There are fears for the safety of a woman campaigning about China’s defective vaccines, with activists saying she has been missing for more than 40 days. Authorities have been clamping down on families demanding redress over hundreds of thousands of doses issued by the government.
Following revelations in July that a state-sponsored vaccine program had been using faulty serum, Tan Hua (譚華), 38 had been organizing parents calling for compensation and changes to how health authorities manage vaccines.
Changsheng Biotechnology Co Ltd (長生生物), based in China’s northern province of Jilin, was found to have sold 250,000 defective vaccines. It also fabricated inspections dating back to 2014.
Another major vaccine maker, the state-owned Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd (武漢生物製品研究所), was also producing faulty inoculations for infants.
Tan, who claims she was the victim of a defective rabies vaccine in 2014 and has been protesting for years, was among a group of at least nine other protesters who were detained after attempting to protest in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in early September.
“Some 10 or 20 men in plain clothes surrounded us and caught Tan Hua,” said He Fangmei (何芳美), another campaigner, who was there. “I was trying to make calls to other activists for help.”
He, who said her daughter became partially paralyzed after receiving one of the substandard vaccines discovered this year, was sent back to her home.
Unlike the others who were released or whose family has received notice of their detention, there has been no news of Tan since she was taken away on Sept. 3. She reportedly has epilepsy and other health problems and had been seeking disability compensation in Beijing.
Authorities have tried to respond swiftly to the latest vaccine scandal, firing senior officials in the Chinese Food and Drug Administration and detaining the chairwoman of Changsheng, as well as more than a dozen other employees.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said the government would “investigate to the end” and “effectively respond to the concerns of the people.”
Yet parents who have become vocal, calling for a vaccine law or more information about vaccine safety, have come under pressure.
“That the [Chinese Communist] party would rather lock up a victim of a very scandal its trying to fix shows it still doesn’t know how to protect social-economic rights,” said Frances Eve, a campaigner with the advocacy group Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
A WeChat group of about 300 parents, advocates and vaccine victims, used to mobilize protest, has been censored, He said.
He and others have halted their activities since the detentions.
“Our group of activists is like a plate of scattered sand. Some have been beaten. Some have been detained. Some are terrified. I will of course keep fighting for my daughter, but to be honest, I have no idea what to do,” she said.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS