Despite much of the world's fascination with China, principally because of its fast-paced economic growth, things are not quite right based on reports emerging about the deepening rot across the board. In Australia, for instance, a regional grocery chain has removed Chinese-made toothpaste from its stores because of a toxic chemical normally used in hydraulic and brake fluids as a coolant and a solvent.
It is the same chemical reportedly used in a Chinese-made cough syrup, responsible for the deaths of 300 people in Panama.
At the same time, a well-known Australian textile importer has reportedly "quarantined eight container loads of blankets that arrived from China ... following reports that the Australian Wool Testing Authority had found levels of formaldehyde almost 10 times higher than safety limits in many other countries."
There are also reports of cats and dogs in the US and elsewhere in the world dying from Chinese pet foods spiked with toxic chemicals.
China's dramatic response to all this was to announce that a Beijing court had sentenced Zheng Xiaoyu (鄭筱萸), head of the State Food and Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005, to death -- as if it were all the fault of one individual.
This is typical of China's communist political culture where scapegoats are conveniently found at the "right" time to atone for the country's systemic failure.
It defies belief that an individual like Zheng, however high and mighty, could for seven years play havoc with China's domestic and international health without his political bosses knowing about his misdeeds.
Now that he has become a hot potato, he is being made the sacrificial lamb to save the skins of his political masters.
Which is not to suggest that he was not a terrible crook. The suggestion is that it is the system that fosters and promotes such characters where Zheng and his ilk are only the tip of the iceberg.
Indeed, there is even an attempt to shift the blame on to importers of Chinese products. Lu Yuanping, a senior boss at China's food imports and exports administration, has reportedly said that 56 percent of the substandard food products imported by the US from China in a given period were "illegal products" not approved by the Chinese authorities. In other words, it was not entirely China's fault.
Then we have the tragedy of fake milk powder leading to the death of 13 babies from severe malnutrition. According to a Washington Post investigative report, "The scandal unfolded three years ago after hundreds of babies fell ill in eastern China and became the symbol of a broad problem in China's economy."
The problem is that: "Quality control and product safety regulations are so poor in this country that people cannot trust the goods on store shelves."
The system is so skewed that even when an official report warns of impending disaster from climate change, it still finds that China cannot afford to slacken on economic development.
Listing a litany of serious consequences for China's future from climate change, like worsening droughts and floods, the report however concludes that: "If we prematurely assume responsibilities for mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reductions, the direct consequences will be to constrain China's current energy and manufacturing industries, and weaken the competitiveness of Chinese products in international and even domestic markets."
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