Consumer rights need further work

Longstanding scandal

Although Chinese people became increasingly aware of their rights as consumers in the 1990s, the government seemed unenlightened until a scandal emerged in 2008 involving infant formula powder.

After thousands of infants across the nation were diagnosed with kidney problems, which killed some of them, a Shanghai-based financial journalist uncovered an industrial secret: many domestic dairy producers were putting melamine, an inedible industrial chemical, into milk to raise the apparent protein content.

An investigation found that many major domestic dairy companies had been doing this for a long time. The domestic dairy sector has yet to recover fully from that scandal.

The incident also led many Chinese consumers to become better informed about food product standards, quality inspections and the nature of trade associations.

China's standards for many products were outdated or markedly lower than those of developed countries.

Consumers also discovered that quality inspectors and supervisory agencies were keener to make money from issuing quality exemption certificates to "famous brands" and conducting symbolic examinations of samples, than in doing spot checks in the market.

And that doesn't even take into account the vast number of informal markets in the hinterlands, which are filled with defective and shoddy products rejected by urban retailers and consumers.

There are no strict accountability systems for government regulators. When individual consumers post concerns online about the safety of specific food items, their comments are likely to be classified as rumors. And when inspectors are found to have failed in their duties, few face any serious penalties.

Even in the melamine scandal, only some local government officials and inspection departments' heads in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, were sacked. Many of the officials involved turned up in other government posts.

Meanwhile, Sanlu Group Co Ltd, which became a scapegoat for the dairy industry, faced tougher penalties. Managers, factory directors and even some workers went to jail. The 50-year-old local brand was merged into a Beijing dairy company soon.

The message was clear: regulators won't be punished, and if there are many violators, only one will be punished as a symbolic gesture.

Meanwhile, dairy industry associations, sponsored by the big brands, have never even tried to hide their loyalty and support for the offending dairy companies.

One sign of progress since 2008 is that Chinese governments at various levels attach more importance to updating domestic standards for products in many fields and urging manufacturers to improve their product quality and provide better services for consumers.

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