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2007/07/19

Are the Baozi "Fake" or is the Media "Fake"?

Beijing's had a tough few weeks. First it was news about "fake" water, then it was a rehashing of stories about "fake" yangrou chuanr (I must admit, this one was extremely hard to take), but when there were reports of baozi filled with chemically inhanced cardboard, including great investigative reporter cam shots, that was going a bit too far.

Now it seems that perhaps those reports were made up by a reporter looking to "break" a big story and drum up a bigger audience. The mind fairly boggles. With all the negative attention in the west on Chinese products and health standards, why would this reporter make things appear to be even worse? Doesn't that violate his patriotic duty? Are things so bad that we're at the point that there are even fake news stories? This is truly over the top.

I have a suspicion, and I really hope this isn't the case, but that story just went too far in scaring people from eating what is a common breakfeast or snack all over China. I hope China learned from SARS and this isn't some kind of cover up. I can see it now, the government bigwigs feel this is too much and so to minimize fear among the public, insist that the story was fabricated, while cleaning things up their own way without the Chinese and foreign press all over the story.

Either way, its a scary proposition.

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