Xiaoyu thought the two pregnancies couldn’t just be a coincidence. She first suspected her boyfriend’s parents of tampering with the condoms in order for the couple to give birth to grandchildren. But her boyfriend, Xiaodong, tested the leftover condoms they had purchased from a nearby convenience store by filling them up with water, he found that 10 out of 12 of them leaked.

The couple contacted the media, which replicated the test with the couple’s remaining “Sixth Sense” brand 3C condoms, with similar results. The reporter spent another RMB 40 for two more boxes of condoms of the same brand, only to find that 7 out of 12 condoms leaked — one even had five holes in it.

The reporter determined the condoms were counterfeit after contacting the manufacturer and comparing serial numbers.

There have been multiple news stories regarding the sale of counterfeit condoms in China. Police seized fakes in Shanghai in April 2015 and in Guangzhou in January 2015. There were even 600,000 counterfeit condoms seized in Italy in July that year.

Xiaoyu said she wants to have children, but her current circumstances are preventing her from starting a family. She said the unwanted pregnancies have been a source of shame for her: “All of our neighbors and friends know about this and have been critical towards me. Some of them even say that I am shameless.”

“Our only option is to move, but we don’t know where we can move to.”

The post Fake Condoms On Sale in China, Leave Woman Pregnant Twice in 3 Months appeared first on The Nanfang.

The announcement comes after a successful pilot program held at ten of the province’s universities and colleges this past March.

At least one condom machine will be installed at each of the 128 post-secondary schools in Zhejiang over the next year. Students will be able to get a free box of condoms by swiping their student ID card on the machine, which presumably will make their identity known. As such, it’s unclear how many will use the free condoms.

Zhejiang health and family planning official Li Danhe admitted that it wasn’t easy trying to persuade parents to go along with the plan. “Some colleges said they were concerned such a move would encourage sex and would incur opposition and complaints from students’ parents,” said Li.

Further south, the rate of HIV infection is skyrocketing among university students in Guangzhou, growing at an annual rate of 46 percent. This increase is reflected in the national rate, especially in cases involving “male-to-male” sexual transmission.

Meanwhile, China’s younger generation have shown themselves to be considerably less prudish than their parents when it comes to pre-marital sex. A Ministry of Education survey from this past June shows that some 60 percent of respondents say they approve of sex before marriage, while only 16 percent are against.

However, sex education and awareness programs in Chinese universities have faced resistance for some time now. In 2004, Peking University called off plans to hand out free condoms on World AIDS Day because school administrators feared it would encourage students to have sex.

Despite this progressive plan, educational institutions in China still don’t appear to be reforming their conservative attitudes towards sex. Recently, a Xi’an, Shaanxi college has face controversy online for forcing its female students to sign a chastity pledge to refrain from pre-marital sex, while a Jilin school was reported to ban students from public displays of affection such as feeding each other in the school cafeteria.

The post Zhejiang Universities to Hand Out Free Condoms to Students appeared first on The Nanfang.

Italian custom agents made the seizure at the da Vinci Airport in Rome, arresting 20 suspects, most of whom are Chinese nationals.

The authorities were effusive in their praise of the fake rubbers, calling them “perfect facsimiles of the international brand“. The fake condoms were said to contain packaging and instructional manuals that even had the Durex logo stamped on them.

But a fake is still a fake. Authorities said the counterfeit condoms contained flaws that made them unsafe for consumer use. They were made with poisonous chemical compounds and improper materials that weren’t properly sterilized.

The condoms were being held at a warehouse on the Balkan Peninsula in Albania before having been transported to Rome. They were part of a larger shipment of other counterfeit goods made in China that also included 150,000 pieces of imitation jewelry, and 500,000 fake health supplements.

This is, pardon the pun, just the tip of the problem, however. Underground Chinese factories are flooding the market with hundreds of millions of counterfeit condoms every year. Recently, Shanghai police arrested nine suspects when they cracked an underground manufacturing ring that had been selling 300,000 of fake condoms in eight Chinese provinces.

Fake condoms are dangerous to human health as they make it easier to transmit sexual diseases, and are reported to increase the chance of male infertility.

Related:

• G-String Condom Invented by Guangzhou Students Becomes Retail Product
• Guangzhou students design innovative condom to reduce unwanted pregnancies
• Bringing creativity to safe sex through condom designs in Guangzhou
• PRD’s Contribution to the World Cup: Footballs and Condoms

The post Italian Customs Finds 600,000 Fake Chinese-made Condoms appeared first on The Nanfang.

Shanghai police have busted a counterfeit ring that sold shoddily-made condoms passed off as popular name brand names like Durex and Jissbon, arresting nine and seizing over three million fake condoms worth RMB 12 million ($1.9 million).

The fake rubbers were sold in Shanghai, Henan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shaanxi. Besides the retail market, a main distributor for the fake condoms were suppliers for small inns and hotels throughout the country.

Shanghai Yangpu police say the investigation into the counterfeit ring began last May when a woman named Li was reported to be buying raw materials in bulk. It turned out Li was manufacturing condoms in vast numbers in a local residential flat and selling them to wholesalers online, packaging them as brand name products.

Zhang Wenliang of the Yangpu Police sub-bureau explained there was a lot of money to be made. “Li was arrested in 2013 for selling fake Viagra, but continued these illegal operations because she was making profits of ten times her costs. Each fake Durex condom costs 0.10 to 0.15 yuan to make, and has a wholesale price of 0.20 to 0.30 yuan. But this woman would sell them at a retail price of three yuan.”

After busting a small-scale Henan assembly line, Zhang explained just how dangerous these fake condoms are: “The quality of these products is extremely cheap; the smell of the lubricating oil is especially nauseating. The seized condoms have undergone testing and been determined to contain heavy metals. They pose a serious risk to human health.The seized condoms have undergone testing and been determined to contain heavy metals. They pose a serious risk to human health.“

The post Beware: Millions of Dangerous, Fake Condoms Circulating in China appeared first on The Nanfang.

The Guangdong provincial police seized 136,166 fake condoms and male performance enhancers in simultaneous raids made last August on factories located in Chaozhou and Zhongshan. The fake sex products, worth RMB 3 million ($483,870), were to be marketed online and sold to people in cities throughout China.

What is a fake condom anyway? Is it made of paper? http://t.co/TrDSlCotu4

— Michael Standaert (@mstandaert) January 21, 2015

Last April, 140,000 fake Viagra pills were seized in Shenzhen, while a pharmacy in the city’s Luohu District was busted for selling the fake pills back in 2012.

Photo: evolife

The post Police Seize 136 Thousand Fake Condoms and Viagra in Guangdong appeared first on The Nanfang.

When a drip becomes a flood:

Fifty-one out of 100,000 Guangdong residents had syphilis in 2012, according to data accumulated by the Guangdong provincial syphilis monitoring system. Yang Bin, director of the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Dermatology, said infection rates for sexually transmitted diseases including syphilis in Guangdong have skyrocketed because of a greater mobility of people.

Safe sex practices such as condom use can greatly reduce the risk of getting infected with syphilis and other sexually-transmitted diseases.

Be safe out there.

Photo: Berg Properties, Daily Mail, wikipedia

The post Guangdong Syphilis Rate Grows To 1.5 Times The National Average appeared first on The Nanfang.

Sunday:

• Tropical Storm Hagibis to Hit China Later Today

Monday:

• G-String Condom Invented by Guangzhou Students Becomes Retail Product
• Strikes On The Rise as Workers Set To Be Replaced By Robots
• SOHO CEO Now Apologizes for Striking Shenzhen Airport Staffer
• Parents Protest Opening of New Confucius Institute in Toronto

Tuesday:

• Man Goes For A Massage In Shenzhen, Leaves Paralyzed
• Foreigner Stabbed to Death Outside a Nightclub in Fujian
• Guangdong Has The Worst Public Image Of All Provinces In China
• Comment: Hong Kong Risks Losing Freedoms If It Pushes Too Hard

Wednesday:

• Report Suspected Terrorist Activity in Shenzhen and Win Big Money!
• The Forgotten Story of…Shenzhen’s Disappearing Coastline
• Shenzhen Metro To Start Rolling Out Free Wi-Fi In July
• Beijingers Can Live a Healthy Life Into Their Late 50s, According To New Study

Thursday:

• Guangdong Student Stabs Teacher 10 Times In Ambush Attack 
• It Happened: Controversial Yulin Dog Eating Festival Held Early To Avoid Attention
• Beijing-Guangdong Train Derailed by Landslide
• Guangdong Protests Against Waste Incinerators Turn Violent

Friday:

• Yunlin Dog Sellers Openly Taunt Dog Lovers: “Buy The Dog Or It Dies!” 
• Hong Kong Independence Activist Assaulted Outside Courthouse
• China’s First Museum of Design To Open in Shenzhen
• “The Incarnations” Is a Gripping Novel Set in China Packed with Historical Insight

Saturday:

• Weekend Gallery: Humungous Marilyn Monroe Statue Taken to The Dump
• Yulin Dog Eating Festival: “The More You Protest, The Better Our Business Is”
• Survey: Chinese and Western Rich Want Different Things

Be sure to check out our Twitter feed @thenanfang as well as our Facebook page!

Photos: the Nanfang

The post Nanfang Week in Review: June 15-June 21 appeared first on The Nanfang.

The product is a condom with extra room down below to envelop the scrotum along with the shaft of the penis. The entire contraption is held in place by a thong meant to be worn by the condom user. Investors thought the product had so much potential they poured US$320,000 into it.

READ: Guangzhou Students Design Innovative Condom
to Reduce Unwanted Pregnancies

The invention had won the Competition of Cultural Innovation held by the city’s Communist Youth League, and was inspired by the cash award offered by the  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to “whomever designs the next generation of condoms”.

While 10,000 g-string condoms are headed to Australia for sale, the group of investors, which calls itself the “Eastern Resurgence” (seen below), has always maintained a Chinese perspective. Group leader Kong Yanxiang said, “Currently, sex education in China is quite backward and conservative. Condoms are a product into which little research is being done. So this is a market we could enter.”

Consisting of mostly women, the group emphasized that its product is an improvement over traditional condoms that mostly use oil-based lubricants, which can be irritating to the vagina. The g-string condom uses a soluble lubricant flavoured with Chinese herbs. The anti-slip micro-capsules reduce the risk of accidental pregnancy.

Based on our experience with condoms, we can’t figure out why the g-string apparatus would be needed unless the condom wasn’t fitting properly. To us, it seems like the simple condom is getting needlessly more complicated.

Related:

• Bringing Creativity to Safe Sex Through Condom Designs in Guangzhou
• Man Convicted of Rape After Refusing to Use Condoms
• Top Ten Things to Buy Now that FamilyMart Has Opened in Shenzhen

The post G-String Condom Invented by Guangzhou Students Becomes Retail Product appeared first on The Nanfang.

Sunday:

• Guangzhou, Shenzhen Gaokao Applicants Sent Off With Emotion and Pageantry

Monday:

• Fires and Overturned Police Cars in Guangzhou After Mass Incident 
• Knife Attack Rumor Launches Stampede on Guangzhou Metro
• 1,000 “Naked Officials” Netted in Guangdong Crackdown

Tuesday:

• Bare Footed Workers Caught Stomping On Noodles Destined For The Dinner Table
• Snake on a Bed: 2.5 Meter-Long Python Found in Dongguan Bedroom
• This Is What Using The Internet In China Is Like

Wednesday:

• Setting Yourself On Fire? It’s a Form of Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Canadian Living in Shenzhen Jailed, Accused of Espionage
• Heavy Rains Flood Streets in Guangzhou and Zhanjiang

Thursday:

• Church of the Almighty God Members on Trial in Guangzhou
• Guangdong Prostitution Crackdown Leads to Arrests, Closed WeChat Accounts
• Scenery Is Nice, But Salaries Are Low In The Pearl River Delta

Friday:

• PRD’s Contribution to the World Cup: Footballs and Condoms
• Chinese Rich Plan to Leave in Droves, Here’s Where They Want To Go
• Soho CEO Pan Shiyi Denies Striking Airline Attendant as Photos Go Viral [UPDATED]

Saturday:

• Weekend Gallery: Defend Your Homeland by Using Your Leg as a Gun

Photos: Nanfang

The post Nanfang Week in Review, June 8-June 14 appeared first on The Nanfang.

While these two products have nothing in common, their production exhibits the Chinese pride that won’t be excluded, qualifying rounds be damned.

The “Samba Glory” from Shenzhen

The footballs used in the previous World Cup came under tremendous scrutiny for providing substandard performance. Called the Jabulani, the ball was criticized by Brazilian striker Luis Fabiano as being “supernatural” and for having unpredictable trajectories. This has led to a high-tech redesign of the official World Cup football—called the Brazuca—that has involved NASA wind tunnels and aerodynamic experts.

However, this official football designed and licensed by Adidas has humble roots, hailing from an undisclosed plastics factory in the Gongming Tianliao Industrial Area on Shenzhen’s west side. In fact, there is so much secrecy at this factory that many of its own workers don’t even know that the official World Cup ball is produced here.

A worker named Ah Ju confirmed to a reporter with the Yangcheng Evening Report that the official World Cup ball is made in a second floor workshop near the main entrance by a small group of ten workers, mostly women. The workers are sworn to secrecy, and the workroom is a restricted area that is sometimes guarded by security.

Even though the high-tech research and development that went into this football was very expensive, the production and labor costs at the “Asian X Plastic Company of Shenzhen” remain low. Workers that make the official World Cup football only earn a monthly wage of RMB 3,000 (US$483), and are expected to work regular overtime and half-days on Saturdays.

Called “Samba Glory” in Chinese, the ball retails for RMB 1,299 (US$209) in China, meaning that workers would only be able to afford to purchase two of the footballs they make every month. However, as Ah Ju points out, progress has been made.

As confirmed by a company representative, the same factory had the honor of making the official football for the last World Cup, which cost RMB 1,080 (US$174). As Ah Ju points out, however, the workers were only earning a monthly wage of RMB 2,000 (US$322) back then, meaning things have improved.

World Cup Condom Kings

Moving on from balls and getting to the meat of the matter, the Pearl River Delta’s other connection to the World Cup is a factory in Guangzhou that supplies another vital product, although one used when games aren’t underway: the condom.

A Guangzhou company named Double One (Shuangyi) has been approved by the Brazilian government to be its sole supplier of condoms, reports Southern Metropolis Daily.

Located in Shuangyi, Huadu District, Double One takes up a total space of 130,000 square meters.  The latex factory has eight production lines to meet demand and soon hopes to expand to ten. In fact, Double One has deep roots with the World Cup. Back when South Africa hosted the games in 2010, this same company supplied 35 million condoms.

China is one of the top condom producers in the world. China sold 10 billion condoms in 2012, 25% of all sales in the world at that time.

Brazilians apparently demand high quality condoms, as they were described by the Southern Metropolis Daily as being from an “extremely sexually-open country”.

Rules for the world’s most popular pastime remain the same: one in the net will end the game.

Photos: Yangcheng Evening Report, Southern Daily, Myactivesg

The post PRD’s Contribution to the World Cup: Footballs and Condoms appeared first on The Nanfang.