On this episode of China Uncensored,
I know how much you trust the label Made in China.
Well, that same great quality is soon coming to
the drugs you get at your local pharmacy.
And you might not have a choice
Welcome back to China Uncensored,
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
China wants to sell drugs to Americans.
I mean, sure,
they’re already selling drugs to Americans.
But I’m talking about selling legit drugs, like vaccines.
And not just to Americans, but to the entire world.
It’s part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s plan called Made in China 2025.
The goal is to make you have the opposite reaction
to Made in China that you do right now.
According to this report from the US Chamber of Commerce,
China’s goal for 2020 is to have “at least 100 pharmaceutical enterprises
obtain US, EU, Japanese, World Health Organization authentication
and achieve product export.”
Plus get “3-5 new biotech drugs, complete drug registration in Europe,
[the] US and other developed nations,
[and] speed up the development of internationalization of
domestically produced drugs.”
In other words, get the world to buy drugs Made in China.
And before 2020,
their goal is to take over 90% of generic drug production.
But there’s a problem:
That is, that initial gut reaction you had to “made in China,”
is still the right reaction to have right now.
You see, drugs made in China have been known to have a few problems.
Earlier this month,
a Chinese pharmaceutical company recalled
a heart drug it sold in the US because...
it may cause cancer.
“European regulators said the problem likely dates
to changes in manufacturing processes
at Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical in 2012,
suggesting that many patients could potentially
have been exposed to cancer risk.”
I mean, heart disease or cancer.
It’s like the world’s worst choose your own adventure novel.
The drug is called Valsartan.
It was one of those blockbuster drugs that went off patent
and a Chinese pharmaceutical company
started producing a generic version.
And this has been a bad month for Chinese drug makers.
Because now...
“...Police in China are probing Chinese biotech firm
Changsheng Bio-technology for allegedly faking documents
related to a rabies vaccine given to babies.”
Now I know what you’re thinking,
babies with rabies?
Is that really a thing?
Well, I think it was the inspiration for this statue in Norway.
The rabies vaccine was part of a state-sponsored vaccine program,
using vaccines specifically from Changsheng Bio-technology.
Only one problem though.
Well, several problems.
One is that Changsheng
had given out more than a hundred thousand doses
of a rabies vaccine for which it falsified data.
Another is, it had to recall more than
a quarter million other faulty DPT vaccines.
And also, according to internal documents,
Changsheng sold vaccines worth about 5 million dollars
to “more than ten countries like India, Cambodia, Nigeria,
Egypt, Belarus and some other European, African,
Middle Eastern and South American countries.”
Though there is no indication that any of the bad vaccines
were shipped to those countries.
So far, 15 people have been arrested in the scandal,
including the chairwoman of Changsheng.
The scandal was first exposed by an anonymous post on WeChat.
It was quickly deleted by Chinese censors of course,
but it lives on through the Ethereum blockchain.
“The incident has sparked one of the country’s
largest public outcries in years,
one that officials and censors have struggled to contain.”
But that doesn’t mean they didn’t try!
According to Weiboscope,
a censorship monitoring project at the University of Hong Kong,
“vaccine” was one of the most restricted words
on the Chinese version of Twitter.
After all, as my favorite Chinese state-run media the Global Times said,
“If nothing is done to manage online public discourse,
it could become a festering gateway leading the country
towards chaos and creating serious unpredictability.”
Wow, a festering gateway?
Sounds like the Chinese internet could use a vaccination.
State-run People’s Daily said the bad vaccines were safe,
just ineffective.
What a relief!
“Safe” means the vaccines didn’t directly cause harm.
Not “safe” as in you thought you were immunized for a disease
that you’re actually still in danger of getting.
Even so, people found out about it, and were not happy.
Things that hurt kids tend to generate a lot of outrage in China.
In fact, the outrage has been so intense,
Chinese leader Xi Jinping had to respond directly,
which almost never happens.
One Chinese woman called them all devils in hell, which is really rude.
While others were kind of beaten down by the futility of it all.
“If we can’t even guarantee the basics of vaccine protection
for our children,
is there any difference between getting a vaccine or not?
(Getting one) may even affect your kid’s health.”
“Why is this such a long-term problem?
(There’ve been similar health scares) in 2003, 2006, and 2013.
This has happened many times in China.”
Just for clarity, 2003 was when the Chinese Communist Party
tried to cover up the deadly outbreak of SARS.
2006 I’m pretty sure refers to the beginning of what became
the 2008 tainted milk scandal,
when officials tried to cover up the tainted milk powder
that killed 6 infants and sickened 300,000 others.
And 2013 might refer to when seven babies died
after getting a bad hepatitis vaccine...
although after an investigation,
Chinese officials said the deaths were unrelated to the vaccines.
She should have been a bit more specific.
And really, she should have also mentioned the 2010 case
of unrefrigerated vaccines that killed four children.
Or the time in 2015 when hundreds of children
were sickened by expired vaccines.
Or the giant scandal in 2016,
...that involved 24 provinces, 29 pharmaceutical firms,
16 health departments, and more than 300 officials.
In that incident, a woman was selling expired vaccines
that she bought for cheap from a bunch of licensed
and unlicensed agents, and then—
with the help of local officials—
sold them across China.
Police discovered the stash of expired vaccines
in an unrefrigerated abandoned factory.
And then the government took action—
by covering it up for a year.
I mean yes,
this woman could have mentioned those other times,
but there’s so many, who can keep track?
But remember,
China wants to sell vaccines around the world
as part of the Made in China 2025 plan.
The problem is,
now people in China don’t even want to buy Chinese vaccines.
And that’s why Chinese state-run media wants you to know:
Chinese vaccines are definitely safe.
“Are China’s vaccines safe?
Amid widespread public concern and questions from the media
the World Health Organization expressed
its confidence in China’s vaccines.”
“The Chinese National Regulatory Authority for Vaccines
is known to regulate at international standards.”
So, I guess the World Health Organization
is going to be on board with China selling vaccines around the world.
That sounds...great.
So how do you feel about China’s plan to sell you vaccines?
Well, guess what?
No one cares.
Because of how the pharmaceutical industry works,
you usually have no idea where your drugs are actually manufactured.
You just pick up the prescription at a pharmacy.
So...if that bothers you,
you might want to be concerned about China becoming,
“a major player in the global pharmaceutical industry.”
And before you go,
it’s that time on the show when I answer a question
from a fan who supports China Uncensored
on the crowd funding website Patreon.
Spartaner 251 asks, “hey Chris,
what's the situation on the indian - chinese border ?”
Great!
The border is great.
The border is very tranquil.
As I’m sure you saw on last week’s episode,
the Chinese military has built a potential nuclear missile garrison
in Sichuan province,
not too far from the border between China and India.
At least it’s not far, as the missile flies.
And, according to a US official,
but denied by the Indian government,
China may be resuming activity in that disputed territory.
In any event,
you ought to stay tuned to China Uncensored
to find out if anything big happens.
Thanks for your question, Spartaner.
And remember, if you want to have your question answered on air,
you have to be a patron.
China Uncensored is funded almost entirely by patrons
who contribute a dollar or more per episode
on the crowd funding website Patreon.
Answering your questions is one of the ways I say thank you.
So if you can,
please consider supporting the show.
Every bit helps.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again I’m your host Chris Chappell,
see you next time.
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