International   

China executes top drug official

Pallavi Aiyar

Beijing: China’s former top drug and food safety official, Zheng Xiaoyu, was executed on Tuesday after being found guilty of corruption and dereliction of duty. The execution was announced by state media only days after a director of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) asserted that China risked damaging its global credibility and provoking social instability if it did not tackle its food and drug quality problems.

Zheng, the head of SFDA from 1998 to 2005, was sentenced in May for taking bribes worth some 6.5 million yuan ($850,000) from eight companies. He was accused and found guilty of turning a blind eye to malpractices by relatives and subordinate officials, and approving substandard medicines in return for kickbacks, including one antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths within China.

Of late, China has been rocked by a series of drug and food safety related scandals involving the use of toxins in food, medicines and other products like toothpaste.

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 melamine, a chemical that allegedly caused widespread deaths among cats and dogs, leading to pet food recalls. The U.S. has also recently stopped all imports of Chinese toothpaste following reports that some products sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic and Panama were tainted with diethylene glycol, a chemical commonly used in antifreeze and brake fluid.

At a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, Yan Jiangying, the SFDA’s deputy policy director said corruption in food and drug regulation has brought “shame” to the country. China’s punishment of Zheng Xiaoyu with death is part of Beijing’s new crackdown on food and drug safety violators.

The Government has also vowed to intensify inspections aimed at weeding out substandard products. In May, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine announced that a new recall system for food would be implemented by the end of the year with a focus on “potentially dangerous and unapproved food products.”

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Held in Sydney
China executes top drug official
Norwegian envoy to visit Kilinochchi
White House reviewing Iraq policy
Now a British move to cut methane emissions by changing the cow’s diet
NAM: Iran hails India’s stand
World Hindi meet opens on Friday

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu