WORLD / Wall Street Journal Exclusive
China confronts crisis over food safety
(WSJ)
Updated: 2007-05-30 09:46
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118042644890316974-2qa0fsBUq1HWwjdgm
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A death sentence meted out to the former head of China's food and drug
watchdog, together with the announced formation of a national food-recall
system, suggests Beijing intends to send a stern message amid a series of
contaminations that has drawn international attention.
The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court yesterday (May 29)
sentenced Zheng Xiaoyu for receiving bribes of cash and gifts worth at
least $850,000 from eight pharmaceutical companies during his tenure at
the helm of the State Food and Drug Administration, according to a report
from the state-run Xinhua news agency. The court justified the death
sentence by citing the "huge amount of bribes involved and the great
damage inflicted on the country and the public by Zheng's dereliction of
duty," according to the Xinhua report. The report didn't name the
companies.
Meanwhile, China announced it is setting up a food-recall system, nearly
five years after it adopted a law indicating the need for such a
mechanism. An official with the SFDA, China's main food-safety agency,
confirmed the drafting of a regulation that will be released by the end
of the year.
Despite the drama surrounding Mr. Zheng's sentence, the planned recall
system may prove more significant for China's first serious attempt to
fix recurring food-safety problems. Death sentences for Chinese officials
convicted of corruption aren't uncommon. For example, in late 2003, Wang
Huaizhong, who as vice provincial governor of Anhui had held roughly the
same rank as Mr. Zheng, received a capital sentence for taking bribes
totaling 5.17 million yuan ($676,000). He was executed a few months later.
An official at the court confirmed Mr. Zheng's sentence. A recent written
request to the court to attend the hearing had gone unanswered.
It wasn't clear whether Mr. Zheng, 62 years old, would appeal. A person
who answered the phone at Beijing New Era Law Firm said that Zhang Qing,
a lawyer at the firm representing Mr. Zheng, wouldn't accept interview
requests. Under Chinese law, a death sentence imposed by an intermediate
court is automatically reviewed by a higher court and ultimately must be
approved by the state Supreme Court.
China is struggling to contain a snowballing crisis of confidence in the
safety of its food and drugs, both at home and abroad. Global concern
began growing in late March, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
said it had identified a small manufacturer in Jiangsu province as the
source of wheat flour contaminated with melamine, a chemical used in
plastics and fire retardants that is unfit for use in food. The FDA later
said a second Chinese company was also a source of tainted ingredients.
The contaminated wheat flour, used to make pet food in the U.S., has been
blamed for the deaths of a number of cats and dogs, leading to a massive
pet-food recall.
More recently, concern over Chinese imports has spread beyond pet food.
Last week, the FDA ordered that imports of toothpaste from China be
stopped at the U.S. border until they are tested and proved to be safe.
This followed reports that health officials had found diethylene glycol,
a potentially dangerous chemical used in products such as antifreeze, in
Chinese toothpaste in Panama, the Dominican Republic and Australia.
The safety of China's drugs has also been an issue. In the spring of
2006, more than 10 people fell ill after injections of a gallbladder
medicine made by Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co. Five people died.
"Those directly responsible for the incident and those who fail to
fulfill their supervisory duties will be punished," Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao said last May, according to Xinhua. "The pharmaceutical market is
in disorder."
A government investigation determined that Qiqihar had used diethylene
glycol, the same chemical recently found in the toothpaste, to cut costs
in producing the drug. The deaths drew a national outcry, and the company
was shut down.
"The Chinese government has always seriously regarded consumer products,
especially with regard to the safety of food and medicines, and we treat
the protection of our citizens' lives and safety as an important
responsibility," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular
briefing yesterday. "We are willing to work with the international
community to safeguard the quality and reputation of China's consumer
products."
The food-recall regulation will lay out specific recall procedures,
though it remains to be seen how effective it will be in preventing food
crises. Many agencies are involved in China's food-safety supervision,
including the Ministry of Health and the State Administration for
Industry and Commerce.
The draft regulation applies only to food production. That is the
responsibility of the General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection and Quarantine, which is in charge of making sure food made in
or brought into China meets safety standards, and which is the agency now
drafting the food-recall regulation.
Food sold at stalls and restaurants is overseen by other ministries that
don't have clear laws on how to recall or address unsafe food.
Chen Xitong, an official with the news division of the General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine,
declined to be interviewed about the regulation.
Separately, 19 government officials linked to one of China's worst cases
of lead poisoning have been punished, and the chairman of a lead smelter
that flouted safety regulations will face criminal charges.
The case was uncovered in August after a child from Xinsi, a village next
to the smelter in western China's rural Gansu province, was diagnosed
with high levels of lead. Tests confirmed that nearly 1,000 children from
the region -- both from Xinsi and another village, Mouba -- had excessive
levels of lead, with dozens requiring hospitalization. They included 62
who were treated for moderate or severe lead poisoning.
Some of the children in Xinsi were found to have lead levels that
exceeded 700 micrograms per liter of blood. Chinese authorities say more
than 100 micrograms is unhealthy, with 250 micrograms qualifying as
poisoning. The World Health Organization says levels of 100 micrograms
per liter and above are cause for concern in children. Lead damages the
body and causes brain damage by mimicking helpful metals such as calcium,
iron and zinc. Exposure is especially harmful to children. Studies show
even slightly elevated lead levels can lead to permanent neurological
damage and reduced IQ. About 34% of children across China have blood-lead
levels that exceed the WHO limit, according to a recent report by
researchers at Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing.
Officials from China's central government have blamed local officials for
allowing Huixian Hongyu Nonferrous Smelting Co., a unit of the formerly
state-owned Gansu Luo Ba Nonferrous Group, to continue operating until
late August. The plant, which purified lead ore, ignored basic health and
safety regulations even after being ordered to stop earlier last year,
according to Xinhua.
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