I wanted to title this post “much ado about nothing” but it’s just too hackneyed. But that is exactly what I think of the Russell Norman Protest Saga. I’ve seen a lot of outrage over Norman’s treatment with, hilariously, a great deal of nationalistic fervour from the left. Even some of my right wing compatriots [...]

Fran O’Sullivan has an excellent article today on some of the potential problems the John Key will face when he meets the Chinese Premier next week. It reminded me that there is an article I wrote a while ago, about the comparison between Fonterra’s melamine “scare” (which was a media beat-up) and China’s very real [...]

Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article.  And today’s example is kindly brought to you by the Dominion Post: Army shifts $2m contract to China A small-town clothing manufacturer [Swazi] has been dealt a blow on the eve of the Government’s jobs summit after being told [...]

The trial of Tian Wenhua, the chairwoman of the Sanlu group, is over before it has begun. The lady has pleaded guilty to the charges and confessed to knowing about the scandal at least three months before it was made known to the rest of the board. Fonterra are at their hand-wringing best again: Fonterra [...]

It is good to see that some lawyers in China have finally taken the initiative and started a class-action lawsuit against SanLu, the company involved in the tainted milk scandal. Readers of this blog may remember that such lawsuits are virtually unheard of in China because they are generally actively discouraged by the authorities. It [...]

  The Herald has Keith Locke in damage control mode today as he tries to maintain that the Green’s “family” policy does not imply a move towards China’s “one child” policy. The Greens, of course do not have a family policy per se, they have a population policy. They are constitutionally incapable of thinking in [...]

SanLu is likely to face bankrupcy, making Fonterra’s stake (which was recently written down by $139 million to $62 million) increasingly dicey. One News reports: Industrial experts told the newspaper that it is unlikely a single company will be able to take over Sanlu as its debts total more than 700 million yuan  ($NZ169 million) [...]

And here are the first parents to sue SanLu for producing contaminated milk. There will be many more. It will be interesting how the Chinese government handle this. Will they allow legal action to proceed? Chinese law does not allow for compensation for pain and suffering, only for costs. This from the Christian Science Monitor: [...]

I have been crawling round the Chinese blogs all week, trying to find more information on the children effected by the Melamine milk contamination. Unfortunately, the Chinese authorities are immensely efficient at removing all references to the scandal. Mop.com ran a SanLu photoshop picture collection which was taken down by the next day. I particularly liked the [...]

Now there is a leaked memo from SanLu alleging that they were attempting a cover-up on the 11th August, nine days after the board was notified that there was melamine in SanLu’s milk. The memo recommended Sanlu “do anything to pacify victims, and accept all they want to keep them silent for at least two [...]