China’s cardboard-filled buns story was a hoax
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Just goes to show that you shouldn’t believe all the dirty-Chinese-food stories you hear. That cardboard-filled Chinese buns story that was Dugg like crazy and enthusiastically picked up by everyone from CNN to Fox News turns out to be a total hoax:
Beijing police have detained a television reporter for allegedly 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 flavoring.
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.
“Zi had provided all the cardboard and asked the vendor to soak it. It’s all cheating,” the paper quoted a government notice as saying.
Hat tip to Angry Asian Man.
For more on the recent dirty-food Yellow Peril trend, check out the discussion here.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Anonymous wrote:
In all fairness, if the report came from Chinese state television, I think CNN and Fox News had every reason to believe it was authentic, whatever their motivations. If this proves anything, it’s that the Chinese are becoming more like us with every passing day: using sensationalism to scare up higher audience ratings.
Posted 26 Jul 2007 at 9:59 am ¶
Kai wrote:
I never did buy into that report. The way it was shot just looked fake to me from the get-go. And the idea that you can sell baozi with cardboard filling to Chinese folks just seems crazy to me. Just about any semi-conscious Chinese person would spit that out on the first bite. Pork has a distinct texture and flavor, and it ain’t a bit like cardboard.
Though I should add, when I saw the story corrected on CNN, Blitzer framed it as a case where Communist China is jailing muckraking reporters who embarrass the government.
FYI I wrote a post about this whole issue last week too.
Here’s to fresh baozi. Ganbei.
Posted 26 Jul 2007 at 11:15 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Yeah we Chinese looooooooooove our pork.
Posted 26 Jul 2007 at 11:38 am ¶
Rob wrote:
Glad someone else picked up on that, Kai.
I was wondering how long it would take our idiotic media to spin it as a coverup by the oppressive Chinese government.
Posted 26 Jul 2007 at 1:04 pm ¶
Mina wrote:
Did anyone else here not hear about the story until the “it’s a hoax” news was released?
Posted 26 Jul 2007 at 7:01 pm ¶
ExpatJane wrote:
See? There was a whole thread that blew up on a forum I frequent. I think I made one post about being critical about this mess because it was so over the top.
Yep, it’s the PRC’s government oppressing reporters (which I don’t deny they do for one moment)…yeah right.
They’re staking their future on trade. They’re not going to play around on this.
Posted 27 Jul 2007 at 12:07 am ¶
gatamala wrote:
I don’t dig on swine, so I have to watch it with Chinese food!
But that picture……..*salivates Homer-style*
If you stuffed those w/ cardboard, I’d still eat them.
Posted 27 Jul 2007 at 8:48 am ¶
Kmoney wrote:
when i heard last week on good morning america that this was a hoax, i’m not sure if i heard that the reporter responsible was “caned” or “hanged.”
did China execute the reporter? anyone hear anything?
Posted 27 Jul 2007 at 8:51 am ¶
jamie radford wrote:
Then again…
I read a news article the other day that said that, in a poll, many Chinese citizens believed that the story was true. Just because the Chinese government arrested this journalist and declared the story to be fake doesn’t mean the story actually was fake. The Chinese government isn’t exactly known for its support of a vibrant free press, and I think its entirely feasible that the gov’t is suppressing this guy’s legitimate journalism in order to protect its image internationally.
In the U.S. or most modern democracies, even if this guy had made up the story, he couldn’t be arrested. The bun-maker could sue him for libel, but the journalist couldn’t be thrown in jail. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to lie. In a free-speech system, you might be liable to whoever you lied about, but you’re still entitled to a trial at which you can defend the truth of your statements, and you can’t be imprisoned for it.
From my perspective, I don’t have any reason to believe the government over the journalist. And, even if the journalist retracted his story, I would still be suspicious that he had done it under duress.
Posted 27 Jul 2007 at 9:00 am ¶
Kai wrote:
Hehe, Kmoney and jamie radford got Wolf Blitzer’s back yo! The US corporate media rocks the truth!
Posted 27 Jul 2007 at 11:44 am ¶