All about Nine Dragons …

John Hawkins
THE Cayman, British Virgin Islands and Jersey tax haven-based Nine Dragons Paper Company ( TT: Here )was founded and is still controlled and majority owned by Mrs. Cheung Yan and her family; the richest person in China.
She started the company with $4000 in Hong Kong in 1985, moved to Los Angeles and by 2001 her company had become the largest exporter of wastepaper from the USA to China.

The wastepaper is shipped to Dongguan and turned into cardboard packaging by her 9 Dragons Chinese factories.

The company has been cited for worker abuse by the Chinese Federation of Trade Unions. Researchers visited Mayong Hospital where 9 Dragons injured employees were taken, heavily armed guards kept them from interviewing the workers, whose hands had become infected and inflamed from peeling wastepaper without gloves.

These facts were noted in the 2008 human rights report by the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, describing the 9 Dragons’ workplace with 50 industrial accidents, including two deaths, in the past year. The Commission wrote: “The Union found the company’s imposition of excessive penalties on employees to be a serious problem – fines totaling $180,000 were imposed on 70% of the company’s workforce last year.” Premier Bartlett could learn a lot from this company!

The company’s Bonds are currently C.C.C. rated and on negative watch by Fitch Ratings as of 20 Feb 2009.

I ask former KPMG operator in China Kevin Rudd is this a suitable company to take over 50% of Tasmania’s loggable native forests for the next 20 years at $12 a tonne courtesy of a contract with Forestry Tasmania in exchange for 50% of a Gunns Pulp Mill?