China executes former food and drug safety chief

[kuan]

Salt Lake Tribune - China executes ex-food, drug safety chief

The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 07/10/2007 11:36:26 PM MDT

BEIJING - 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.

During Zheng Xiaoyu's tenure as head of the State Food and Drug Administration from 1997 to 2006, the 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.

His execution was confirmed by state television and Xinhua News Agency.

''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.

[Harpua]

****.. execution, eh?

[Luc_H]

I wonder if this policy could become a trend for other countries to follow (even for CEOs of large mega-corporations)....

[DC Sunshine]

Every time my computer has a conflict/crashes I can think of one person I could nominate for that treatment....

I wonder if they included that in Xiaoyu's work contract - "mess up and you die"?

[Anneke]

Notice how quickly he was executed? Any longer and he might implicate others...

This is a great reminder that as "open" as it professes to be, China is still a scary lawless regime. There's a well established bribery "system". Once in a while there has to be a sacrificial lamb.

[foodpump]

Hmm, in WWII ol' Mussolinni made sure that the trains ran on time, used the same type of "persuasion" too.

[Headless Chicken]

Comes at no suprise to me, wish other nations would (re-)adopt capital punishment for certain crimes. Conrad Black was lucky he wasn't tried and convicted in China I guess.