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DSW
08-04-2007, 03:44 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/07/11/2007-07-11_china_food__drug_czar_executed_after_exp.html
China food & drug czar executed after export woes
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BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, July 11th 2007, 4:00 AM
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Battered by worldwide outrage over exports of poisoned pet food, toxic toothpaste, filthy fish and doctored drugs, China executed a top minister in charge of product safety yesterday.
Zheng Xiaoyu, who was head of China's State Food and Drug Administration from 1997 until last year, was charged with taking $800,000 in bribes to approve tainted and untested products.
Zheng, 63, was sentenced to death in May for dereliction of duty. His swift execution was designed to send a global message.
"The few corrupt officials of the SFDA are the shame of the whole system," agency spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said at a press conference touting new efforts to improve product safety ahead of next year's Beijing Olympics.
China is caught in a PR catastrophe after a series of export scandals: toothpaste tainted with antifreeze; contaminated pet food that killed as many as 4,000 American dogs and cats; lead paint on Thomas the Tank Engine toys; eggs colored with a carcinogenic industrial dye and frozen fish laden with pesticides.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is pushing for an import czar to oversee products coming into the country, called Zheng's execution "a surreal response" to a growing problem.
"If China thinks that its issues with food and product safety are going to be fixed with these types of executions, it shows how much they just don't get it," Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
The Asian Development Bank estimates 300 million Chinese people are sickened every year by tainted food, a product of China's rapidly growing manufacturing economy and lax consumer protections.
I was watching the news today and it said he was executed yesterday. Now if we could only have politicians here that are crooked and accept bribes, etc. to get the same fate. What a country this would be.