[转帖]Top Chinese Food Inspector Resigns Amid Milk Scandal - 栖息谷-管理人的网上家园

BEIJING, Sept. 22 -- China's chief quality supervisor resigned Monday in the latest move by the central government to respond to the tainted-milk scandal that has killed four infants, sickened nearly 53,000 and highlighted China's difficulties in overhauling its food safety system.

Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, stepped down with the approval of China's State Council and was replaced by Wang Yong, according to the state-run New China News Agency.

A year ago, Li was in the middle of the toy recall and product safety scare, telling reporters that the blame for dangerous toys from China lay with U.S. designers and importers. His office was also at the center of an urgent effort last year to upgrade food standards, boosting safety checks and making sure that food that had passed inspection was properly labeled.

But his resignation Monday was unlikely to placate the general public, which is angry about reports that seem to indicate officials were more concerned about negative publicity than protecting children's health. Outrage has also been fueled by an apparent double standard, especially on the heels of the Olympic Games, during which officials took extraordinary steps to reassure foreign visitors that China's food supply was safe.

"It's just changing the water without changing the herbs," said Bao Zhangyan, a Beijing bartender. "This scandal is caused by the whole system, so it's no use just replacing a single official."

The dairy company at the heart of the scandal, Sanlu Group, is China's biggest producer of powdered milk. Along with other major suppliers, it was exempt from inspections by the watchdog organization headed by Li. On Monday, state broadcaster China Central Television reported that Sanlu knew of complaints about its baby formula as early as December, citing a State Council investigation.

Investigators believe suppliers of milk to Sanlu may have diluted the milk with water and then, in order to falsely raise its protein count, added melamine, a toxin linked to the deaths and illnesses of thousands of pets in the United States last year that ate pet food manufactured in China. Melamine can cause kidney stones or kidney failure in babies.

Health officials in Gansu province reported in July that 16 infants who drank Sanlu formula had unusual kidney problems, the New China News Agency said, but government officials failed to launch an investigation. Earlier, Sanlu reportedly paid off a man who complained in an online forum that his daughter had become ill after drinking its milk.

Sanlu is 43 percent owned by a New Zealand company, which has said it alerted Beijing to the problems after local officials refused to act. The company's own tests came back positive for melamine in early August, but it did not move to fully recall its product until Sept. 11.

"During these eight months, the company did not inform the government and did not take proper measures, therefore making the situation worse," CCTV said in its report.

Food and product safety scandals are not new in China, but they continue to erode the public's trust at a time when the Communist Party is battling legitimacy issues among an increasingly educated and Internet-savvy population. Officials last year executed the head of China's food and drug agency after convicting him of taking bribes in exchange for allowing fake medicine to enter the market.

But Luo Yunbo, a professor of food science at China Agricultural University and a vice president of the Beijing Food Association, said that "the overall picture is that things are getting better than before."

The government is building a new regulatory system that traces the origin of food, he said. And the issues that have led to food safety problems are deep-rooted.

"For a long time, milk products were cheaper than bottled water. We were afraid the consumer price index would rise and further pressure consumers, so we kept the price of milk products low," Luo said. "Making milk is profitless. If you want to produce good-quality milk, you have to feed cows well."

Over the weekend, a Web site for intellectuals and writers posted a 2007 report from a newspaper in Shandong province describing a local company's contributions to a central government food-supply center in Beijing, which provides organic food to state organizations such as the Central Bodyguard Bureau and the People's Armed Police. The certified organic food undergoes more rigorous testing.

"Okay, I understand," wrote a poster at Bullog.cn. "Foreigners' lives and officials' lives are much more precious than ordinary peoples lives."

Researchers Liu Songjie and Wu Meng contributed to this report.

李长江周一（22日）辞去国家质量监督检验检疫总局局长职务，这是中国中央政府对毒奶丑闻的最新回应，凸显中国在革新食品安全体系方面的困难。问题奶品已经导致四名婴儿死亡，近5.3万人患病。
　　
　　但李长江的辞职不大可能安抚民众。显示官员担心负面宣传甚于担心儿童健康的报道令民众感到愤怒。而且，尤其是在奥运刚结束的时期，明显的双重标准助长了愤怒——在奥运期间，官员采取非常措施向外国游客保证中国的食品供应是安全的。
　　
　　北京一位酒吧招待员鲍彰艳（音译，Bao Zhangyan）认为，这只是换汤不换药，这次的丑闻是由整个体制引起的，只是更换一名官员解决不了问题。
　　
　　处于丑闻风暴中心的奶品公司三鹿集团是中国最大的奶粉生产者。和其他大厂商一样，三鹿集团获得免检待遇。在22日，中国中央电视台报道说，三鹿早在12月就听到关于其婴儿奶粉的投诉。
　　
　　一家持有三鹿43%的股份的新西兰公司表示，在地方官员拒绝采取行动之后，它告诫北京要留心这个问题。在8月初，三鹿自己的测试就检测出三聚氰胺问题，但到9月11日它才采取行动充分召回产品。
　　
　　在中国，食品和产品安全丑闻并不鲜见，在民众受教育程度越来越高而且热衷于互联网的时代，这些丑闻继续侵蚀公众的信任。官方去年处决了国家食品药品监管局局长，理由就是他收受贿赂，允许假药进入市场。
　　
　　但中国农业大学食品科学教授、北京食品协会副主席罗云波（Luo Yunbo）表示，整体情况比以前要好。他表示政府在建立新的监督体系，追踪食品的来源。而且导致食品安全问题的问题是根深蒂固的。
　　
　　罗云波表示，“长期以来，奶产品比瓶装水还便宜。我们担心消费物价指数上涨，加大消费者的压力，因此我们压低奶产品价格。产奶是没有利润的。如果你要生产质量好的奶，你就必须让牛吃得好。”
　　
　　在周末的时候，一个网站刊载山东省报纸一篇2007年的报道，内容是描述当地一家公司对中央政府食品供应中心的贡献，该公司为国家组织提供有机食品。而认证的有机食品要经过更加严格的测试。
　　
　　有网友回应说，“哦，我明白了，外国人的命和官员的命比普通百姓的命珍贵得多。”（原标题：在奶品丑闻中，中国顶级食品监督员辞职；作者：Maureen Fan）