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The plan reminds me so much of the educational policy undertaken by some schools in Hong Kong, regarding the implementation of Putongua teaching in almost all classes. Well, I do believe learning the language will increase the competitiveness of the nation, but it should not be considered the “primary language” (just as putongua should never be the “primary language” of hong kong — the region should retain its distinctive local culture). The policy should also be implemented slowly.

 

Further recognition of Chinese in Panama

PANAMA SCHOOLS TO TEACH CHINESE

Panama is moving to make the teaching of Mandarin compulsory in all schools, in recognition of China’s growing importance in the world economy.

The Panamanian National Assembly has given conditional approval to the bill in the first of three debates.

The bill’s supporters say boosting the number of Chinese speakers will help increase Panama’s competitiveness.

China is the biggest single user of the Panama Canal that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

The bill’s supporters recognise that English is the international language of business but say that with China’s increasing economic influence, Mandarin is set to be an indispensable language.

Panama has important commercial links with China, with bilateral trade running at $1bn (£500m).

The Central American nation also has diplomatic links with Taiwan, one of the few countries to do so.

The proposed legislation sets out a timeframe of 10 years for Mandarin to be taught in all schools.

The legislation proposes allowing the immigration of specialist Chinese teachers to help train local teachers.

 

Widened waterway

During its maiden voyage, The Scholar Ship sailed through the Panama Canal, and yes, one remark by student onlookers was that the canal was too narrow for its own good. I just wonder what the Scholar Ship students would say about this project ….

 

Latest news about Panama Canal

Shipyards urged to tap wider Panama Canal

Chinese shipyards have been urged to tap an opportunity thrown up by a project to widen the Panama Canal to design new vessels which use the waterway, according to an industry executive. Work on the US$5.25-billion expansion started in September, and is expected to be completed in August 2014, in time for the centenary of the opening of the world’s most famous waterway. The expansion will create a third set of larger locks of 55 meters wide against 33.5 meters now, and once completed is expected to result in the most cost-effective way to move freight in and out of the United States Midwest. Shipyards in China, which is the largest exporter of sea-borne goods to the United States and a rising shipbuilding power, should quickly take advantage of this new opportunity, said David Tozer, business manager for container ships at Lloyd’s Register, a global ship classification society. A study by Lloyd’s Register and Ocean Shipping Consultants has identified potential designs for “New Panamax” container ships with load capacities of at least 12,500 twenty-foot equivalent units but still capable of sailing through the canal, post 2014. “Any owner who has an NPX ship in 2014 will make a lot of money. They will be ahead of the market,” Tozer told Shanghai Daily in a recent interview. “To order an NPX vessel for delivery in 2014, you need to consider the design now. This is a real opportunity for China’s yards.” The cost of moving goods in an NPX-sized vessel will be about eight percent higher than by ultra-large container ships with capacities of up to 14,000 TEU, Tozer said. But ULCS will not be able to pass through the expanded waterway. “The Chinese ship designers need to be considering NPX design standards (now),” he said. “They should be speaking to ship owners and the Panama Canal Authority about the possibility of (building and designing) bigger ships.” More than 190 ships, each with a capacity of more than 10,000 TEUs, are now on the global order books, half of which have been ordered since May, Tozer said. Only a few of these vessels will not be able to transit via the widened canal, and most will be built by South Korean shipbuilders. The Panama Canal expansion is expected to greatly change the pattern of sea-borne world trade, maritime experts said. An official at the China Classification Society, which plans to set up a representative office in Panama next year, said Chinese shipyards have started looking at various factors in designing vessels that can sail through the widened Panama Canal. The society provides services related to classification, safety, quality and risk management for the global shipbuilding industry. Lloyd’s Register has won contracts with Chinese yards to classify new vessels with a total capacity of 8.5 million gross tons in the first 10 months of this year, a sharp jump from 1.6 million gross tons for the whole of 2006, a Hong Kong-based spokesman said. An expanded canal could also be positive to China, the waterway’s second biggest user, industry experts pointed out. For example, it would enhance the nation’s energy security. A wider waterway will help reduce freight costs for the country to ship crude oil from South American countries such as Venezuela, which has agreed to increase oil supply to China. It would take only 24 days to transport crude from Venezuela to China using the Panama Canal against the 45 days sailing the Atlantic Ocean-Indian Ocean route now, industry officials say. The 80-kilometer-long canal, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, was built by the United States which handed it over to Panama in 1999. The canal handles around five percent of the world’s trade. Around two-thirds of the cargo that passed through the canal is headed to or from the US. (Shanghai Daily December 6, 2007)

 

poison …

While the abundance of articles on poisoned toothpastes from China reflect badly on the country, and the could be a political reason behind the proliferation of such attention to these incidents, one must admit that more stringent controls and monitoring are necessary in China. This is not only about toothpastes. People in Hong Kong remember those China-made toys and accessories which really give a bad name to the country …. Let’s hope that similar things wont happen in the future.

 

Panama spits out ‘poison’ Chinese toothpaste

A brighter smile with diethylene glycol

By Lester Haines → More by this author

Published Tuesday 22nd May 2007 13:47 GMT

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Two brands of Chinese-made toothpastes were last week pulled from shelves in Panama after authorities discovered they contained potentially-fatal diethylene glycol, AP reports.

Diethylene glycol is commonly used as a cheap substitute for glycerine, and in this case apparently to prevent the offending toothpastes from drying out.

In large doses it can be fatal, as attested by the deaths of around 50 people in Panama last year who drank a cough medicine which, instead of pharmaceutical grade glycerine, used diethylene glycol as the suspension agent.

In this case, however, the diethylene glycol was apparently clearly labelled on the “Excel” and “Mr Cool” toothpastes, supplied by the Hengxiang-based Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co. After a sharp-eyed customer spotted the offending ingredient, University of Panama experts confirmed it comprised around 2.5 per cent of the toothpastes – not considered enough to pose a health risk, but sufficient to provoke the powers that be to warn consumers off the products.

Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co’s general manager Chen Yaozu confirmed to AP that his firm had exported toothpaste containing diethylene glycol to Panama, but said the chemical was “permitted under Chinese rules and was safe in small amounts”. He added: “I can say I am very confident about our product’s quality.”

If Chen’s confidence is justified, then he has nothing to fear from a Chinese probe aimed at cleaning up the image of the country’s related export markets – valued at $30bn. An unnamed official at the Danyang branch of China’s food and drug inspection agency “confirmed the investigation into the toothpaste suppliers, but gave no details”.

The Panamanian toothpaste scare is just the latest in a long line of diethylene glycol-based health alerts. Back in 1937, the Elixir Sulfanilamide Incident claimed more than 100 lives in 15 US states, prompting the rapid introduction of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

In 1990 diethylene glycol killed 339 Bangladeshi children who took a paracetamol syrup containing contaminated glycerine, while a similar product did for 85 Haitian kids in 1995-6.

In case you were wondering just how nasty diethylene glycol can be, the Haitian cases were mostly characterised by “nonspecific febrile prodromal illness followed within two weeks by anuric renal failure, pancreatitis, hepatitis, and neurologic dysfunction progressing to coma”. ®

 

Toxic medicine in Panama traced to China

updated 12:21 p.m. ET May 6, 2007

NEW YORK – A Chinese factory was the source of a counterfeit chemical that killed dozens of people in Panama after it was used in human medications, a newspaper reported.

The New York Times reported in its Sunday editions that records and interviews revealed the poison was first sold by Chinese companies that exported it as 99.5 percent pure glycerin. The source of the chemical was then obscured as middlemen in Spain and Panama removed the names of their suppliers from shipping documents — a practice used by distributors to ensure continued business.

Panama’s government health agency used the substance to produce medicines, not realizing that it was diethylene glycol, a chemical cousin of antifreeze that can cause kidney and neurological damage if ingested.

The Times said investigators in four countries identified Taixing Glycerine Factory as the maker of the poison. That company’s certificate of analysis said the shipment was 99.5 percent pure, the Times reported.

The sale of the syrup was brokered by a unit of a state-owned business in Beijing, the article said. From there, it went to a distributor in Barcelona, Spain, and on to a dealer in Panama.

No one in China has been charged with causing the Panamanian deaths. An unidentified Chinese drug official told the Times that investigators tested the Taixing Glycerine Factory’s product and found it contained no glycerine. But a spokeswoman for the drug agency said the company had not broken any laws.

Wan Qigang, the legal representative for the factory, told the Times last year that the company made only industrial-grade glycerin. But more recently it has been advertising 99.5 percent pure glycerine on the Internet, the Times said. Wan declined to answer further questions.

Concerns about the safety of imports from China rose in the U.S. after pet food containing a Chinese ingredient was found to be tainted with another industrial chemical, melamine. The poison has killed or sickened an unknown number of dogs and cats and led to the recall of more than 100 brands of pet food.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

China’s defense

China blames mislabelling for Panama drug deaths

Thu May 31, 2007 6:03am EDT

BEIJING, May 31 (Reuters) – China said on Thursday that two Chinese companies had mislabelled a toxic chemical as a medical ingredient that killed at least 100 people in Panama last year, but added direct responsibility rested with Panamanian traders.

A Chinese company shipped 11,349 kg of “TD” glycerine to Spain in 2003, where it was then sold on to Panama, said Wei Chuanzhong, deputy head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

But that product actually contained 15 percent diethylene glycol — an industrial solvent used in paint and antifreeze — he added.

Glycerine is a similar but more expensive compound frequently used as syrup in medicines and in toothpaste.

Once in Panama, the product was renamed by Panamanian merchants as “pure glycerine” and they also tweaked the expiry date to indicate it would be valid for an extra three years, and sold it on, Wei added.

“By the time the Panama drug manufacturer used the chemical, it had been expired for two years,” he said.

Panama says the chemical was used to make cough syrup, which then killed at least 100 people.

 

Hello world!

This is the first and foremost website started by a Chinese-Panamanian, aimed to cover all kinds of matters pertaining to the relationships between China and Panama, be they social, historical, economic, literary, or very often, a mixture of all these. Please bookmark this site, and stay tuned for updates.