WADA chief praises China's efforts in fight against doping

Big progress has been made in China's fight against doping in the leading up to the Beijing Olympic Games, said John Fahey, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Thursday.

When WADA was fulfilling its role of independent observer of the anti-doping program at the Games in the past few years, Fahey said, they could see the progress.

"WADA has worked closely with the Chinese government and CHINADA in the past several years to ensure they are fully aware what are needed to implement an effective anti-doping program for the Games and more broadly domestically throughout China," he said at the Olympic Games main press center before hundreds of reporters.

"WADA's leadership has made several visits to China in recent years and we've been pleased to see that remarkable progress has been made in the creation of an independent anti-doping program and building the state-of-the-art lab."

China launched the new lab in late 2007 as it turned up to be the largest among the 33 accredited anti-doping labs with an area of 5,500 square meters.

As the lab will serve the Games with no less than 4,500 to be conducted there, China invested about 50 million yuan (about 7.35 million U.S. dollars) in purchasing and renting new equipments. The lab will play a major role after the Games in China's increasingly tough doping control.

Fahey also acknowledged China's efforts in cracking down on the illegal distribution and manufacturing of banned substances.

"Many attempts to uncover on manufacturing level are part of the process in recent months. A number of manufacturers were closed down," he said. "Reports to me indicates a clear commitment. ...I can say that there are a lot less today as the results of activities by the Chinese government."

In April, China launched a nationwide inspection to tighten the management of performance-enhancing drug suppliers and manufacturers.

The inspection, conducted by eight government departments, specially focused on Olympic host cities and regions with a concentrated chemical industry.

Since the second half of last year, over 120 drug makers were ordered to suspend production of relevant drugs and 23 companies were punished for illegal drug trade, or selling sports performance enhancers that shouldn't have been available over the counter.

In addition, 18 pharmaceutical companies had their licenses revoked. Another 321 websites containing illegal drug trading information were shut down.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2008)