China executes ex-food and drug chief

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China executes ex-food and drug chief

 

By ALEXA OLESEN, Associated Press Writer

 

China executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog on Tuesday

for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash, the strongest

signal yet from Beijing that it is serious about tackling its product

safety crisis.

 

The execution of former State Food and Drug Administration director

Zheng Xiaoyu was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua

News Agency.

 

During Zheng's tenure from 1998 to 2005, his agency approved six

medicines that turned out to be fake, and the drug-makers used falsified

documents to apply for approvals, according to previous state media

reports. One antibiotic caused the deaths of at least 10 people.

 

" The few corrupt officials of the SFDA are the shame of the whole system

and their scandals have revealed some very serious problems, " agency

spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said at a news conference held to highlight

efforts to improve China's track record on food and drug safety.

 

Yan was asked to comment on Zheng's sentence and that of his

subordinate, Cao Wenzhuang, a former director of SFDA's drug

registration department who was last week sentenced to death for

accepting bribes and dereliction of duty. Cao was given a two-year

reprieve, a ruling which is usually commuted to life in prison if the

convict is deemed to have reformed.

 

" We should seriously reflect and learn lessons from these cases. We

should step up our efforts to ensure food and drug safety, which is what

we are doing now and what we will do in the future, " Yan said.

 

Zheng, 63, was convicted of taking cash and gifts worth $832,000 when he

was in charge of the State Food and Drug Administration.

 

His death sentence was unusually heavy even for China, believed to carry

out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined, and

indicates the leadership's determination to confront the country's dire

product safety record.

 

Fears abroad over Chinese-made products were sparked last year by the

deaths of dozens of people in Panama who took medicine contaminated with

diethylene glycol imported from China. It was passed off as harmless

glycerin.

 

Yan said she did not have any information about whether the Chinese

manufacturer, Taixing Glycerin Factory, and the Chinese distributor,

CNSC Fortune Way, had been punished.

 

" We will try to get more information from the department concerned and

we will release it to you, " Yan said. She wouldn't elaborate.

 

China admitted last month that it was the source of the deadly chemical

that ended up in cough syrup and other treatments but insists the

chemical was originally labeled as for industrial use only. Beijing

blames the Panama traders who eventually bought the shipment for

fraudulently relabeling it as medical-grade glycerin.

 

In North America earlier this year, pet food containing Chinese wheat

gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for the deaths of

dogs and cats.

 

Since then, U.S. authorities have turned away or recalled toxic fish,

juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated

with lead paint.

 

Yan said the food and drug administration was working to tighten its

safety procedures and create a more transparent operating environment.

The administration has already announced a series of measures to tighten

safety controls and closed factories where illegal chemicals or other

problems were found.

 

But Yan acknowledged that her agency's supervision of food and drug

safety remains unsatisfactory and that it has been slow to tackle the

problem.

 

" China is a developing country and our supervision of food and drugs

started quite late and our foundation for this work is weak, so we are

not optimistic about the current food and drug safety situation, " Yan

said.

 

Chinese officials have already said the country faces social unrest and

a further tarnished image abroad unless it improves the quality and

safety of its food and medicine.

The government has faced increasing pressure from its international

trading partners to improve quality controls after a series of health

scares attributed to substandard or tainted Chinese food and drug

exports.

The list of food scares within China over the past year includes

drug-tainted fish, banned Sudan dye used to color egg yolks red, and

pork tainted with clenbuterol, a banned feed additive.

China has also stepped up its inspections of imported products and said

some U.S. products are not safe.

In the latest case, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday

that a shipment of sugar-free drink mix from the United States had been

rejected for having too much red dye.

Last week, China's food safety watchdog said almost 20 percent of

products made for consumption within China were found to be substandard

in the first half of 2007. Canned and preserved fruit and dried fish

were the most problematic, primarily because of excessive bacteria and

additives, the agency said.