China's Ex-Food and Drug Czar On Death Row
I can't be more happy about this story. I feel like on some level, souls of all the departed Panamanians whose lives were taken as a result of this man's department's oversight pleaded for this on high.
From USA Today:
China's former food and drug safety chief was given a death sentence Tuesday for taking bribes from drug companies and approving unsafe medicines.The sentence, announced by state media, comes as China is under growing domestic and international pressure to clean up its food and drug sectors after a series of scandals, including the poisoning of hundreds of American pets.
Zheng Xiaoyu, director of China's State Food and Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005, was convicted of dereliction of duty and taking more than $832,000 in cash and gifts, according to state news agency Xinhua.
An antibiotic OK'd under Zheng was withdrawn from the market last year after 10 patients died, state media reported. Six types of fake drugs were approved while he led the agency, according to state-run media...
Scores of deaths in recent years — from fake drugs and food products tainted by industrial chemicals — have enraged Chinese. Bloggers and other writers in Chinese Internet chat rooms demanded a stiff sentence for Zheng...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked poisoned ingredients from China to a massive recall of pet food and animal feed in the past two months. The pet food has been blamed for the deaths of thousands of pets, according to unconfirmed reports that pet owners have made to the FDA.
An industrial chemical found in medicines that contained ingredients from China has been blamed for dozens of deaths — 51 in Panama alone — in Central America and the Caribbean. The chemical was also found in Chinese-made toothpaste.
Zheng's former agency announced plans this week to blacklist food producers who violate rules and to keep their products off the market.
While he awaits the executioner, I sincerely hope that Mr. Zheng reflects on his former whatever-he-did-with-$832,000. I wonder if it is worth what happened. All the lies, all the deceit, all the death.
And now one sentence.
Hasta la vista, Zheng Xiaoyu. And let this be the last time that such a loss of life -- poison hidden in toothpaste and cough syrup -- ever has to happen in China.
