China CSR Watch

By China CSR Watch (www.csrcsr.com)

In June 2007, Greenpeace announced that its research has found GE food produced by Japanese food producer Glico and German retail chain Metro. The environmental group criticized the two companies for having a double-standard policy, and demanded them to adopt a non-GE policy in China. Both companies adopt a non-GE policy in their own countries. Glico publicly announced its global non-GE policy the next day.

This was not the first time for Greenpeace to target multinational companies in China on GE double standard charges.

In 2003, Greenpeace accused Nestle of GE violation and consumer sued Nestle subsequently. In 2005, Greenpeace’s publicity campaign on Kraft Food’s GE products in China has pushed Kraft to adopt a non-GE policy in mainland China starting from January 2007.

However, most processed food products are not required to label their GE ingredients under the current Chinese regulation.

Sources:
Green Peace: http://www.greenpeace.org/china/en/press/release/gp-found-gefood
National Business Today: http://finance.sina.com.cn/xiaofei/puguangtai/20050316/01531432293.shtml
Sina.com: http://finance.sina.com.cn/focus/wqzjy/index.shtml
Biosino.org: http://www.biosino.org/law/law59.htm

By China CSR Watch (www.csrcsr.com)

Alibaba.com, a leading business-to-business e-commerce website in China that is 40% owned by Yahoo!, was criticized for allowing online trading of shark fins.

“Alibaba, which has more than 180 companies engaged in buying or selling shark fins, is “the New York Stock Exchange of shark fins,” quoted in the Business Week report on July 20th.

“Yahoo’s response to the news report was, ‘We know the sale of shark products is both legal in Asia and a centuries-old tradition. This issue is largely a cultural-practices one’”, according to ViceZilla’s Views.

Many shark fin traders can still be found at Alibaba.com as of July 23rd.

Sources (in Chinese and English):
Sina News: http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2007-07-21/11351628915.shtml
Business Week: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2007/gb20070720_756191.htm
Alibaba: http://www.alibaba.com/buyeroffers/Shark.html
ViceZilla’s Views: http://vicezilla.com/views/index.php/2007/06/28/yahoo_has_1_billion_dollar_stake_in_succ
Stop Shark Finning: http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/

By China CSR Watch (www.csrcsr.com)

Exactly half a year after a blog entry advocating the removal of Starbucks from the Forbidden City by Rui Chenggang, a famouse TV news anchorman, the global coffee giant finally closed its Forbidden City branch on July 13th.

This single blog entry was read more than 560,000 times and attracted more than 2800 comments. The story also made a front cover story on Fortune magazine and roused worldwide debate on culture and globalization.

Starbucks first opened it Forbidden City store seven years ago.

“Starbucks is the vehicle and symbol of American cuisine. It may be ok for Starbucks to open a branch near Forbidden City, but not inside the Forbidden City to be part of our collective memory on this sacred place. This is not globalization. This is culture invasion,” states Mr. Rui in his January 12th blog.

Sources (in Chinese and English):
Rui Chenggang’s blog:
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/4adabe27010008yg
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/4adabe2701000am6
Fortune: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100034253/index.htm
Beijing Morning Post: http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-07-14/031012201426s.shtml