September 25, 2008
   

Leadership receives praise as local officials castigated in China milk scandal

     

 

China's top leadership received praise for the handling of the milk crisis while local officials were warned to take a much more serious view of food safety issues in the wake of China's contaminated milk scandals which saw tens of thousands of babies hospitalised and four babies dead.

 

The head of China's food safety watchdog resigned on Monday for failing to put a halt to the widespread contamination of melamine in milk formulas as the number of babies affected in this scandal soared to nearly 53,000, including four infants who died.

 

The  news came as investigators revealed that China's largest producer of powdered milk, Sanlu Group Co, had actually received complaints from consumers as early as December 2007 linking its baby formula to illnesses in infants

 

Tests revealed that the milk was tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, which is used to make plastics and fertilizers. Suppliers trying to cut costs are believed to have added it to the formula because its high nitrogen content helps to mask the resulting protein deficiency.

 

Therefore, milk farmers in certain areas had to dump milk stocks since some enterprises restricted and even stopped purchasing raw milk.

 

Tian Wenhua, the board chairwoman and general manager of China dairy giant Sanlu Group, where the first cases of melamine contaiminated milk surfaced, was fired from her posts in the wake of the tainted baby formula milk powder scandal.

   

Tian was also removed from her post as the secretary of the corporation committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to Party authorities of Hebei Province and its capital Shijiazhuang where the company is based.

 

In an editorial yesterday, the China Daily said political leaders had succeeded by their crisis management to reassure the public while at the same time scaring local officials into more responsible behaviour.

 

"The central authorities' high-profile intervention, highlighted by the personal involvement of the top leaders, and the exhaustive... treatment of the victims have worked well in calming the public," it said.

 

"The treatment of delinquent public officials, on the other hand, conveys a much-needed message to both the public and public officials -- no one should expect kid gloves when things get really bad."

 

While second or third third tier local officials have earned the scorn of the public, Premier Wen Jiabao has received kudos for visiting children's hospitals and hugging babies sickened by tainted milk powder, AFP reported, noting that it was either a result of clever state design or cultural habit.

 

A China watcher at City University of Hong Kong also told the AFP that is part of China's culture not to criticise the political elite

 

Others have questioned whether news of the discovery had been delayed deliberately so as not to generate negative publicity during China's hosting of the Olympics last month.

 

The CEO of New Zealand's Fonterra, which owns 43 percent of Sanlu, said it was informed of the milk contamination cases on August 2 but local authorities took no action to recall products until a month later and even then it was after protests from New Zealand's government.

 

Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Agriculture has asked the relevant agricultural and veterinary authorities to take emergency measures in order to protect milk farmers' legal right and to ensure that less milk are dumped and no cows killed.

 

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has also received promise letters from more than 700 dairy producers throughout China, according to information released from the Administration on Sunday, 21st September 2008.

 

These dairy enterprises, which have passed the recent inspection tests, promised that they will strictly obey the national laws and regulations and operate in good faith to ensure the dairy product safety and to fulfill their social responsibilities.