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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Ex-Chinese Food And Drug Chief Sentenced To Death For Graft |
| 2007-05-29 |
| China's former central food and drug chief, Zheng Xiaoyu, was sentenced to death by a Beijing court on Tuesday for graft and dereliction of duty, the state media reported. The 62-year-old Zheng was the first director of the State Administration and Drug Administration (SFDA) in 1998 until he was sacked in June 2005. His six-year tenure was riddled with corruption scandals, even involving his relatives and subordinates, and a series of food safety scares, Xinhua news agency said. Zheng was under disciplinary investigation and expelled from the communist party in March this year before he went on trial from May 16 for taking more than 6.4 million yuan (RM2.9 million) in bribes and for dereliction of duty. Last November, his former secretary and ex-director of the SFDA medical devices department was jailed for 15 years also for bribery. The SFDA former drug registration director had been under investigation since January last year, Xinhua said. The local media reported earlier that the probe into the scandal involved 31 people, including Zheng's wife, son and a number of drug companies. One pharmaceutical from south China's Hainan province was alleged to have bribed Zheng to approve 277 medicines, mostly high-profit antibiotics. Meanwhile, the government is drawing up regulations to recall unsafe and unapproved food products following a spate of food safety scares. "All domestic and foreign food producers and distributors will be obliged to follow the system," Wu Jianping, director-general of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, told China Daily. Banned dyes in duck eggs, fish bred with cancer-causing feed and tainted milk powder mass food poisoning cases had raised questions of the standard of food security, he said. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #8 I'd like to say that I can't imagine why we let anything from China into this country let alone ag products or anything else that might be ingested. But I'm afraid I understand all too well. It's all about greed and corruption. Show me a candidate with the balls to tell the chicoms to FOAD and I will vote for that candidate. But none of them will even talk about China. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-05-29 15:53 |
| #7 The death penalty for lobbying, corruption, Congress critters pork barrel deals, influence pedaling, etc. would definitely put a crimp in the style of many in the U.S. government. Can you image putting to death some guy in the U.S. FDA or Department of Agriculture for letting tainted shit into the U.S.A.? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-05-29 13:50 |
| #6 Already, China is responsible for 80% of the world's ascorbic acid production. Damn, that is a scary thought. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2007-05-29 11:53 |
| #5 This was solely done for American consumption And Shieldwolf wins the Kewpie doll! This is China's economic version of the Palestinians' sewage tsunami. All that we have yet to see is several dozen Americans killed by some sort of industrially tainted food product. One of the major reasons China is able to sustain such explosive growth is a near total lack of comprehensive regulation. Much like Mexico, if China had to meet proper environmental impact regulations, USDA level health inspections and code compliance, in-house QA/QC record keeping plus verified and traceable supply chains for critical ingredients, suddenly the big profits would vanish overnight. This is merely one of many ways that China tilts the playing field to their immense advantage. We need to remove that incentive by penalizing them for this economic mayhem. Already, China is responsible for 80% of the world's ascorbic acid production. This is a vital preservative and is used in myriad food products. It makes little or no sense to let them have have control over such a critical food ingredient. Handing the reins over to a communist thugocracy is just plain suicide. We should know better. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-29 01:24 |
| #4 This was solely done for American consumption : there is a tidal wave of negative publicity coming from the tainted food/pet products/toothpaste reports; and the PRC is trying to get ahead of the wave. This execution will have ZERO impact on the continuing dangers of Chinese contaminated products, since the person involved was removed from office 2 years ago. If the PRC was to execute the current head of their FDA, it might have some impact. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2007-05-29 01:09 |
| #3 He probably has it coming. Hopefully it will cause those who follow him to actually do the job properly. Now how 'bout those exports? |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-05-29 01:09 |
| #2 No.... but it does help to set the tone, you have to admit. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2007-05-29 00:49 |
| #1 One word: Scapegoat. Does anyone really believe that this move will put an end to the huge quantities of tainted food products arriving from China? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-29 00:38 |