THE GROWING scandal over poisoned baby milk formulas and other milk products in China is a severe test of the country's mechanisms for political accountability and its regulatory regimes on food and manufactured goods.
By yesterday four young children had died and thousands were ill, mainly with kidney problems, as a result of taking milk powder contaminated with melamine, a product normally used to make plastics and added to boost the powder's apparent protein content. Reports indicate this was probably done by distributors after the milk was collected from farmers and then sold on to the manufacturers. Twenty arrests and sackings have been made this week in a flurry of action at central government levels in Beijing, where the health ministry has announced an emergency investigation and vowed to improve regulatory standards.
Many questions arise from this affair. The first death occurred in May and the first complaints in March and April. Officials in the Chinese region of Hebei, headquarters of the Sanlu company primarily blamed for the scandal, refused to take action on complaints made in August by its New Zealand partner company. They were not responded to until contact was made with authorities in Beijing. It is suspected that the delays were partly prompted by fears of adverse international publicity before and during the Olympic Games. Media coverage of the issue was belated and bland at first, but is now responding more actively to the public's outrage.
If these suspicions are confirmed the government has a serious crisis of consumer confidence on its hands. This scandal is being compared to a previous one in which pet foods exported to the United States were also contaminated with melamine, to the export of toys poisoned with lead paint and a similar problem with toothpaste. As the outreach centre of world manufacturing, 40 per cent of which is foreign-owned, China has a huge need to protect its reputation for quality control. Even more important is the credibility of food safety regulation for its own citizens. One can scarcely imagine a more sensitive issue than the health of infants taking breast milk substitutes, often the children of poor farmers, migrant workers and working mothers.
The authorities showed in their response to the Sichuan earthquake last May that they are capable of learning lessons from such scandals involving local corruption and political control. But more media openness, financial compensation and exemplary punishments will not suffice this time to assuage popular anger.