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Associated Press

November 8, 2007

China, which has had problems with doping among its athletes, has insisted for some time that a drugs-free Games is a priority for the country.

A joint campaign by five departments - including the State Food and Drug Administration and the police - will begin soon against illegal doping production, said Yan Jiangying, deputy director of the administration's policy and regulation department.

"The Chinese government has continually strengthened supervision since March 2004, when the Anti-Doping Regulation was adopted," she told a news conference.

"This is aimed to further understand and promote implementation of the regulation and is also aimed at creating a clean and fair competitive environment for the 2008 Olympic Games," she said.

 All drug producers and chemical plants will be checked, the customs bureau will crack down on illegal imports and exports, and companies will need a production license and have to produce sales records, Yang said.

"Drug retailers are strictly prohibited" from selling protein drugs that can be used for doping, she said. The government will also "punish the illegal import and export of such products."

Departments at the provincial level will check companies in other cities that will be host to Olympic events next year, like the nearby port city of Tianjin and the coastal city of Qingdao.

Yang said chemical companies would need three licenses to produce proteins and other hormones.

Last month, the Chinese triathlete Wang Hongni, a gold medalist at the Asian Games last year, was banned for two years for doping, knocking her out of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Wang was the second high-profile Chinese athlete to be banned for doping since the 2004 Games in Athens. The long-distance runner Sun Yingjie tested positive at the Chinese National Games in 2005.

The United States has stepped up antidrug cooperation with China in recent years, opening a Drug Enforcement Administration office in Beijing. The U.S. agency started a wide-ranging crackdown dubbed Operation Raw Deal, which was assisted by governments in nine countries, including China, and led to the seizure of 56 laboratories in the United States for manufacturing anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.

Yan said China was looking into the 37 Chinese companies that the United States identified in the investigation, but she said it was too early to say if there were breaking the law.