China's vaccine scandal highlights HK's special status

IN MID-JULY, China's state drug administration ordered Changsheng Bio-technology, a company headquartered in Changchun, in northeastern China, to stop production of rabies vaccines after it uncovered evidence of forged data.

At about the same time, the company was fined 3.4 million yuan (S$678,512) for the production of inferior DPT vaccines last year.

As soon as the news got out, mothers on the mainland reacted. One Shenzhen resident, 33-year-old Emily Liu, made an urgent appointment in Hong Kong for her five-year-old son to be vaccinated. Within 48 hours, he had received a booster shot of a four-in-one vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio.

"I feel a bit ashamed about crossing the border to snap up a vaccine," South China Morning Post quoted her as saying, "and I totally understand if Hong Kong people resent us for doing it, but it's just what …