BEIJING, May 29, 2007
China To Execute Chief Food Inspector
Corruption Charges Lead To Condemnation Of Former Food And Drug Administration Head
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A Chinese child eyes a sausage on the streets of Beijing Tuesday, May 29, 2007. China's former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Tuesday for taking bribes to approve untested medicines, as the country's main quality control agency announced its first recall system for unsafe food products. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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Interactive Focus On China Explore the history, people and economy of China, the world’s most populous nation.
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Seeking to address broadening concerns over food, the government also announced plans for its first recall system for unsafe products.
The developments are among the most dramatic steps Beijing has publicly taken to address domestic and international alarm over shoddy and unsafe Chinese goods — from pet food ingredients and toothpaste mixed with industrial chemicals to tainted antibiotics.
Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court convicted Zheng Xiaoyu of taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than 6.49 million yuan ($832,000) while he was director of the State Food and Drug Administration, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Those bribes allowed eight companies to get around drug approval standards, it said.
Zheng's acts "greatly undermined ... the efficiency of China's drug monitoring and supervision, endangered public life and health and had a very negative social impact," Xinhua said, citing the court.
The punishment was appropriate given the "huge amount of bribes involved and the great damage inflicted on the country and the public," Xinhua said.
In one instance, an antibiotic approved by Zheng's agency killed at least 10 patients last year before it was taken off the market.
Under Chinese law, a death sentence meted out by an intermediate court will automatically be reviewed by a higher court and ultimately has to be approved by the state Supreme Court.
The sentence was unusually heavy even for China, which is believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined — and likely indicates the leadership's determination to deal with the recent scares involving unsafe food and drugs.
"The Chinese government attaches great importance to the safety and security of food," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular briefing Tuesday when asked about Zheng's case.
"We stand ready to work with the international community to safeguard the quality and reputation of the Chinese food industry," she said.
In its noon newscast, state television showed a gray-haired Zheng, 62, flanked by court police, who handcuffed him while the verdict was being read.
Internet bulletin board postings on Sina.com, one of China's biggest news portals, reflected the public's approval over Zheng's fate.
Zheng had 23 years of experience manufacturing pharmaceuticals in the eastern city of Hangzhou before being appointed the drug administration's first head in 1998, China Central Television said in its report. He ran it until he was fired in 2005.
Zheng saw his power increase substantially in 2002 when the government required that all drugs be approved by the agency. The change resulted in a massive backlog, a situation that encouraged corruption and the cutting of corners on approvals for often bogus or dangerous drugs.
China's first food recall measures will be implemented by the end of the year, an official from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China's main food safety agency, was cited as saying.
"All domestic and foreign food producers and distributors will be obliged to follow the system," Wu Jianping, director general of the administration's food production and supervision department, was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily newspaper.
The recall system will be put in place gradually and will focus on "potentially dangerous and unapproved food products," the report said.
The report did not provide further details and the inspection agency refused to comment.
Current regulations on product inspection, issued in 2002, mention the need for a food recall system but the issue has never been systematically addressed, the China Daily said.
The paper also said the State Food and Drug Administration, the agency formerly run by the disgraced Zheng, will blacklist food producers who break rules.
Under a nationwide safety campaign launched Monday, 90 administration inspectors will be sent to 15 provinces over the next two weeks, the newspaper said.
Food safety is a serious problem across the vast country, with China's Health Ministry reporting almost 34,000 food-related illnesses in 2005. Spoiled food accounted for the largest number, followed by poisonous plants or animals and use of agricultural chemicals.
According to the official magazine Outlook Weekly, a survey by the quality inspection administration found that a third of China's 450,000 food producers had no licenses, and 60 percent did not conduct safety tests or have the capability to do so.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 37 CommentsBut now that his good ol' boys are in power, everyone gets a slap with a wet noodle and the real screwups get a Medal of Honor.
Notice how the Chinese are buying up more and more of our assets with all that WALMART money we give them. Does the GOP even care that eventually they would command enough lobbyist money to conquer us from within??
Posted by oleander8 at 11:58 AM : May 29, 2007
Amen. Let's bring those judges over here so they can try such winners as Gonzalez, Rove and even Cheney and Bush. I'd have no problem supporting the eventual punishment! Hell I'd even support shipping our criminals like these 4 (and others in this corrupt administration) over to China for the trials too!
But like rf35 said, this guy was fired in 2005, so killing him isn't going to solve the problem now is it? Obviously there has been someone else doing that job since then and this would be the person that is responsible for the tainted pet food, our chemical and bacteria contaminated food and the poisoned toothpaste. AND I bet there is more that we haven't even discovered yet.
Also killing the person responsible is only a minor solution. First they need to be taught what the "potentially dangerous and unapproved food products" are. That could be a major undertaking right there, because if they haven't figured that out by now, I don't think they are capable of learning it.
You will have to excuse me but I don't hold out much hope of this happening.
And to the person that said something about the wheat gluten not getting into our food: What do you call it when it was fed to the hogs and used to feed the farmed fish?
I LIKE THEIR JUSTICE SYSTEM. MAYBE WE SHOULD HOLD OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TO THE SAME PUNISHMENT. I'LL BET YOU WOULD SEE A BUNCH OF ELECTED CROOKS RUNNING FOR THE HILLS. ONE WAY TO STOP THE CORRUPTION IN CONGRESS, AND THIS CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.......
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