The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Japan met Monday for a second closed-door session to hammer out a response to North Korea’s weekend rocket launch in defiance of international opposition. But, as happened on Sunday following a called emergency session, there was no official statement from the council. Security Council Resolution 1718 was unanimously adopted in 2006, imposing a series of economic and commercial sanctions on North Korea. The resolution called for Pyongyang to conduct no further nuclear tests and to suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program, including launches.
However, not all Security Council members are onboard with Japan and the West. Russia and China are pushing for a technical assessment of the rocket launch before further actions are undertaken.
Earlier Monday, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said it was important to avoid an “emotional knee-jerk reaction because what we do need is common strategy and not losing sight of the goal — and this is the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”

Russia and China are not fully behind the US and Japan in this area, partially because they do not quite like the concept of seeming to act to further the interests of the US. As a result, they will stick to the stand that if the North Koreans were seen to be launching a satellite, then there is no need to take any action.

In “Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network,” issued over the weekend, the Canadian researchers say that the GhostNet comprises 1,295 infected computers in 103 countries, almost one third of them being “high-value targets, including ministries of foreign affairs, embassies, international organizations, news media, and NGOs.”
The breaches tended to stem from a so-called social-engineering exploit, in which targets in the Tibetan community were sent an e-mail that appeared to be from the address campaigns@freetibet.org and that carried an attached Word document titled “Translation of Freedom Movement ID Book for Tibetans in Exile”–and that Word document was infected with the malicious code. The University of Cambridge report, “The snooping dragon: social-malware surveillance of the Tibetan movement,” doesn’t refrain from charging that the Chinese government was directing malware attacks: “(I)t was a targeted surveillance attack designed to collect actionable intelligence for use by the police and security services of a repressive state, with potentially fatal consequences for those exposed.”

These incidents are also warnings to Governments about how their infrastructural systems are only as strong as their weakest links. One node in the system getting hacked can lead into other nodes also falling, and lead to a risk that the entire system is being compromised. In the current system, it was also found that the exploit had the powers to turn on the voice recording and the camera systems of the infected computer, leading to a spying of the proceedings happening in front of the computer.

Next, there were more damaging reports that this contamination was known earlier but was repressed by Chinese authorities to ensure that the Beijing Olympics were not disturbed (a truly diabolical choice, and possible only in a dictatorship such as China where the press cannot report on such things if the censors don’t pass it). However, this is not the end. Imagine the case where this melamine was also added to animal feed (and China exports a large amount of animal products):

Chinese regulators are widening their investigation into contaminated food amid growing signs that the toxic industrial chemical melamine has leached into the nation’s animal feed supplies, posing health risks to consumers. The announcement came after food safety tests earlier this week found that eggs produced in three different provinces in China were contaminated with melamine, which is blamed for causing kidney stones and renal failure in infants. The tests have led to recalls of eggs and consumer warnings.
The cases are fueling global concerns about Chinese food. In Hong Kong, food safety officials announced this week that they would begin testing a wider variety of foods for melamine, including vegetables, flour and meat products. On the mainland, Shanghai and other cities are moving aggressively to test a wide variety of food products for melamine, including fish and livestock feed, according to the state-run news media, which has in recent days carried multiple reports on melamine in animal feed. In the United States, worried consumers frantically e-mailed one another on Thursday and Friday about the possibility of melamine-tainted Halloween treats following a spate of news reports that some candies and chocolates made in China or with ingredients sourced in China had tested positive for high levels of melamine or been destroyed in recent weeks as a cautionary measure.

In the spate of a worldwide slow down in economies, such scandals about food can cause immense problems for China’s reputation with it getting a reputation as a place where quality can be compromised. Given that this relates to food stuffs, consumers would be even more worried, and if this relates to food stuff that children need and consume, parents would rather not take the risk. There are already news reports about large scale culling of chicken after it was discovered that eggs were contaminated with melamine.
In the past, China has already come under pressure to due to contamination / quality problems with children’s toys, pet food, seafood exports. In this particular case, a lot of the consumers are also perplexed as to what manner of manufacturer would contaminate food items with an industrial chemical, and there are increasing calls for greater restraint (in previous cases, politicians in the consuming countries have also got involved, with some bringing in the issue of Chinese products, that are contaminated, also causing the decimation of such manufacturing facilities in the respective countries).

The United States has sent detainees back to different countries for legal processes in their countries, but given the history of China’s efforts against separatism in its Xinjiang province, there is a huge amount of belief that these detainees will be tortured if they are sent to China.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a judge’s decision to immediately free 17 Chinese Muslims at Guantanamo Bay into the U.S. In a one-page order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued the emergency stay at the request of the Bush administration. The three-judge panel said it would postpone release of the detainees for at least another week to give the government more time to make arguments in the case. The appeals court set a deadline of next Thursday for additional filings but it is up to the judges to decide how quickly to act afterward.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration said it was continuing “heightened” efforts to find another country to accept the Uighurs, since the detainees might be tortured if they are turned over to China. “There are extensive efforts. We oppose the idea of their release here,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. The Justice Department criticized Urbina’s decision as undercutting immigration laws that dictate how foreigners should be brought into the country. It also cited security concerns over weapons training the Uighurs received at camps in Afghanistan. Such a potential security risk outweighs the inconvenience the detainees might suffer in waiting a while longer at Guantanamo, government lawyers contended.

In effect, since the detainees are not being accepted by any other country, and will not be sent to China, they have remained in prison for the last 4 years (after a determination that they can be released). The United States is also not willing to let them come into the country (from Guantanamo Bay where they are currently houses). A mighty complex issue.

British chocolate maker Cadbury on Monday became the latest foreign company to be hit by China’s tainted milk scandal, ordering a recall of its Chinese-made products after saying tests “cast doubt” on their safety. Two U.S. food makers were meanwhile investigating Indonesian claims that high traces of the industrial chemical melamine had been found in Chinese-made Oreos, M&Ms and Snickers, but stressed the same goods had tested negative in other Asian countries.

U.S. companies Kraft Foods Inc. and Mars Inc. said they would adhere to a recall order of Chinese-made Oreo wafers, M&Ms and Snickers in Indonesia, but said they wanted to conduct their own tests with outside experts. So far only a local agency has checked the products for melamine, but the levels found were considered very high.

Even now different companies are being strangely hesitant on taking actions that could impact their bottomline, after all, if these companies really cared for consumers, they would have carried out a voluntary inspection on their own and if their products carry melamine, withdraw them from the shelves. Instead, it seems that even though there is a high risk due to the milk products having been manufactured in China, the companies are hesitating in complying with Government orders to remove their products. They must be worried about the public perception if they carry out such a move, but it becomes far worse if they are seen to be dragging their feet in this respect.

China, embroiled in a tainted milk scandal that led to the deaths of four babies and sickened 53,000, suffered from a “deliberate failure” to report the contamination, the World Health Organization said today. “This incident was aggravated by delays in reporting at a number of sources,” Hans Troedsson, WHO’s China representative, told reporters in Beijing today. “These delays were probably a combination of ignorance and deliberate failure to report.”

The melamine-milk crisis has revived concerns about Chinese food-safety controls after previous scares over seafood, dumplings and pet food. The European Union yesterday proposed banning some Chinese dairy products, joining restrictions in more than 20 countries and markets after 22 mainland companies were found to have sold contaminated products. “Controls in China need to be reinforced,” EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said today in Beijing. “Above all, we expect responsibility from producers and managers in all companies involved in food production.’

This scandal is pushing beyond just milk, with products that use milk also getting affected. Chocolates, candies, yoghurt, ice cream, etc, are all under investigation in countries around the world. In some cases, melamine has been found in many of these products, and they have been pulled from the shelves. As a result, companies around the world have pulled China origin dairy products from stores in their countries, and many questions have been raised on the level of quality inspections in China. Coming soon after the Olympics gave a positive thumbs-up to China’s image, such a major scandal, that too affecting a food item, exposes the lack of quality control in the country’s industries, and has an immense potential to harm China’s exporting image.

Shop shelves in China and elsewhere are being cleared of popular dairy products after tests found contamination in regular milk as well as baby formula. Inspectors found that 10% of liquid milk from three of China’s dairies was tainted with melamine.
The scandal first came to light in milk powder that killed four infants and sickened more than 6,000 others. Suppliers are suspected of diluting milk to cut costs, then adding melamine to make it appear higher in protein. Melamine is an industrial chemical normally used in plastics, and is banned from food stuffs.

This is yet another problem over the quality levels of products made in China, and something that the Chinese Government would do well to repel with some fast action.

Chinese President Hu Jintao Saturday defended the crackdown on protests in Tibet and denied the disturbances were linked to human rights in his first public comments on the incident. Hu told Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd the unrest was aimed purely at “splitting the motherland” and insisted Beijing’s handling of unrest was its own affair, according to state media.
“It is a problem (of) either safeguarding national unification or splitting the motherland,” he said on the southern island of Hainan. “The Tibet problem is entirely an internal issue of China.” Exiled Tibetan leaders say Beijing’s suppression of the rare protests, which began last month, left about 150 dead. Hu, whose officials say only that Tibetan “rioters” left 20 dead, maintained the response was justified.

The steps that China has taken are typical; stop all reporting out of Tibet, prevent outsiders from reaching there; try to implement a total breakdown; blame Tibetans for the violence, and then claim that nobody outside has any right to say anything. And the sad truth is, China is now so powerful economically that nobody will be able to say what they want.

Tibet was hit by a fresh wave of violence Friday as protests by hundreds of Buddhist monks and other residents against Chinese rule resulted in burned shops, vandalized police vehicles and at least 10 deaths, government officials and witnesses said. American citizens in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, reported rioting and gunfire, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said in a warning to stay away from the city, which has seen several days of anti-Chinese protests.
“There’s smoke and flames coming from the old city, but I can’t tell what’s going on since soldiers have surrounded the area,” said one Lhasa resident by telephone, who declined to be identified because of fear of repercussions. A tour guide surnamed Zhu, who wouldn’t give his first name, said there was a police and military crackdown underway, particularly in the area around Jokhang Temple. He said he could see dozens of military vehicles. Tibet is among the most tightly controlled areas in China. Protests first flared March 10, when monks took to the streets to mark the anniversary of a 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. Communist Chinese troops seized control of Tibet in 1950.

China has enforced the regular tactics. There is a total cut-off of information flow with journalists no longer being allowed there; and of course, it is out of the question that people in the mainland will be able to see what is going on. The thing that has changed from previous times is the spread of information technology, and it is now a fight between the efforts of Chinese censors and the Government to implement control and the use of technology to get information out. In the short run, China will win. Western Governments are too tightly involved with the Chinese Government and its economy to raise much of a stink, but at some point, freedom will prevail.

Hours before trick-or-treaters began going door to door, the government warned consumers Wednesday that fake Halloween teeth sold by the tens of thousands since last year contain excessive amounts of lead. The agency estimates that since January 2006, retailers have sold 43,000 eight-piece packages of the party favors.
Also Wednesday, Toys “R” Us recalled about 16,000 Chinese-made Elite Operations toys because of lead contamination, the commission said. The recall included four Elite Operations toy sets: the Command Patrol Center, the Barracuda Helicopter, the Super Rigs set and a three-pack of 8-inch figures. No other Elite Operations toys are included in the recall. The toys were sold at Toys “R” Us stores and on toysrus.com between July and October.
The commission also announced recalls of 380,000 Galaxy Warriors figurines and 1,500 SimplyFun Ribbit board games, both for lead-contaminated surface paints. The figurines were manufactured in China and distributed by Henry Gordy International. The board games were manufactured in China and imported and distributed by SimplyFun.

This is very scary; there is bound to be an overall suspicion about the quality of toys made in China, and the level of quality control. China has not helped matters by sometimes reacting angrily about the media focus on these recalls; such anger has no effect on the media, and does not improve the image in any way.