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Milk scare becomes another power play

A large portion of the shipment of melamine-contaminated milk powder recently imported into Taiwan has already been used to make bread, beverages and other products, making it very difficult for authorities to trace it. This has provoked a lot of anger among Taiwanese, as have China’s efforts to use the opportunity to belittle Taiwan’s sovereignty.

What’s even more worrying is that the milk powder incident may be only the tip of the iceberg. Consumers’ Foundation data showed Chinese products accounted for 307 cases, or 66.1 percent, of all cases of unsafe products detected in Taiwan between January and July, making China the No. 1 supplier of unsafe goods to Taiwan.

Considering the way Chinese businesses have been dumping products all over the world, it is hard to imagine that Taiwan was the only export destination for this tainted milk powder. Given the lack of transparency of information in China and Beijing’s attitude of putting national prestige and face-saving ahead of everything else, there is more than a slight possibility that the tainted milk powder has been exported to other countries.

Although the Chinese government received complaints about the milk as early as March and learned of its link to cases of kidney stones in infants in June, it was not until after the closing of the Olympic Games that the problem was made public and the defective milk powder recalled.

Compare this with 2005, when a batch of infant formula contaminated with helicobacter pylori was detected in France. Taiwan immediately received an alert from the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) — a WHO agency that handles global interchange on food safety information. INFOSAN clearly stipulates that all countries must report any occurrence of melamine-contaminated food. China, however, regards the current incident as a domestic matter and has not issued any international alert so far.

Until September 2006, Taiwan was in continuous direct contact with INFOSAN Director Joergen Schlundt. Then the WTO signed a memorandum of understanding with China stipulating that all WHO communications with Taiwan should be sent via China.

Since then, of the 232 health alerts issued by the WHO, China has passed on only 16 to Taiwan, often with a delay of several days and after the news had already appeared in the media.

In January, one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies complained to the WHO about China’s delay in passing on to Taiwan an alert about contaminated baby corn from Thailand. The Chinese delegate arrogantly claimed that “China is a big country with a big population, so hitches in issuing alerts are bound to happen from time to time. We will be more careful about it in future.”

On the occasion of the current milk powder scandal, China is throwing its weight around even more by insisting on passing its warning via the semi-official Taiwan Affairs Office and Mainland Affairs Council instead of through official channels, with the clear purpose of downgrading the affair to a domestic issue.

China’s attitude is not just short-sighted — it seriously disrupts the global food safety warning system. Taiwanese health authorities should make work of the issue. Even though Taiwan is not a member of the WHO, it can highlight the contrasting attitudes of Taiwan and China with regard to international public health matters and counter China’s efforts to belittle Taiwan by reporting this affair to INFOSAN and other countries, speaking from the position of a sovereign state, and share its experience in dealing with such incidents.



Lin Shih-chia is the executive director of the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan.

TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
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