FORMER BEIJING REGULATOR FACES DEATH By Geoff Dyer in Shanghai
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The former head of China's food and drugs regulator was sentenced to death by a court in Beijing yesterday for taking bribes to approve medicines, as the government scrambled to restore confidence after a series of scandals about health and safety.
Zheng Xiaoyu was convicted on charges of taking more than Rmb6.5m ($832,000, �32,000, £429,000) in bribes from drugs companies and of “dereliction of duty” by the Beijing Municipal No 1 Intermediate People's Court, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The harsh sentence can still be appealed against. But it is the most decisive response yet from Beijing to the growing unease in China and overseas about the quality of Chinese food and drugs, which is threatening to undermine the country's fast-growing agricultural exports.
In a separate announcement, the government said it would introduce a recall system for “potentially dangerous and unapproved” food products.
Food and drug scares have been relatively commonplace in China in recent years. However, its regulatory regime has also been in the international spotlight over the past month after it was revealed that wheat gluten containing melamine, a chemical used in fertilisers, had been found in pet food in the US that caused the deaths of cats and dogs.
Last week, the US halted all imports of toothpaste from China after reports that products sold in some Latin America countries contained a poisonous chemical. Several US states have banned imports of catfish from China, while US regulators have warned about imports of Chinese monkfish.
According to Outlook Weekly, a magazine run by the Xinhua Group, a survey of 450,000 food production companies conducted by the government's food quality agency found that 60 per cent did not have the capability to do quality inspections.
Earlier this year, the State Council, China's top governing body, ordered a review of the licences of 170,000 drugs, most of which were approved during Mr Zheng's tenure at the State Food and Drug Administration.
