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Healthcare

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Regulators take aim at the chewing of areca
Mar 29, 2019 (WiC 446)

Taiwanese farmers used to call the betel nut ‘green gold’. In fact, in the mid-1990s as much as a fifth of the island’s arable land was used for growing areca. Trips around Taiwan were brightened by so-called Betelnut Beauties – young ...

Not so fresh-faced

Concerns about cosmetic craze among teens
Feb 22, 2019 (WiC 441)

About half of the East Asian population is said to have ‘double eyelids’, or a naturally occurring crease of the skin over the eyes. So when the Beijing News visited a high school in Chengdu recently it was surprised to find that almost all ...

Arrested development

Healthcare firm Tianjin Quanjian mired in pyramid scheme scandal
Jan 11, 2019 (WiC 436)

Senmiao Street, Shijixi Street, and Quanjian Street in Tianjin’s Wuqing District used to be lined with coaches that brought visitors to the coastal city. Locals said many were keen to source goods that were typically used in fire therapy (a ...

Chemical weapons

How the opioid fentanyl could be a bargaining chip in the trade war
Dec 14, 2018 (WiC 435)

The British were the dominant force in the opium trade during imperial times, but the Americans were pretty decent drug pushers too. By the early 1800s merchants from the US managed about a tenth of the opium trade, through men such as John ...

Down with the flu

Why vaccine production in China has fallen by half this year
Nov 30, 2018 (WiC 434)

The English word flu comes from the Italian “influenza”, meaning influence. In the medieval period it was thought that unfavourable celestial arrangements triggered outbreaks. Later the virus was given a longer name “influenza del ...

Hospitals suspended for fleecing social security fund
Nov 30, 2018 (WiC 434)

China has taken giant strides toward achieving ‘basic’ universal healthcare. Reforms introduced in the past two decades have dramatically lifted the insured population from less than 16% in the 1990s to 97% last year. The insurance rollout, ...

Ant’s mutual insurance scheme an online hit
Nov 2, 2018 (WiC 430)

Big data, big gains. That is the mantra of China’s tech giants Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. One area where that seems to be undeniably true for the customer, and not just for companies, is insurance. Late last month Alibaba’s financial ...

Genetic warfare

Ex-contractor puts BGI on the spot with suicide threat
Sep 28, 2018 (WiC 426)

“I decided to leave on September 22, the second anniversary of the China National GeneBank. I am prepared to die on this day in the most sublime manner. I will live-stream how I jump off the tower. Perhaps nobody will be watching the broadcast ...

Getting the silent treatment

Fosun Pharma calls for calm after more allegations about malpractice
Sep 7, 2018 (WiC 423)

Better short-lived pain than a long one, is the “tough love” that The Economist magazine said China’s drugs regulator sees as the necessary path to upgrading the local pharmaceutical industry. That remark was heard by the China head of ...

Resignations and arrests in the aftermath of Changsheng vaccine scandal
Aug 24, 2018 (WiC 421)

The latest reshuffle of Hong Kong’s blue-chip stock index earned a mixed reaction last month. The departure of Bank of East Asia, Singtao Daily reported, was “an unexpected one” given the lender’s market capitalisation is greater than ...

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