Chinese cardboard dumplings story a fake!
Posted by Matt Dioguardi on July 19th, 2007
Recently a very popular story in Japan was that of cardboard secretly mixed in with minced meat and then put into dumplings. The story involved a pretty tiny outfit probably only catering to local people. Not only this, but this happened in China not Japan.
Here’s a good video of what you saw on Japanese TV (via JapanProbe):
As this story was very local in China, why the heck was it so popular in Japan?
There are surly several reasons, but one that immediately occurred to me was Japan’s own recent problems with minced meat. The Asahi summed up the problem in a recent editorial:
Can we really trust the quality of food sold in shops? Yet again, an incident makes us question the food we buy. Meat Hope Co., a meat-processing firm in Hokkaido, had been adding cheap pork into its ground beef products. This fake ground beef had been used to make frozen croquettes and other daily foodstuffs, which were then shipped throughout the country. Consumers have been duped about the kind of meat they were eating, as well as being made to pay a higher price for the cheap meat. … Furthermore, a former executive at Meat Hope said something unbelievable. He said the company used meat so old that it was putrid, disinfected it, and then dye it red with animal blood to make it look like beef. If this is true, then the safety of the meat itself is in question. … What is totally beyond comprehension is the appalling ineptitude of the government. In February last year, former executives of Meat Hope were so aggrieved by the wrongdoings of their company that they decided to become whistle-blowers, and laid out the facts to the Hokkaido office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. They even brought in the faked ground beef as proof. But the government office hardly investigated at all, and literally ignored the problem. The ministry finally conducted on-the-spot inspections, only after the Asahi Shimbun had gotten hold of similar information, examined Meat Hope’s fake ground beef, and wrote about it.
This story has certainly caused a lot of concern and anxiety over food being produced in Japan. It was so incredibly easy for the company to fool everyone for so long. The government even refused to look into the matter when whistle blowers begged them to.
So what do we need in such a situation? A good self-boost by looking at how worse it all is some place else! Yeah, Japan may be bad, but it’s not as bad as China. This is at best cultural opportunism and at worse racism.
The excitement that the Chinese cardboard dumpling case generated was palpable in Japan. People loved it and talked about it. (Mo, Chugoku ga iya da yo ne!)
And now guess what? According to Chinese authorities the cardboard dumpling story was fake! Oops.
BEIJING, July 19 (Reuters) - Beijing police have detained a television reporter for fabricating an investigative story about steamed buns stuffed with cardboard at a time when China’s food safety is under intense international scrutiny. A report directed by Beijing TV and played on state-run national broadcaster China Central Television last Thursday said an unlicensed snack vendor in eastern Beijing was selling steamed dumplings stuffed with cardboard soaked in caustic soda and seasoned with pork flavouring. Beijing authorities said investigations had found that an employee surnamed Zi had fabricated the report to garner “higher audience ratings”, the China Daily said on Thursday. … A city-wide inspection of steamed bun vendors in the wake of the report had found no such cases, the paper said.
Shikata ga nai ne.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/world/news/20070718i315.htm?from=main3
I’ve read the article.
Now my impressoion is,” really, which is true stroy? ”
It was aired on the state-run national broadcaster China Central Television, right? But it was fake, they say.
Is this story that Chinese cardboard dumplings story was set up real? or is it another fake story?
July 19th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
[…] development was brought to my attention by Matt Dioguardi, who has blogged about it over at Liberal Japan, suggesting that the Japanese media made a big deal out of the cardboard dumplings to make Japan, […]
July 20th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
I don’t trust the Chinese either way.
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:59 am
A good reminder :
The report of cardboard dumpling is true !!!,only it is a scandal and will effect China’s export and Olympic , so it is be said it was staged. it is not funny in China.
When you go to China you’d bette bring your own food and water if you do not like toxic food and polluted water. and be careful with your child or else they will be kidnap and sell to brick kiln as child slave or take out the organs.
please transfer to your friends.
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:44 am
I don’t think we can know for certain one way or the other about this case. Note, the Chinese government does not win in this game either way. So there is less incentive to lie than people think. Moreover, the original report looked very contrived and fake to me. On the other hand the Chinese authorities’ claim that the report was false seemed very substantial.
Believe it or not, the Chinese have much less control over information in China than people think. It would not be that hard for an outsider to verify the story, if it were true and they had incentive to do so. No one has done this, right?
If I had to place a bet on this particular story, I would bet the story was contrived and fake.
But anything is possible …
I appreciate madeinchina’s remarks because they exhibit the kind of anti-Chinese sentiment that is out there.
China is developing at a rapid pace. A lot of wonderful things are happening there. People who once were starving are getting food. People are starting business and making money. Trade is expanding. The government is slowly liberalizing. Things are getting better, not worse.
Are there problems? You’d better believe it. But what else would you expect? You take each issue one at a time and examine it. You don’t beat up on the Chinese in totem because issues arise.
Even, Jon, who is an excellent and thoughtful blogger probably should have worded his comments a little more carefully. I’m sure it’s not all Chinese that Jon doesn’t trust.
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I’ve commented some more on this issue at Japan Probe. Here is the link.