The former head of China’s Food & Drug Administration is sentenced to death, according to The New York Times. The official, Zheng Xiaoyu, was charged with corruption and bribery scandals that may have been at the root of the poisonous pet-food incident in the U.S. and the case of antifreeze chemicals getting into toothpaste in Latin America:
In Panama, more than 100 people died last year after consuming cough medicine laced with diethylene glycol that was shipped from China mislabeled as a harmless syrup.
The incidents pose a huge threat to China’s growing food and drug exports and have already led to international calls for new testing and screening methods for Chinese-made goods. [NYT]
While pinning responsibility is essential in cases like these, it appears that China’s corruption problem is a system-wide infection. In other words, killing Zheng will not solve the issue – there needs to be a major overhaul.
Another part of me feels that this is an inherent drawback of globalisation; as we continue to outsource and import we should acknowledge that we are losing a degree of control over what we put into our (or our pets’) bodies – this is a frightening reality, but one we must all face honestly.
The Daily Transit 