City government admits its fault in milk debacle
A Shijiazhuang government leader apologised yesterday over its handling of the tainted-milk scandal, which resulted in 'huge damage' to people's lives and safety because of delays in reporting the problem to senior authorities.
Wang Jianguo , spokesman and deputy secretary general of the city government, also admitted that it could not shirk its responsibility as a local authority, and he expressed his regret and apologies to baby victims and their parents.
The remarks by Mr Wang, which Xinhua reported yesterday, came after reshuffles in the city government leadership precipitated by revelations that officials had learned that the infant formula produced by Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu was contaminated in early August, but had not immediately reported the problem to the Hebei provincial government or Beijing.
It also ignored calls from New Zealand-based Fonterra, which owned a 43 per cent stake in Sanlu, to carry out a public recall. The incident came to light only after Fonterra sought help from the New Zealand government, which alerted Beijing early last month.
Mr Wang said Shijiazhuang officials had lacked 'political sensitivity' and carried out orders from above without thinking about the wider implications.
'We didn't look at the problems exposed by the Sanlu incident from the perspective of the people's safety and health,' he was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
He admitted failing to foresee the dire consequences and 'mistakenly thought that after taking necessary measures to raise product quality, it would reduce the negative impact and reduce losses'. It ended up causing huge negative impacts both inside and outside the country, he said.
Sanlu - one of the country's top 500 enterprises - had failed to recognise its problems and caused 'irreparable damage' to its staff, milk farmers and consumers at large, he said.
'Especially the delay in reporting the information had affected adversely the senior authorities' timely handling of the incident, causing huge damage to people's safety and lives and seriously affecting the image of the party and the government,' he said.
The Shijiazhuang government's handling of the incident has drawn fire from all sides and rumours are mounting that a heavy sentence will be imposed on former Sanlu chairwoman Tian Wenhua for her role in the alleged cover-up of the contamination.
Soon after the scandal came to light, Ms Tian was sacked and is being held under criminal detention.
Some mainland media outlets have speculated that she could face the death penalty. Under criminal law, anybody who produces or sells food that is known to contain poisonous materials faces penalties up to life imprisonment or death, as well as fines and property confiscation.
The scandal over melamine-tainted Sanlu milk powder has brought to light problems with infant formula produced by other leading dairy firms, such as Mengniu, Yili and Bright Dairy. A range of other dairy products by several companies have also been found to contain the chemical, consumption of which can cause kidney problems.
So far at least four babies have died and 54,000 have fallen ill from consuming dairy products.
According to the Chinese Public Security Ministry's website, Hebei police have detained 36 people over the making and selling of melamine and adulterating milk with the chemical since September 12.
President Hu Jintao has criticised officials for being apathetic about problems that threaten lives as he urged officials to draw 'painful lessons' from a series of work and food safety incidents this year.
In the firing line
Shijiazhuang officials sacked:
Communist Party secretary Wu Xianguo ;
Mayor Ji Chuntang ;
Vice-mayor Zhang Fawang ;
Director of the Animal Husbandry and Fishery Bureau Sun Renhu ;
Director of the Food and Drug Administration Zhang Yi ;
Director of the Quality Supervision Bureau Li Zhiguo ;
Detained or arrested:
Sanlu chairwoman Tian Wenhua ;
In Hebei province 36 people have been detained in connection with making and selling melamine and adding the chemical to milk. Twenty-seven of them have been formally arrested.
