CHINA: Zheng Xiaoyu, formerly China's drug and food safety czar, was executed yesterday for corruption. The reputation of the country's pharmaceutical and food exports was at stake, so it was no major surprise that retribution was quick and merciless.
The Supreme People's Court approved the death sentence for Zheng (62), former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, for taking kickbacks worth 6.5 million yuan (€650,000) from eight drug companies to ensure he would approve medicines that should have been taken off the market.
The execution stands as a warning after a series of health scandals have damaged the "Made in China" brand at home and abroad.
"Zheng Xiaoyu's grave irresponsibility in pharmaceutical safety inspection and failure to conscientiously carry out his duties seriously damaged the interests of the state and people," the court said in a statement carried on the Xinhua news agency.
"The social impact has been utterly malign," the court said of Zheng's actions, adding that even though he had confessed and returned the bribes, this was not enough to warrant mercy. It is the first time such a senior official has been executed since 2000. It was unclear how the sentence was carried out - most executions are by shooting in China, but sometimes lethal injections are used, particularly in high-profile cases.
Beijing has been under pressure to do something about consumer safety after a series of scandals. Billions of euro worth of counterfeit and substandard goods, including snack bars, liquor, medicines and face creams, are produced every year in China and there are almost daily horror stories.
In one of the most highly publicised scandals, China revealed in 2004 that 13 babies had died from malnutrition in the eastern province of Anhui after being fed fake baby milk powder.