Burj Khalifa.

Al parecer la técnica de diseño y construcción de estos rascacielos que han depurado los chinos de la empresa BSB incluye una eficiencia energética tremenda: consumen una quinta parte que un edificio convencional en calefacción y aire acondicionado, gracias a un revestimiento cuádruple en las paredes externas. En cuanto tengan luz verde se pondrán en marcha, probablemente en enero de 2013.

Ai Weiwei makes massive map of China out of baby formula

Behind The Wall

Philippe Lopez / AFP - Getty Images

A map of China made from more than 1,800 cans of baby formula created by dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei highlights the controversy over raging demand for milk powder from Hong Kong in mainland China. Hong Kong has passed a draconian law to limit supplies.

By Ed Flanagan, Producer, NBC News

BEIJING – His art may be forbidden in China and his name blocked as a search topic online, but Chinese artist and social activist Ai Weiwei still knows how to grab headlines.
His latest art project on display in Hong Kong is titled “Baby Formula 2013” and is an 860-square-foot map of China assembled from more than 1,800 cans of formula.
The exhibit strikes at the heart of a number of key social issues affecting China right now: from ever-present domestic food scandals to growing tension between Hong Kong and the mainland.
A former British colony, Hong Kong became a self-administered region of China in 1997 and operates under different laws. It remains free from state censorship and has become a mecca for shoppers from the mainland who believe they are buying the real – not fake or copied – items.

Ed Flanagan / NBC News

A sign at the Air China check-in counter in Hong Kong says, "Departing with excessive powdered formula COMMITS AN OFFENCE ... each may take 2 cans of powdered formula with a total net weight up to 1.8 kg out of Hong Kong."

But on March 1 Hong Kong’s government ordered a two-can limit be enforced on people attempting to bring baby formula out of the special administrative region.
The draconian law is meant to prevent anxious parents from the mainland from buying up its formula in the wake of the 2008 melamine milk scandals that killed six children and left 300,000 others ill.
“I understand the intention of the milk power law, but it’s not a law that should be accepted in a free-enterprise city like Hong Kong,” Ai said by phone Tuesday. “You don’t limit the sale of things like Coca-Cola or formula. This is something Hong Kong should work with the mainland government to solve.”
Ai, who used eight brands of popular foreign baby formula to construct the map, said it took a number of buyers some time to purchase all the cans needed for the project.
“We went out and researched and bought the brands of formula that were popular amongst Chinese parents,” he said, noting products from Switzerland, Australia, Germany and the U.S. were particularly hot sellers.
In China -- where Ai’s name continues to be a blocked term in Chinese social media due to his run-ins with the government -- reaction to his newest exhibition ranged from frustration with the steady flow of food scandals to amusement over the Hong Kong law.
“It is like a slap across the face of China’s milk powder industry,” wrote one angered user on China’s twitter-like service, Weibo, “Do they have the nerve to keep living?”
“I’m going to steal some cans of formula when I go to see the exhibition!” another user chimed in.
Despite his concerns over the Hong Kong law, Ai’s focus seems to be more on the ongoing concerns over food safety in China.
“That Chinese people have to go across the border just to get a fresh supply of baby formula and clean food, that’s shocking to me,” Ai said. “Food safety is a huge issue now due to the neglect of the government."
“I just wanted to speed up the change and development," he added.

The insatiable demand for foreign baby formula and other products in China has in recent years led to fears of shortages in Hong Kong, where resentment toward visiting mainland shoppers – sometimes derogatorily referred to as “locusts” – has grown.
Concern that mainland shoppers could buy up the entire supply of formula prompted the changes to the law that seemed out of character with Hong Kong’s reputation as the world’s freest economy.
Hong Kong is not the first part of the world to change the rules on baby formula purchases. Retailers in Australia and Britain have also imposed can limits as a result of surging Chinese demand.
But Hong Kong’s law angered mainland parents who found themselves suddenly facing fines upward of $64,000 and two-year prison sentences if found guilty of trying to sneak more formula out for their children.
It also inflamed tensions in mainland China, where the formula limit was seen as a sign of Hong Kong’s ingratitude for the inherent economic benefits enjoyed by its close proximity to the mainland.

Will China mediate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?

behindthewall

Kim Kyung-Hoon / Pool via EPA

China's President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 9.

By Ed Flanagan, Producer, NBC News

BEIJING – An official visit to Beijing by Israeli and Palestinian leaders last week has prompted speculation that China may finally be ready to claim its place as a world power by trying to negotiate an end to one of world's most caustic conflicts.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Chinese President Xi Jinping within days of each other in Beijing – the two Middle Eastern leaders having arrived in the country within hours of each other.
"China's hosting of the two emphasized its active involvement in Mideast affairs and highlighted its role as a responsible power," declared an editorial by China's state news agency, Xinhua.
A more active role in Middle East diplomacy would be a dramatic break from China's long-held policy of non-intervention. With controversial business partners like Sudan, Libya and Iran, China has consistently ducked the political and regional strife of others to focus on natural resource extraction and trade.
To a long line of American leaders who have invested a great deal of political capital in the quest for peace in the region, a Chinese diplomatic shift could be a welcome development.
But some experts like Dan Blumenthal, director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, wonder how much China is willing to risk entering this particular political game.

Feng Li / Getty Images

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, gestures to invite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to a welcoming ceremony held outside the Great Hall of the People on May 6 in Beijing.

"Right now China has the benefit of free-riding on U.S. security [and its] presence, so there is no incentive for them whatsoever to actually pay costs and take risks," Blumenthal said. "China has been fairly extractive in those areas and again for China to become a global power that exercises responsibility, you can't just reap the economic benefits."
Middle East experts in China have noted that the country has a fresh point of view unsullied by years of involvement in the region. It has a carefully crafted position of supporting the Palestinian cause -- dating back to 1965 when the Palestinian Liberation Organization setup an office in Beijing -- but also being a close friend of Israel, as its third-largest trading partner behind the U.S. and the European Union.
"The United States' slant toward Israel has long been regarded as a bias stance by Arabic countries, so this bias towards Israel is not helpful for President Obama when it comes to pushing forward current or future initiatives," said He Wenping, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). "But China maintains good relations with both Israel and Palestine, so China's stance is viewed as more neutral than the United States."
Just how much political capital Beijing is willing to spend hammering out a deal that has eluded others remains a critical question – one that could be fraught with risk to China's relationship with the Muslim world. Would Beijing be willing to put its neutral position and substantial business partnerships in the region in jeopardy?
To be sure, Xi's meetings with Netanyahu and Abbas were modest at best in ambition. The two Middle Eastern leaders never met face-to-face. And Xi's "four-point plan" effectively parroted calls by the United States for an independent Palestinian state, supplemented with a firm call for the two countries' boundaries to be based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem serving as the new Palestinian state's capital.
"I don't think China has some magical power at hand that can make the Israeli-Palestinian process move more smoothly," said He of CASS. "It is significant that Israel and Palestine both recognized China's role because if they don't want China involved, [Netanyahu and Abbas] would have never come to China. This shows they wish for and they recognize China's role in the process."
Whether their involvement is desired or not, past Chinese diplomatic history suggests that given the options, China in the short-term would likely continue a nominal role rather than put trade relations at risk.
But a silver lining is the affirmation that while China and the U.S. continue to have major political differences on issues ranging from Iran to America's Asia "pivot," there is room for the two powers to cooperate and engage on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

China's female workforce: Factory girls

EconomistMagazine

Sheep gets metal heart made with rocket science in China

ITN

Suicide jumper in China caught in mid-air by firefighters

ITN

Mao's granddaughter doesn't want to be on this rich list

news.cultural-china.com

behind the wall

Kong Dongmei [photo], the granddaughter of Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong.

By Ed Flanagan, Producer, NBC News

BEIJING -- Anywhere else in the world, placement on a rich list would be cause for celebration.

Not so in China.

For China's richest, being listed on wealth reports can be deeply undesirable, inviting unwanted extra scrutiny from tax collectors to a general public increasingly suspicious of the origins of the wealth that has poured into the mainland from uncertain corners over the last few decades.

The latest person to find herself facing this tough media spotlight: Kong Dongmei, the granddaughter of late Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong.

With assets estimated at around $815 million, Kong and her husband, Chen Dongsheng, placed 242nd on Chinese magazine New Fortune's 500 Rich List for 2013 released this week.

The specific kind of attention attracted by such an appearance has many nicknames. One Chinese author dubbed it "The Curse of Forbes"; others have called these wealth reports "sha zhu bang" or "kill pig list."

Whatever you call it, there is no denying that the lists can be perilous for China's wealthy. A study last year entitled "The Price of Being a Billionaire in China: Evidence Based on Hurun Rich List," found that companies listed on the notorious "Hurun Rich List" had their market values rapidly decline within three years – victims of increased tax audits, cutting off of government subsidies and financial investigations.

Indeed, many who have found themselves among the lucky few have soon after landed in jail as media and government interest shifted to their business dealings.

'Honest and clean'The irony that the granddaughter of the country's founding Communist leader is now one of its wealthiest citizens was not lost on the public here -- that despite carefully cultivating a veneer of modest living, Mao's offspring have in fact been profiting handsomely.

In 2009, another grandchild of Mao, Major General Mao Xinyu, told Chinese media, "The Mao Family heritage is honest and clean. None of the Mao family members have entered business. They all live on their modest salaries."

Meanwhile Kong authored four bestsellers about her grandfather and even ran a bookstore that specialized in Communist culture.

The revelation that Mao's granddaughter has risen to become one of China's wealthiest citizens only confirms what many in this country increasingly believe: Patronage is the path to wealth in today's Chinese society.

That perception is backed up by a recent survey conducted by Tsinghua University and reported in the Beijing Evening Post that found that college graduates in China who had a parent serving as a government official were found to earn 15 percent more than their peers.

The study also found that children of well-connected families were more likely to be recruited into sectors like finance, government agencies and international organizations, while other graduates ended up in industries like manufacturing and construction.

Smell a rat: Chinese ring sold rodent meat as mutton

Fox News

Police in China have smashed a crime ring that sold meat from rats and other animals as rat meat, in a case that left the public disgusted and highlighted the need for more food safety regulations in the world's most populous nation.

The 60-member ring took in more than $1 million, and increased to nearly 1,000 the number of people arrested since the end of January for selling tainted meat products, the Ministry of Public Security said on its website on Thursday.

“How many rats does it take to put together a sheep?”

- Poster on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter

According to Reuters, one suspect used additives to spice up and sell rat, fox and mink meat at markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province.

Depsite an ongoing crackdown, "food safety crimes are still prominent, and new situations are emerging with new characteristics," the ministry's statement said.

Police seized more than 20,000 tons of fake or mislabeled meat products during the nationwide sweep, the ministry said.

Food safety is a major issue in China, where public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food can spread quickly.

In April, many consumers lost their appetite for poultry as an outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu virus spread in China, Reuters reported. And in March, more than 16,000 rotting pig carcasses were found floating in one of Shanghai's main sources of water.

“How many rats does it take to put together a sheep?” one poster on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service that often acts as a forum for public venting. “Is it cheaper to raise rats than sheep? Or does it just not feel right unless you’re making fakes?”

Click for more at The New York Times

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/03/smell-rat-chinese-ring-sold-rodent-meat-as-mutton/#ixzz2SFFc0Oxy