China sentences Australian CEO for embezzlement

Australian businessman, Matthew Ng, detained in southern China, has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for embezzlement and bribery. Ng plans to appeal the sentence which was handed down by the Guangzhou Intermediate Court, according to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Ng is CEO of Et-China, a travel services company reportedly embroiled in a dispute with a local Chinese partner. The Australian government said that Prime Minister Julia Gillard had raised Ng’s case with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April of last year and that other Australian officials discussed it several times with their Chinese counterparts. It is reported that the chairman of Ng’s company, Zheng Hong, was sentenced to 16 years in jail and Et-China’s chief financial officer, Kitty Yang, was given 3½ years, both on related embezzlement and corporate charges.

Taiwan bans shark finning

From the beginning of 2012, Taiwan will become the first Asian region to implement a ban on shark finning. The island, which has the fourth largest shark-fishing industry in the world, already bars Taiwanese fishermen from tossing sharks back into the water to die after slicing off the fin and are required instead to ship back the carcass. The practice of cutting off the fins and throwing the bodies back into the sea has been blamed for the 80% drop in shark populations.

Official stresses popular education on law

A senior Chinese official has stressed popular education on laws and regulations among the general public on China’s National Day on Law Popularisation which falls on 4 December each year. Chen Changzhi, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, made the remark at a symposium held in Beijing to mark the occasion. Chen said educating people on laws and regulations forms the bedrock of implementing the rule of law, and marked progresses have been made since the nationwide law literacy programme kicked off in 1986. The official urged greater efforts to study and popularise the Constitution and to educate the public on the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, in order to raise public awareness of law compliance and the principle of rule by law. Civil servants, adolescents, business managers and farmers are the main targeted groups of the law education programmes, Chen said.

Chinese Coca-Cola product Pulpy Milky ‘was poisoned’

An 11 year old boy who died after drinking a Coca-Cola product was the victim of poisoning, according to officials in Jilin Province. His mother became severely ill after consuming the same drink and is still in hospital. Three others also became ill after drinking bottles of Pulpy Milky in Changchun, the largest city of the province. Tests showed that the drink contained pesticides. The incident sparked a mass recall of Pulpy Milky, but police and officials say the bottles were sabotaged and wider tests on Coca-Cola’s products showed that there was no contamination. Coca-Cola has repeatedly insisted that the poisoning had nothing to do with quality control. Jilin authorities confirmed the poisoning, but did not speculate as to who might have carried it out.