05/31/2007
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Public Menace. First he was notified of the investigation into his conduct, then came the expulsion
from the party, and now the sentence of death. Stunned by a colossal scandal involving
contaminated goods and counterfeit medicines, China has found a scapegoat and
made him an example - an excessively harsh example, some say - in the former director
of China's Federal Drug Administration (FDA), Zheng Xiaoyu. He has been accused
of pocketing bribes for hundreds of thousands of dollars from eight pharmaceutical
companies who he permitted to circumvent safety controls in order to market counterfeit
drugs. "His conduct," reads the sentence, "gravely damaged the monitoring and
supervisory capacity of the FDS, endangering public health and life, with an extremely
negative social impact."
Solvent-flavored toothpaste. The sentence is very severe even for a nation with the highest death penalty
rate in the world, which condemns more people to death than all other nations
put together. Zheng was quite powerful, holding one of the supreme posts in national
government. He was elected to be head of the agency in 1998, and achieved enormous
power in 2002 when the government decreed that all drugs must pass FDA approval.
His sentence, which must first be approved by two other judicial bodies (the High
Court and the Supreme Court), demonstrated that Beijing has responded in the most
convenient and brutal way to the international alarm unleashed by the scandal
of contaminated foods and drugs coming from China, including spoiled pet food
in the US and toothpaste with solvent shipped to Central America and the Caribbean.
No Safety Tests. Zheng's sentence includes two additional decrees: more severe restrictions on
licenses for drugs, and above all, the withdrawal from the market of an enormous
quantity of unapproved foods. To apply the new measures, ninety inspectors will
be sent to fifteen provinces in the coming weeks, with the task of composing a
list of companies who do not observe food safety regulations. A Health Ministry
report in 2005 counted 35,000 cases of food poisoning caused by spoiled foods
or foods containing pesticides or toxic contaminants. The report stated that one
third of the 450,000 Chinese food production companies have no license, while
sixty percent carry out no tests to guarantee the safety of their products.
Keywords: Zheng Xiaoyu, China, Federal Drug Administration, safety, solvent, chemicals, food
Topic: Health
Area: China
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The Minister of Food Security is condemned to death for corruption
Public Menace. First he was notified of the investigation into his conduct, then came the expulsion
from the party, and now the sentence of death. Stunned by a colossal scandal involving
contaminated goods and counterfeit medicines, China has found a scapegoat and
made him an example - an excessively harsh example, some say - in the former director
of China's Federal Drug Administration (FDA), Zheng Xiaoyu. He has been accused
of pocketing bribes for hundreds of thousands of dollars from eight pharmaceutical
companies who he permitted to circumvent safety controls in order to market counterfeit
drugs. "His conduct," reads the sentence, "gravely damaged the monitoring and
supervisory capacity of the FDS, endangering public health and life, with an extremely
negative social impact."
Solvent-flavored toothpaste. The sentence is very severe even for a nation with the highest death penalty
rate in the world, which condemns more people to death than all other nations
put together. Zheng was quite powerful, holding one of the supreme posts in national
government. He was elected to be head of the agency in 1998, and achieved enormous
power in 2002 when the government decreed that all drugs must pass FDA approval.
His sentence, which must first be approved by two other judicial bodies (the High
Court and the Supreme Court), demonstrated that Beijing has responded in the most
convenient and brutal way to the international alarm unleashed by the scandal
of contaminated foods and drugs coming from China, including spoiled pet food
in the US and toothpaste with solvent shipped to Central America and the Caribbean.No Safety Tests. Zheng's sentence includes two additional decrees: more severe restrictions on
licenses for drugs, and above all, the withdrawal from the market of an enormous
quantity of unapproved foods. To apply the new measures, ninety inspectors will
be sent to fifteen provinces in the coming weeks, with the task of composing a
list of companies who do not observe food safety regulations. A Health Ministry
report in 2005 counted 35,000 cases of food poisoning caused by spoiled foods
or foods containing pesticides or toxic contaminants. The report stated that one
third of the 450,000 Chinese food production companies have no license, while
sixty percent carry out no tests to guarantee the safety of their products.Keywords: Zheng Xiaoyu, China, Federal Drug Administration, safety, solvent, chemicals, foodTopic: Health
Area: China
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