SUN WUKONG China struggles to cap milk crisis
By Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - China's escalating toxic milk scandal has caused the resignation of
a high-level government official as Beijing desperately tries to limit the
damage. The more it does, however, the more it becomes apparent that another
massive food safety crises could occur.
At least three children have died and more than 50,000 infants have taken ill
or been hospitalized over the past few weeks after digesting milk powder
adulterated with the industrial chemical melamine, which can be used to cheat
quality checks.
China has vowed to choke off toxic milk from reaching processors and export
markets in the US$19 billion dairy sector. Japan,
Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan
have already banned or recalled Chinese milk products,
On Monday, Li Changjiang, the head of the General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), resigned, almost a year after
he and the government pledged to improve controls following several product
safety scares.
These included the recalls from other countries of tainted toothpaste, faulty
tires, contaminated seafood and in March 2007, pet food containing melamine
that was blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats in the United States.
Melamine is generally used to make plastics and fertilizer and has been found
in infant formula and other milk products from 22 Chinese dairy companies.
Melamine is used is to cut costs for diluted milk because the chemical's high
nitrogen content disguises the product's protein deficiency. In babies, it can
cause kidney failure.
It has now emerged that China's biggest producer of powdered milk, the Sanlu
Group, received complaints last December linking its infant formula to
illnesses in babies. The formerly state-owned Sanlu Group, now 43% owned by New
Zealand diary giant the Fonterra Cooperation Group, is accused of covering up
the crisis to avoid upsetting the euphoria of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games.
Li on Monday tendered his resignation to the State Council (cabinet) and it was
immediately accepted, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. In China's
political language, this is equivalent to saying he is blamed and has been
sacked.
As such, Li becomes the highest-profile political casualty in this unfolding
crisis, and the first senior central government official to be held accountable
and step down since 2003, when the then health minister, Zhang Wenkang, was
sacked for trying to cover up the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory
syndrome).
Wang Yong, deputy secretary general of the State Council, has been appointed to
replace Li as minister in charge of the AQSIQ, Xinhua said.
But the matter does not end with his resignation.
China touts itself as a world manufacturing center, including in the dairy
industry, in which many foreign companies are involved.
The finger of suspicion now points beyond milk powder to made-in-China items
with milk as an ingredient - Chinese or foreign brands - such as canned coffee,
candies, cream and cakes.
On Sunday, China's Ministry of Health announced that more than 50,000 people,
most of them infants, had been made ill by melamine-tainted milk and milk
products. Nearly 13,000 babies remain in hospitals. In a country with a
"one-child" policy, this is particularly distressing.
Hong Kong reported its first such case over the weekend, with a girl diagnosed
with kidney trouble after drinking milk from the mainland. The World Health
Organization has expressed deep concern.
The scandal cannot be explained away as an "industrial accident" in the
fledgling dairy sector. Rather, it is a man-made disaster involving criminal
activities.
To date, the authorities have arrested and charged a few suppliers of fresh
milk to the Sanlu Group, based in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of
Hebei. Former Sanlu boss Tian Wenhua has been sacked and detained for trying to
cover up the incident. Several senior Shijiazhuang officials have also been
held accountable and sacked. And now Li has been made to pay.
It is emerging that adding melamine into fresh and powdered milk has been an
enduring and rampant crime.
When the Sanlu case was exposed, some Chinese media quoted unnamed insiders as
saying that it had for a long time been an open secret in the trade to add
melamine and water into fresh milk to increase its weight while keeping the
protein levels high enough.
Subsequent official investigations support this. According to the vice governor
of Hebei, Yang Congyong, suppliers started to add the chemical as early as
2005. And the number of dairy companies found to have been producing tainted
products is spreading across the country. They include Mengniu, Yili and Bright
- three top manufacturers. Mengniu and Yili are based in Inner Mongolia while
Bright is in Shanghai.
If the practice was so pervasive, how did it go undetected for so long?
In June, consumers sent e-mails to AQSIQ demanding that the quality watchdog
launch an investigation into Sanlu baby formula on suspicions that it was
causing health problems. AQSIQ took no action. Last Friday, Li himself pledged
an investigation to find out whether there was any malfeasance on the part of
his staff. One can only assume these investigations will continue.
Scandals on Li's watch include chemical-contaminated fish and eggs, pigs fed
with excessive antibiotics and faulty anti-asthma drugs. In 2004, babies in
Fuyang city, Anhui province, were found to be suffering from "big-head disease"
after taking bogus formula low in nutrients. Pet food exported to the US and
dumplings shipped to Japan were also tainted.
Li and other AQSIQ officials explained these cases as "mere accidents" and
disparaged critics as having "ulterior motives". Had the watchdog heightened
its guard after such "accidents", the milk crisis might have been avoided.
This boils down to whether the failure of AQSIQ is a result of incompetence on
the part of Li or whether it is a deeper structural problem within the agency
itself. This will be one of the first tasks for the new head to tackle.
Additionally, Sanlu must to be condemned for trying to cover up the incident.
There are reports of the company not only concealing the problems, but also
trying to bribe the media to leave the story alone.
Beijing actively encourages the press to expose quality and safety problems,
yet the toxic milk story went uncovered for many months - despite being an
"open secret" in the dairy industry.
One theory, as mentioned above, is that all parties involved did not want to
expose the scandal before or during the Olympics. If this was the case, did the
decision come from the very top of government? Even if the cover-up did not
come from the highest echelons of power, one is left with the suspicion that
other crises are inevitable as long as greedy businesspeople and bureaucrats
are prepared to sacrifice human lives to maintain appearances.
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