The criminal.
Posted on 07/09/2007 9:41:02 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEIJING - China executed the former head of its State Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Zheng Xiaoyu was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths and other substandard medicines.
This is a breaking news update. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BEIJING (AP) — China said Tuesday its food and drug safety procedures were not satisfactory and vowed to improve them.
China has been under pressure domestically and internationally to improve its quality controls after a series of health scares attributed to substandard Chinese products, including exported tainted food and fake drugs.
"As a developing country, China's current food and drug safety situation is not very satisfactory because supervision of food and drug safety started late, its foundation is weak so the supervision of food and drug safety is not easy," the State Food and Drug Administration said in a statement at the start of a news conference.
Chinese officials have already said the country faces social unrest and further tarnishing of its image abroad unless it improves the safety of its food and drug chains.
The Food and Drug Administration has announced a series of measures to tighten safety controls and closed factories. The former boss of the administration has been sentenced to death for taking bribes from drug companies.
Fears abroad over Chinese-made products were sparked last year by the deaths of dozens of people in Panama who took medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol — a thickening agent used in antifreeze — imported from China. It was passed off as harmless glycerin.
In North America earlier this year, pet food containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats.
Since then, U.S. authorities have turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint.
Chinese-made toothpaste has been banned from a handful of countries because it contained diethylene glycol. However, there have been no reports of health problems stemming from the product. China has no guideline banning the chemical in toothpaste, and the government says it is harmless in small amounts.
The domestic list of food scares from the past year includes drug-tainted fish, banned Sudan dye used to color egg yolks red, and pork tainted with clenbuterol, a banned feed additive.
China has also stepped up its inspections of imported products and said some imported U.S. products are not safe.
In the latest case, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday that a shipment of sugar-free drink mix from the United States had been rejected for having too much red dye.
Last week, the China's food safety watchdog said almost 20 percent of products made for domestic consumption were found to be substandard in the first half of 2007. Canned and preserved fruit and dried fish were the most problematic, primarily because of excessive bacteria and additives, the agency said.
In May, former administration director Zheng Xiaoyu was sentenced to death for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths within China.
His death sentence was unusually heavy even for China, believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined. It was an indication of the leadership's determination to confront the country's dire product safety record.
China has "courts" ? All courts are not the same.
They publicly denied to us there was any problem. LOL
That is one screwed up country; I’d never put anything from that nation into my body.
i’ll betcha that many american tv viewers will have less problems with this
than the “torture” by the bush administration at guantanamo!
Probably now in a can of dog food.
Hey...can I get one of his kidneys?
Death penalty for taking bribes? COOL! I’d like to see a law like that leave a trail of destruction through DC one day...
“I’d like to see a law like that leave a trail of destruction through DC one day...”
It would be genocide.
Well I for one feel much better about buying Chinese products for consumption....NOT!
Zheng Xiaoyu’s last meal?
Szechuan Cat w/noodles in a tasty sauce of Prestone.
Zheng Xiaoyu now sleeps with the toxic fishes.
Wow! Thats swift justice. A bit severe, but swift.
Yes, both grass and clay.
Boy, if that happened in the U.S., he’d be carried on the shoulders of human-hating enviro-whackos. Probably join the Dhimmocratic Party, too.
The safety of products and foods coming from China is a MAJOR issue. I think it is one that liberals and conservatives could agree upon. Problem is liberals and trial lawyers are joined at the hip. Trial lawyers are hesitant to take actions because the Chinese companies do not have deep pockets that they can reach. On Lou Dobbs last week, there was a story about defective Chinese tires, there was going to be a recall but the Chinese could only pay for fraction of the recall. Our governmental agencies were essentially sitting back and picking their noses because everyone knows that our government only enforces the law when it comes punishing LEGAL CITIZENS. Lou Dobbs is no conservative, but I am getting very tired of conservatives sitting back silently as the Communist Chinese get special and lenient treatment that American companies could never get away with, and 99 per cent of American companies do not have the lack of conscience to try to get away with.
I think Bush’s uncle (41’s brother) headed the US-China Chamber of Commerce.
Lol!
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