China clamps down on dope manufacturers ahead of Olympics

China is clamping down on producers and pedlars of banned doping substances ahead of August's Beijing Olympics but targeting online distributors is proving problematic, a government official said on Wednesday.

China was embroiled in a series of doping scandals in the late 1980s and early 1990s but has vowed to stamp the practice out before hosting the Olympics this year. "The Chinese government has been more and more aggressive on anti-doping, especially since the second half of 2007," Wu Zhen, deputy commissioner of the State Food and Drug Administration told a news conference.

"We are determined to take the opportunity of the Olympic Games to reduce doping in China," he added.

Wu said investigations, both open and covert, carried out over the last year had discovered 151 enterprises producing or distributing anabolic steroids, Erythropotein (EPO) or human growth hormone (HGH).

They had been punished, Wu said, some having their licences to trade stopped.

One company in Jiangxi province was found to have traded about 1 million yuan's ($145,000) worth of banned performance enhancers on the internet without a licence.

The company was fined 800,000 yuan ($116,100) and the "person responsible" jailed for seven years, not for selling banned substances but for illegal trading.

Other traders on the Internet have proved harder to track down.