Business License of Australia Company in China Revoked; Three Chinese Employees Arrested; Company Founders Issued Urgent Open Letter to the Chinese President
by Staff
November 29, 2007
MIDLAND, Texas, (christiansunite.com) -- China Aid Association learned that the business license of the Australia company Enoch Group in China was revoked for its alleged "illegal religious activities" and heavy fine was imposed.Three company employees were arrested. Two senior managers Ms. Lin Chunmei (factory director) and Ms. Chen Guichan (former CFO) had been under criminal detention since October 29. Another one Ms. Zhang Qiao was arrested on November 7. They were accused of illegal business management and have been held at Detention Center of Shawan Jidi, Panyu District Public Security Bureau, Guangzhou city.
The contact phone numbers to the detention center are Mr. PSB Wei at +86-13928885010 and +86-20- 84738131 .
Meanwhile, the company founders Mr. and Mrs. Daniel and Eliza Ng issued an open letter to the Chinese President Hu Jintao urging him to intervene for this case.
On November 12, 2007, Guangzhou Municipal Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce issued a "Notification of Hearing" to the company and announced that the business license of Guangzhou Enoch Biological Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is now revoked.
This "Notification of Hearing" issued by the Fanyu Branch of Guangzhou Municipal Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce has determined that, without reviews or registration from relevant agencies for administration in industry and commerce, Guangzhou Enoch privately set up a site of business at 8, Dongsi Street, Yujing Garden, Luofu Street in Fanyu District, which can be legally defined as a conduct of operating a business without license. Without approvals from agencies in charge of food and drug supervision, Guangzhou Enoch went beyond the scope of business approved by agencies in charge of administration of industry and commerce affairs and engaged production and business operations of the products that fail to meet "Hygiene Standards for Lactic Acid Bacteria Beverages" and they fall into the category of fake and shoddy products; Guangzhou Enoch also distributed "How to Be Guided by the Bible," "Three-fold Missions of the Gospel" and other books on the Bible, including audio/video products and other illegal publications that preach Christianity and that do not have an approval code from the State. The company makes misleading, false and illegal claims on their product packaging and instruction manuals.
Due to the above confirmations, Fanyu Branch of Guangzhou Municipal Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce has rendered the following penalties on Guangzhou Enoch:
1. Ordered Guangzhou Enoch to terminate its business operation at 8, Dongsi Street, Yujing Garden, Luofu Street in Fanyu District.
2. Revoked the business license of the legal representative of Guangzhou Enoch Biological Science and Technology Co., Ltd.
3. Ordered the company to stop selling its fake and shoddy products.
4. Confiscated a total of 1,049 bottles of products detained from Enoch.
5. Imposed a fine of 200,000 yuan.
6. Confiscated 674 books, one box of propaganda materials (Grand Banquet) and 4,427 optical discs.
7. Ordered the company to stop the misleading, false and illegal claims in its promotion materials, product packaging and instruction manuals.
As for the above penalties dealt by Fanyu Branch of Guangzhou Municipal Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce, Guangzhou Enoch submitted a report requesting a hearing at Fanyu Branch of Guangzhou Municipal Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce. In the report requesting the report, Guangzhou Enoch says that 8, Dongsi Street, Yujing Garden, Luofu Street in Fanyu District of Guangzhou Municipality is the liaison center of the company and it is not a branch where products are directly sold. Enoch has neither gone beyond the approved scope of business nor changed its registration; it is inappropriate to test Enoch's products by "Hygiene Standards for Lactic Acid Bacteria Beverages" when the products currently manufactured by Enoch are fermented fruit and vegetable juices; "Three-fold Missions of the Gospel" and "Love at Your Side" are part of the enterprise culture of the company and are used to promote the image of the company. They were not sold and therefore it is impossible to produce illegal profits; "Grand Banquet," "How to Be Guided by the Bible" and other materials were found in the company's warehouse because some Christian employees of the company and some of our clients stored these materials and objects in the company's warehouses for miscellaneous goods.
The investigation and penalties by the Guangzhou authorities began on August 21, 2007 when Guangzhou Enoch was searched, its belongings confiscated and all the company's accounts were frozen and sealed. In mid-October, Pastor Daniel Ng, president of Enoch and his wife were placed under house arrest at home and were not allowed to leave the country.
It is widely believed by the public that the investigation and penalties suffered by Enoch are not a result of the company's business operation itself but because of the enterprise culture derived from the Christian belief that Enoch holds. It is a typical demonstration of the authorities that insist on suppressing religious freedom. Given the current development of the incident when the business license of Guangzhou Enoch is revoked along with other heavy penalties it has suffered, we cannot but say the incident is escalating and worsening. The efforts of suppression by the authorities on Guangzhou Enoch are becoming more and more obvious.
Pastor Daniel Ng of Enoch said many employees of the company have been arrested in this incident and everybody is scared. Now, the company is on the brink of bankruptcy and tens of millions worth of investments are going down the drain. Daniel Ng said that he has invested in the mainland China for over ten years in the past and has made his contributions to the economic development of China and that he never anticipated that he would end up in this situation. He appeals to people of all circles in society to show concern to the precarious situation he and his company are in.
It is learned that Enoch Group International Co., Ltd. is a large multi-national company that engages in international trade and industrial investment. Over 100 high-quality, highly effective ecological products in seven series manufactured by Guangzhou Enoch Biological Science and Technology Co., Ltd., a subdivision of Enoch Group, sell very well all over the world and the company enjoys a very high reputation in the industry.
An Open Letter to General Secretary Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao from Christian Entrepreneur Daniel Ng
November 15, 2007
Dear respectable General Secretary Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao,
My name is Daniel Ng and I am an ethnic Chinese with Australian citizenship. My ancestral home is in Jieyang, Guangdong Province. Both my wife Elisa Ng and I were born in Hong Kong in 1958. We were naturalized as Australians in 1996. In 1978, as China was just opening up and conducting reforms, my wife and I crossed Xiangjiang River and stepped on that vast expanse of mainland China for the first time. Shocked by the poverty we saw there, we made up our mind to help the compatriots in our motherland. In 1983, we founded Hong Kong Tenglong International Co., Ltd. and attended the China Import and Export Fair twice a year. In the meantime, we brought in a large number of international businessmen and a large amount of foreign currency in US dollars to China. For this, we were rated as "a giant foreign currency achiever" and "Enterprise in Good Faith" in the national foreign trade system. All the products we exported were from the side occupations of many peasants in China.
In 1999, we introduced biological technology and in response of the country's call to "promote agriculture through science and technology," we came out with the enterprise concept of "protecting the nature and bring a good life to the people" and invested three million yuan a year to be used in the countryside. In this way, we participated in the sustainable development of the countryside. Though we went through sufferings and hardship and our enterprise was once taken away from us, we persisted in our ideas and founded Enoch Biological Science and Technology Co., Ltd. in Guangzhou. For this, People's Daily, Quality Supervision Newspaper of China, China Economy, Guangdong Television, Guangzhou TV and other media agencies have reported our achievements.
As my wife and I grew up overseas and are devout Christians, we have received a Western-style education from childhood on; we did not know much about the differences between the Western culture and the Chinese culture. We knew even less how to decorate our strong Christian business culture such as the themes in "Love at Your Side," and "Giving is More a Blessing than Receiving," etc. Our expression of this culture was too direct and too high-profile. As we did not know how to make our business culture more Chinese, we have caused some misunderstanding in our compatriots in China and relevant agencies. For this, we really should do some self-examination and self-introspection on our words and deeds, but we would also like General Secretary Hu and Premier Wen to get to know the truth on this incident and give Christian entrepreneurs a relaxed business environment.
As entrepreneurs, our purpose is operating a business and promoting the economic development of our motherland and to help the peasants and disadvantaged groups get out of poverty and become rich. Our purpose in China is absolutely not preaching Christianity. Christianity is only our business culture and religious life.
At this time, the Chinese government also advocates that businesses should not operate purely for money and that they should have sense of responsibility for the society. Therefore, I responded to the call of the government and actively helped the peasants and funded the college educations of students from economically strapped families. At a time when the business operation was losing money in the company, we still gave, for free, a large amount of probiotic bacteria beverages to sick and poor peasants and disadvantaged social groups. As a result of our efforts, tens of thousands of poor peasants have recovered from poor health. This is purely a self-less donation from the bottom of our hearts. As our appreciation, we invested 30 million yuan that we earned from trading with China and we even sold our real estate properties in Australia and Hong Kong. With this, we fully committed ourselves in solving the three problems in China's rural areas: agricultural production, rural development and assistance to farmers. We have held over 20 Christian-style events of seeking investment and gatherings attended by Christians specializing in the fields of industry and commerce. These are all natural displays of my religious life and we never had a penny of financial support from overseas. As we overstated our Christian business culture in our efforts to seek investment, employees from the Administration Bureau of Industry and Commerce and the local police station once came to visit us, but no relevant agencies have ever said anything against us. Yet, we have attracted a lot of attention from the central government on our company's conduct.
After August 21 of this year, investigators from many government agencies have come to our factories on a continuous basis and repeatedly asked the technicians of the factory about the relevant recipes, technological processes in manufacturing, control points and other trade secrets. What is more serious is that they used the media and concocted false news in an attempt to damage the reputation of the company. Many government entities came to us on various grounds and conducted investigations for over two months. They detained the key members of our company and do not allow us to leave the country. Even now, they still have not given us a unified, reasonable and just explanation for their actions.
We therefore appeal for your help:
1. We hope the government can understand the strong patriotism of overseas Christian entrepreneurs. The business culture expressed by an overseas patriotic businessman is purely to teach our compatriots to be good people before they perform good deeds. However, our way of presenting this culture may not be very accurate as it was done in high profile. The discs we burned and our print materials were all given away in public to our distributors. This shows we are frank, straightforward and do everything in the open. By the principle of our faith, we support the Chinese government, follow the policies of the State and respect the laws of the State. We have never committed any vicious provocations. Our ultimate goal is that we can have an opportunity to make our contributions to the economic development of our motherland and give our care to the society. We hope the government leaders can understand this and give us support.
2. Please complete your investigation as soon as possible so that we can resume our production: It has been over two months since August 21. Some of the employees of our company have one by one quit their jobs as they could no longer endure the stress. As our assets are frozen, the factories cannot operate normally and our business is on the verge of bankruptcy. We believe that after almost three months of investigation the government agencies should have a good understanding of our company. We also hope this investigation can promote our exchange of ideas and understanding between us. It is also our hope that the government perform their moral obligations on the couple who have been serving the countryside of China with love for the past 20 years and help us resume our normal production.
3. As an old Chinese saying goes, "harmony is at the top of all achievements," different cultures are here for people to share with each other, not to harm each other. We believe all the bad things will turn into good things: 1) all the work units involved in this incident are helping us conduct reforms; 2) all the government leaders involved in this incident will become our friends; 3) all the law enforcement officers who are monitoring and investigating us will be our protectors.
If the relevant authorities decide to abolish our company, it will be a relief to us as well as a loss. However, the harm it would do to China would be in multiple aspects and in multiple levels. (We are trying to prevent that)
1. Economically, the destruction of a sunrise enterprise with five sets of biological technologies would be a heavy blow to the construction of a new socialist countryside.
2. Personnel-wise, a team that has made its contribution to the protection of water, soil and environment, pest control, food safety in agricultural products, human health and other areas would disappear.
3. Environmentally, it was we who led the agricultural production to ecological balance. We have become a bellwether in the industry and have attracted attention from our peers.
4. In the countryside, the two major indexes for the sustainable development of the rural economy-- -enhancement of quality of agricultural products and the natural recovery of the rural resources and environment can both find solutions through our biological technology.
5. Culturally, "Love at Your Side" ---the sense of mission for businesses we advocate and man's sense of responsibility for the society would become just an echo in history.
After this incident, we will make more efforts in studying the laws and policies of the State and strictly distinguish religious activities from business activities so that we will not cause any more misunderstanding from the law enforcement agencies. It is already 30 years since we first came to China and we have grown together with Guangzhou. We hope we will not leave behind any regrets and sadness in our motherland. Instead, we will continue to serve the Chinese countryside and its peasants.
Yours,
Salute!!
Humbly presented to you from:
Daniel Ng and Eliza Ng
Media interview with Rev. Ng, please contact:
Tel: +86-15302260242 or +86-13265947777
Email: RevDanielNg@gmail.com
Issued by CAA on November 21, 2007
