Cheating and academic dishonesty have proven to be really difficult issues to deal with in China. A female sophomore student at Shenyang Agricultural Univeristy in Shanghai just won a lawsuit reversing her expulsion for an admitted act of cheating on an English test. (China Daily 8/11) She apparently used her cell phone to get answers from a classmate. What’s interesting about this is that the court did find that the cheating occurred but that the punishment was too harsh and not applied in accordance with university procedures.

I have heard of other instances like this before, when students were caught cheating, the university expelled them, and a court then reversed the decision. Of course, in the U.S., expulsion would be an automatic consequences and a court would rarely second-guess such decisions (or these cases would probably not get litigated).

It’s ironic in some ways that the courts appear to be more sympathetic to students on such issues than to more serious human rights issues. Or maybe, these cases are won because they are less controversial and don’t really raise serious challenges to government power.

Tomorrow was supposed to have been the first-ever auction at which the State Forestry Association would have sold permits to hunt various species, some of which are protected under Chinese law. However, after public protests, the auction has been postponed indefintely. (SCMP 8/12, Xinhua 8/12).

The news is interesting in showing some responsiveness to environmental concerns by the public. It’ll be interesting to see whether the postponement is really a cancelation or truly just a postponement.

I have created a separate blog, http://lawjobs.blogspot.com, to which I will be posting legal positions, internship openings, and other opportunities of interest to law students and lawyers. These matters have been cluttering up this blog, and I will no longer post such matters here.

A bad batch of an injectible antibiotic called Xinfu (clindamycin phosphate glucose) appears to have killed 13 people in China. (SCMP 8/10/2006). Inexplicably, the official government toll is 7 in the provinces Hunan, Sichuan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Shaanxi, and Hubei provinces. (Xinhua 8/10). There have also been severe adverse reactions in more than 80 patients. (Xinhua 8/9). Of course, the government has denied any cover-up. The company responsible for the bad antibiotic, Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co, has been ordered by the State Food and Drug Administration to recall all of the products, but millions of units are outstanding.

The government’s handling of this matter raises questions about how truthful and open about the extent of such emergencies and its own handling of them, similar to the handling of SARS a couple of years back and the cover-up of the Songhua river spill. The extent of such drug safety problems are not new. There have been serious incidents involving fake drugs as well as contaminated foods in the past.

What is particularly interesting, I think, is the parallel to the environmental area. There, the regulatory system has also badly failed the public. Yet, for both, drug safety and pollution control, the central government appears to have made significant statements of concern and sems to take the issue seriously. In fact, officials statements calling for more inspection and enforcement, as well as blaming the problems on “local protectionism” sounds awfully much like the rethoric on environmental matters. (Xinhua 8/9)

Please see http://unfccc.int/secretariat/employment/vacancies/items/1216.php

The application deadline is September 18, 2006.

With the help of Lori of our IT Department, I have been revamping my personal website at Vermont Law School (http://www.vermontlaw.edu/faculty/tyang). It is still a work in progress, so some parts of the web have not been changed/updated, yet. However, on one of the web pages, the beginning of each of my Citizen Yang blog entry will be excerpted. Hopefully, this should make the blog accessible to folks in places where blogspot is blocked.

An AP report last week that discussed the China’s trans-Pacific contribution U.S. air pollution made for an angry reaction by a SEPA official. According to EPA estimates, on any given day, 25% to 33% of Los Angeles particulate matter air pollution originates from China. Li Xinmin, director of the Pollution Control Department of SEPA, said that such assertions were “irresponsible.” (SCMP 8/4/2006 & Xinhua 8/4).

This little dispute is only the latest fall-out from issues of trans-Pacific air pollution. Last spring US EPA Administrator Steve Johnson, while on a visit to China, said that part of US mercury pollution originated from China. Chinese media took that to mean that the US was blaming China for its mercury pollution problems. Johnson had to do some mighty back-pedalling. The story went pretty much unreported in the US.

Also, in another demonstration of the ferocity of public “campaigns” in China – about 50,000 dogs were slaughtered in Yunnan province (in southern China) after 3 people died of rabies. (NY Times 8/2 and SCMP 8/4) According to the AP, dogs were taken from their owners, even while they were being walked, and beaten to death. After 5 days, only police and military dogs had been spared. In fact, the SCMP reported today also that Jining City in Shandong Province would engage in a similar extermination campaign since 16 people in the city have died of Rabies over the last 8 months. The city has about 500,000 dogs.

For details, see http://www.fordfound.org/employment/jobdetail.cfm?id=128 . Deadline is 10/20/2006.

SEPA announced yesterday that they will open 11 new regional offices (including 6 offices focused on radiation safety). (Link to SEPA (Chinese) announcement, and Xinhua article.) At a minimum, there’ll be better communication and information flow between provincial/local events and Beijing. But unless the creation of the regional offices comes with increased staffing, resources, and authority, it’s not clear how much of a difference these changes will make in terms of regulatory implementation and enforcement.