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The organising committee of Beijing’s Olympic games has promised to investigate charges that official merchandise is being manufactured using child labour. In June PlayFair 2008, a Brussels-based pressure group, charged that four companies with financing from Hong Kong and Taiwan were using children as young as 12 to make caps, bags and other Olympic-licensed items in factories in southern China. The report also alleged abuses such as forced overtime and sub-standard wages. All four companies have denied the charges. Chinese officials have responded by vowing to deal harshly with any foreign companies working in China that violate national labour laws. Though such laws are often ignored, foreign pressure groups are keen to use the Olympics as a way to draw attention.
Democracy of a sort
In a rare dalliance with popular democracy, Beijing’s city government offered residents of the run-down Jiuxianqiao district a chance to vote on their future. In ballots sent to more than 5,470 households (representing some 20,000 residents) on June 2nd, the city asked whether locals would vacate their neighbourhood in exchange for 4,300 yuan ($564) per square metre of property. Just under 45% of households agreed; 23% demurred and 32% did not return their ballots. Despite the rather underwhelming rate of approval, officials announced that the district's demolition and redevelopment plan would go ahead.
Safer sex
Though discussion of homosexuality remains taboo in most of China, some gay-friendly venues in the capital are launching a campaign to raise awareness of safe sex and HIV/AIDS. According to Xinhua, the state news agency, free condoms and AIDS-prevention pamphlets will be distributed in 19 bars, massage centres and health clubs frequented by gay men. Staff will also promote HIV-testing. These moves are spurred by some worrying trends. The rate of HIV infection among Beijing’s homosexuals has risen from 1.5% in 2004 to 6.9% last year, with younger men at particular risk; the use of condoms is not widespread. Officials say 43% of China’s 650,000 known HIV/AIDS infections were sexually transmitted.
Outbreak
The incidence of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) among Beijing's children is on the rise. The Municipal Health Bureau says there have been 1,092 infections in 2007 (as of June 19th), 670 of which developed since May 16th. All medical facilities in Beijing have been ordered to provide daily updates on new cases. HFMD, which is contagious and caused by the Coxsackie virus, affects primarily children under the age of ten. Its symptoms include fever, mouth sores and painful blistering, but it rarely proves fatal. Yet three children in eastern Shandong Province have died from the disease this year, each of them under the age of two.
Travel spotlight
Beijing's Capital International Airport is cracking down on flight delays. The airport said in June it would issue “yellow warnings” to domestic airlines that miss more than 50% of their scheduled arrival times in any given month. Airlines receiving more than two such warnings will see their Beijing operations suspended. The airport has upgraded its computers and re-arranged boarding gates in order to shorten intervals between take-offs. It will soon add new security checkpoints for outbound passengers and improve foreign-language skills among its customs officers. As with just about everything the city does these days, there is an Olympics justification: Yang Guoqing, vice-minister of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, explains the measures are also designed to “lay a foundation for smooth air transport during the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games.”
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