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Death for corrupt Chinese official

Pallavi Aiyar

Beijing: A Chinese court sentenced the former head of the food and drug agency, Zheng Xiaoyu, to death on Tuesday, a move that comes at a time when Beijing is struggling to quell a wave of scandals pertaining to fake and adulterated medicines and food.

On the same day, China also announced its first ever food recall system for unsafe food products. The two announcements come at a time when China is in the international spotlight after a series of recent investigations revealed several fake and dangerous products to have originated in China, ranging from pet food in the United States to tainted toothpaste in Panama. According to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced Zheng to death after convicting him of taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than 6.5 million yuan ($832,000) between 1998 and 2005, when he was director of the State Food and Drug Administration. Zheng's sentence is open to appeal.

Malpratices condoned

Xinhua said that in exchange for the bribes, Zheng turned a blind eye to malpractices by relatives and subordinate officials, approving the production of untested drugs and lowering the quality standards pharmaceutical companies needed to meet in order to obtain relevant approvals.

China suffered some of its worst food and drug related scandals during Zheng's tenure. The most notorious amongst these was a case in 2004, in which at least 13 babies died of malnutrition in Anhui province after they were given fake milk powder.

Earlier this year, wheat gluten and rice protein exported from China to the United States and then mixed into pet food were found to contain the chemical melamine, which allegedly caused widespread deaths among cats and dogs, leading to pet food recalls. Beijing has responded to this series of scandals by launching a nationwide campaign of drug safety inspections.

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