Dangerous food, drugs peddled in unregulated market, experts say Because of a legal and regulatory vacuum, social media in China have become a hotbed for the sale of fake and substandard food and drugs that pose a risk to people's health, experts said. Businesses enabled by social media, such as WeChat, Sina Weibo and livestreaming platforms - known as social commerce - have prospered in recent years in China, with an estimated market value of 360 billion yuan ($52.7 billion) last year, according to the Internet Society of China. "It now employs more than 15 million people and is growing rapidly," said Yu Lijuan, head of the society's social commerce division. Of the products sold via social media, food and drugs were the second-largest category, at 36 percent, behind cosmetics and beauty products, the society found. According to Li Min, a division director of the Beijing Food and Drug Administration, some social media merchants take advantage of the lack of regulation to profit from substandard products - primarily via WeChat, which has 800 million users. Current food and drug safety laws and regulations cover e-commerce transacted via major platforms like Taobao, while social media channels have been mostly off the regulatory radar. "As the communication there is highly personal and private, it's hard to detect and regulate, and that poses health risks to the public," he said. The municipal FDA formed a special division in 2015 to oversee food and drug safety online. Last year, it launched a cleanup campaign against social media sales of botulinum toxin (Botox is one well-known brand), a popular cosmetic injection for reduction of facial wrinkles. Much of it was substandard and not approved by the drug authorities, Li said. In June last year, in Huaihua, Hunan province, an operation making and selling fake health food for weight loss was broken up by police. The suspects added the slimming drug sibutramine to products marketed as natural health food. Some buyers were poisoned by overdoses, said Yi Hanzhong, deputy head of the city's public security bureau. The fake products seized were valued at more than 100 million yuan and sold in 10 provinces, he said. Yu, of the internet society, urged the government to devise systems to manage the problem. China is in the process of developing its first e-commerce law, and "social commerce should be governed by that as well", Yu said. design your own wristbandjordan wristband rubberblack rubber wristbands
A researcher works at the State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The lab, established by the university and the Fourth Military Medical University in Shaanxi province, is the epitome of cross-boundary research collaboration. [Photo by Roy Liu/China Daily] Experts are calling for greater cooperation to boost scientific development, as Wang Yuke reports from Hong Kong. Greater cooperation in science and technology between Hong Kong and the mainland will maximize the strengths of both sides, according to Joseph Sung Jaoyiu, a leading biomedical scientist in the city. Sung welcomed a recent instruction issued by President Xi Jinping calling for enhanced collaboration in science and technology between the mainland and Hong Kong, and supporting the city's aim of becoming an international center for innovative technologies. President Xi's instruction opens a door for Hong Kong scientists and researchers, said Sung, a former vice-chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. It gives our research jobs flexibility. Easy transportation between Hong Kong and Guangdong province facilitates exchanges between Hong Kong and mainland researchers. In future, research teams in Hong Kong could apply for State funding directly without having to team up with mainland researchers. While Hong Kong has a number of advantages in terms of scientific research and development across a range of disciplines, researchers from the city often struggle to access funding and other forms of financial support to sustain their projects. Though some obtain research funding from the local government, the sums are sometimes far from enough to carry out costly projects. As a result, we can only produce research papers or sell our patents, Sung said. This is not the case on the mainland, where institutes and enterprises have large research and development budgets that we cannot match. Hong Kong scientists and researchers will now be able to secure national funding and support, as long as the project includes experts both from Hong Kong and the mainland. Sung and his team were among the first beneficiaries, having been granted 990,000 yuan ($155,828) at the end of last year for research into digestive cancers.
