China scolded for exporting performance-enhancing drugs

The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency on Monday said China was exporting performance enhancing drugs and said it had a special responsibility as the host of the next Olympiad to step up its anti-doping controls.

BEIJING — The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency on Monday said China was exporting performance enhancing drugs and said it had a special responsibility as the host of the next Olympiad to step up its anti-doping controls.
    WADA chairman Dick Pound said China was among ''many countries'' that have been identified as sources of ''perform enhancing drugs that have been sent to other countries.'' He did not give specifics.
    ''Much of my visit here in China will be for the purpose of encouraging the proper authorities, in both sport and government, to increase the effort to bring China to the forefront of the fight against doping in sport,'' Pound said in a speech at Beijing's Sport University.
    China is trying hard to shake a reputation for doping among its athletes, a drive that has gained added urgency ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
    China cracked down on doping following a string of scandals in the 1990s, when 32 of its swimmers alone were caught for drug offenses, two of them twice. It introduced tough new testing regimes and penalties, with 17 athletes punished in 2004 with fines and competition bans of up to two years.
    ''An Olympic host country has the special responsibility, both at home and around the world to demonstrate its commitment to doping free sport,'' said Pound, who arrived in China on Sunday for a four-day visit.
    ''Now is the time for all countries, including China, to make sure that they have put into place programs necessary to remove doping from sport,'' he said.
    Pound on Monday was also given an honorary degree by the university and visited the testing labs at the China Doping Control Center in Beijing.