Sunday, June 2, 2013 3
LEADING THE NEWS High blood pressure a silent epidemic
THE ICAC
POLITICS
NO GIFTS, LIAISON OFFICE WARNS
Many older people on mainland suffer from hypertension without realising it, says study ................................................ Jeanette Wang jeanette.wang@scmp.com Xiao Mingying , 64, a retired worker in Shanghai, is among the 100 million old people on the mainland who have high blood pressure. The condition, a major cause of strokes, afflicts more than half of those over 60. But 40 per cent don’t know it, according to findings from the landmark China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. With a rapidly ageing population – and increasing age being a key risk factors for hypertension – China faces a huge health burden. More importantly, this large-scale underdiagnosis suggests a major health system gap, say the study researchers. Yang Gonghuan , professor of epidemiology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and one of the study’s principal investigators, says the pattern of disease on the mainland has changed. Non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes have overtaken infectious diseases as the major burden. “But China’s health care system lags behind,” she said. Professor James Smith, the Distinguished Chair in Labour Markets and Demographic Studies at the Rand Corporation and another of the study’s research-
59% The prevalence of high blood pressure in older women, compared to 49 per cent in men
Accepting presents during events such as Dragon Boat festival against Beijing’s policy, staff told, but some doubt impact of warning ................................................ Tony Cheung tony.cheung@scmp.com Timothy Tong, former head of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, attends a hearing in Legco yesterday. Photos: Edward Wong
Agency’s accounting blasted Lawakers say examination of expenses under exICAC chief hindered by foggy reports ................................................ Simpson Cheung simpson.cheung@scmp.com Lawmakers have expressed concerns over what they called arbitrary and creative accounting by the Independent Commission Against Corruption as they examine expenses for meals and duty visits incurred by its former chief, Timothy Tong Hin-ming. In April, the Audit Report revealed that Tong had hosted two lavish dinners in December 2011 based around an international anti-corruption video competition. But Legco’s public accounts committee found that the first dinner, on December 6, was not included in the HK$1.73 million expenses claimed for the whole function. The dinner was calculated as
part of the general expenses of the ICAC. There was also a boat trip on the second date that cost HK$2,000. Kenneth Leung, the lawmaker representing the accountancy sector, voiced concerns over such “arbitrary” accounts. “We cannot get the overall impression of how much was actually spent on this event.” Forty-four guests of the video event later spent HK$12,807 to visit Guangdong’s prosecution unit after the competition. But this expense was folded into the initial expenditure. Committee chairman Abraham Razack urged Tong to explain such “creative accounting”. Tong has said the ICAC’s administrative branch had a system for filing expense claims. Tong said he was having a
DEFENCE
ers, said countries such as the US and Britain had similar rates of undiagnosed hypertension 40 or 50 years ago. Health campaigns have helped reduced the rate to 15 per cent in the US. “It’s part of the process that higher-income countries have to go through,” said Smith, “and China is now going through it.” Xiao has been diagnosed. But she also has diabetes and spends 1,000 yuan (HK$1,250) a month, almost half of her monthly pension, on treatment drugs. She says her illness deprives her of “all interesting things” in life, affecting her mood. “I can’t eat delicious food or go out with my friends. I can’t walk for long.” The study, by an international research team led by Peking University, surveyed 17,708 individuals from a nationally representative sample of the population on topics ranging from socioeconomics to health. Participants will be tracked every two years. The study found that women fared worse than men in all measures of health. Apart from a higher prevalence of hypertension (59 per cent versus 49 per cent for men), women were also more likely to report depression (47 per cent versus 32 per cent), need help with basic daily activities (28 per cent versus 20 per cent), experience bodily pain (39 versus 28 per cent) and be overweight (32 versus 24 per cent). In general, better education was linked with better health in the study. However, the influence of community was highly important, Smith says. This is mainly because provision of health care on the mainland is done at the community level. Coverage rates among elderly have generally improved – 92 per cent with urban hukou (household registration) and 94 per cent with rural hukou had health insurance of some type due to the government’s expansion of health care insurance programmes since the middle of the last decade. Prevention is also important. For hypertension, consuming less salt, eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, quitting smoking and not drinking too much, and regular monitoring can cut the risk. Additional reporting by Alice Yan
US offers to host Asean leaders for Hawaii talks Defence chief Chuck Hagel also tries to assure Beijing the US ‘pivot’ to Asia isn’t aimed at China ................................................ Agencies in Singapore and Minnie Chan The US defence chief yesterday offered to host a meeting of Southeast Asian defence ministers in Hawaii next year, and at the same time sought to ease China’s doubts over the US’ military “pivot” to Asia. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel was speaking at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore. Territorial disputes in the South China Sea between China and its Asean neighbours are likely to be one of the key issues on the agenda in Hawaii. Four of Asean’s 10 member states – Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam – are disputing territory in the South China Sea with China. Smaller member countries such as Laos and Cambodia have come under increasing Chinese economic and political influence, partly as a result of foreign aid from Beijing. On Friday, Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, said: “There have emerged preferences for unilateral might,
The only way to do that [avoid conflict] is you talk to each other CHUCK HAGEL (BELOW)
groundless claims and actions that run counter to international law and stem from imposition and power politics.” Zhou Fangyin , an expert in global strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the US would also use the Hawaiian meeting to address the Asean countries’ doubts over its “pivot” towards the Asia-Pacific. “The Asean countries will be worried about whether the ‘pivot’ is a temporary strategy, and whether the US will leave in the same way it exited the Middle East,” he said. Hagel held out hope for improving military relations with China while warning on cyberattacks from China. Taking questions after his speech, Hagel was challenged by a Chinese military delegate over what Washington could do to reassure Beijing that it really wanted a positive relationship when it was focusing so many military resources on the region. “US officials have on several occasions clarified that the rebalance is not against China,” Major General Yao Yunzhu , an expert on Sino-US defence relations at the PLA Academy of Military Science, told Hagel. “However, China is not convinced.” Hagel replied: “How can the US assure China of our intentions? That’s really the whole point behind closer military-tomilitary relationships. We don’t want miscalculations and misunderstandings and misinterpretations, and the only way you do that is you talk to each other.” British defence minister Philip Hammond said rising defence spending in Asia was “worrying” amid growing tensions over territorial disputes and competition for resources. “[It] has the potential to become at best a prolonged source for instability and at worst, a driver for conflict,” he said. Reuters, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse > CALL FOR DIALOGUE PAGE 10
weekend day off when the delegation visited Guangzhou, but he made a one-hour appearance as a matter of courtesy. Leung pointed out that this visit was not included in his 33 duty visits previously listed to Legco. The committee also heard that Tong had hosted receptions in places such as the Jockey Club, the Football Club, the Country Club and Tai O. He also spent more than HK$35,000 at the Grand Hyatt hotel whenProcura-
We cannot get the overall impression of how much was actually spent KENNETH LEUNG, LAWMAKER
tor General Cao Jianming visited from Beijing. The expenses of the Centre of Anti-Corruption Studies, set up in 2009, came under the administrative branch of the ICAC between 2009 and 2011. But they were calculated as expenses of the Community Relations Department in the following 20 months. Last September, the centre’s expenses came under the branch again. Tong admitted that the hiring of a mainland scholar as a consultant for the study centre had not been done through the usual public recruitment exercise, but insisted that the professor’s knowledge was an inspiration during his one-year term. Tong also hit out at what he said were inaccurate media reports, saying they had distorted many facts. He would seek legal advice about taking further action, he said.
The central government’s liaison office has warned its staff to “decline gifts such as food and fruit during festivities”, including this month’s Dragon Boat festival. The statement comes after Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping made a call last December to end official extravagance. The liaison office’s statement, released on its website on Friday night, reiterated staff “must strictly abide by the central government’s eight requirements about improving working styles and maintaining close contact with the people”. Office director Zhang Xiaoming announced in February that while the bureau would keep close contact with the people, it would reduce general social activities, ban officers from receiving expensive gifts from residents, and decline festive hampers. Since then, the liaison office’s receptions have come under question after it was revealed that Timothy Tong Hin-ming, while commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, hosted lavish meals for top officials from the office. Wang Zhimin, a deputy direc-
tor of the liaison office, earlier described the receptions Tong had hosted for his officials as “normal exchanges”. The liaison office is tasked with representing the central government in Hong Kong, and liaising with different organisations and sectors to foster exchanges. Veteran China watcher Johnny Lau Yui-siu said the highprofile announcement was intended to show the liaison office was in step with Beijing’s views. But he called the ban a “superficial gesture” and questioned whether it would have lasting impact. “It confirmed, indirectly, that giving and receiving gifts has been common for the office. Lau said: “The [ban] will have a short-term effect, but since those formalities are common in China, I think the practice could re-emerge in some other form after a period of time.” Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan also worried that the ban “could do little to tackle corruption in general”. Lawmaker Wong Kwok-kin, from the Beijing-loyalist Federation of Trade Unions, welcomed the liaison office’s decision. “I know businessmen love to offer those gifts … and I have seen hampers and boxes of mooncake piling up in the liaison office during festivities in the past,” Wong said.