Society

In most people's eyes, China is a conservative country with large population, and its people all have button-down mind. Maybe this bias can be changed now from him, Wen Xianlong.

At 11:12 February 17th, in Chengdu downtown - Hongxing Road - he streaking around one hour before the police catch him. There is a local website provide live broadcast online. It becomes the hot topic among top online forums (BBS) of China.

Wen Xianlong, 20 years old, was sent to the Chengdu mental health center by ambulance.

Chinese quality investigators have found that milk products from a unit of France's Groupe Danone SA are melamine-free, and also said an unapproved additive used by one of China's largest dairies is safe but was used illegally.

The separate investigations into the products of Danone's Dumex Baby Food Co. Ltd. and Mengniu Dairy Group Co. underscore the government's chronic problems with policing product quality. Melamine-contaminated milk was linked to the deaths of at least six Chinese babies and illnesses of nearly 300,000 others last year.

In a statement released over the weekend, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision said it had tested 932 batches dairy products produced by the Dumex subsidiary since mid-September "and all are melamine-free."

It also said no melamine, an industrial chemical used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizer, was found in more than 1,700 batches produced before mid-September, when the dairy scandal broke.

"Our valued consumers can continue to use our product with confidence," Dumex said in a statement. "Now more than ever, we remain committed to providing products of the highest quality to our loyal consumers."

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said a panel of experts had reviewed OMP, a milk protein added by Mengniu to its premium Telunsu line and declared that "consumption ... is not hazardous to health."

However, the ministry said that OMP is not a government-approved additive and Mengniu "promoted its function in an exaggerated manner."

"Law enforcement and inspection departments will further deal with the illegal actions of Mengniu," the ministry said, without giving any details.

It said the company had stopped using OMP and was in the process of getting official approval.

Telephones were not answered at Mengniu's media department on Monday.

Last year's milk scandal, over nitrogen-rich melamine that was added to milk to fool protein tests, was China's worst food contamination crisis. It also exposed loose controls over large companies like Mengniu and Yili Industrial Group Co., whose products were recalled.

Both companies had been exempt from government inspections under waivers given to companies deemed to have proper quality controls, which have since been scrapped.

Nearly 1,500 cars a day have been added to Beijing's streets since the start of the year, state media said on Tuesday, indicating new curbs on driving had not dampened the desire for automobiles.

The already gridlocked and heavily polluted Chinese capital registered 65,970 new motor vehicles in the first 45 days of the year, a daily increase of 1,466, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the municipal traffic authority.

That compares with about 1,350 new cars added daily in 2008, according to city figures.

This year's new cars brought the total in the city to 3.56 million as of February 14, the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau said, according to Xinhua.

The report gave no reason for the increased rate of new cars this year.

However, China last month introduced lower vehicle taxes for cars with engines smaller than 1.6 litres in a bid to encourage sales of lower-emission vehicles.

Xinhua quoted Song Jianguo, head of the bureau, saying the proliferation of cars in the city was causing "serious traffic pressure and safety risks."

In October, Beijing rolled out new traffic control measures aimed at easing gridlock and pollution.

Under the rules, 30 percent of government vehicles were to have been taken off the roads, while all remaining government cars and private ones were banned from the roads for one day each week, based on their license plate number.

The measures were less strict than those put in place during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, which removed more than a million vehicles from the streets each day.

Those Olympic measures led to what authorities said was the best air quality in Beijing in a decade.

Traffic congestion and pollution have worsened dramatically in Chinese cities as the country's long-running economic expansion has allowed increasing numbers of consumers to make big-ticket purchases such as cars.

A Chinese blogger whose satirical postings have gained a wide following was stabbed in the stomach at a Beijing book store after giving a reading, witnesses and friends said Monday.

Xu Lai, who writes under the pseudonym Qian Liexian, was attacked Saturday evening at the Wanda branch of the Beijing Danxiangjie Book Store, a staffer there confirmed Monday.

He was meeting readers "and it happened after that," said the clerk, who declined to give her name as is common among Chinese. She gave no other details.

Xu, who is also culture editor at the Beijing News paper, was apparently stabbed in the store's bathroom by two men who later fled, according to friends and fellow bloggers who posted the news online.

The motive was unclear for the assault, which was the first known physical attack on a prominent blogger.

Xu's blog, entitled "Qian Liexian Wants to Speak," offers witty, satirical observations on society and politics. At times provocative, he has also commented on government corruption and the recent scandal of milk contaminated with an industrial chemical.

Last year, he was listed among the "20 Most Influential Figures in China's Cyberspace" by Southern Metropolis Weekly. Xu was in a Beijing hospital Monday recovering after surgery for his wounds, which were not life-threatening, according to postings by friends on the bullogger.com Web site.

"According to the doctor, there was only a small hole in his stomach, and no other injuries were found in his other organs," one post said. "The doctor said it seemed that he was in a good condition. So people who care for him should not worry."

Police responsible for that area of Beijing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Xu's blog was one of many hosted on the Chinese blogging Web site bullog.cn, which was shut down in January as part of a government crackdown on the Internet. The successor site, bullogger.com, is hosted overseas.

Online writers and commentators in China are often censored and sometimes persecuted by authorities over controversial postings.