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More officials get boot for Sanlu milk scam lapse

(China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-21 09:03

Eight more senior officials have been fired or demoted for slack supervision with regard to the Sanlu tainted milk powder scam, the Communist Party of China's disciplinary watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said on Friday.

An infant patient receives medical treatment at the Children's Hospital of Zhengzhou in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, Sept. 17, 2008. [Xinhua]

Related readings:  Sanyuan posts increased 2008 profit amid melamine crisis  Dairy imports gain since melamine scandal  Sanlu Group fined nearly 50m yuan over melamine scandal  60 arrested over melamine-tainted Sanlu milk powder

The officials were from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the ministries of agriculture and health, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and the State Food and Drug Administration.

AQSIQ's law enforcement supervision department chief Wang Bubu was removed from his Party and government posts, according to a statement posted on the Ministry of Supervision's website.

Lu Yangang, deputy chief of SAIC's food supervision department, was stripped of his post, while the Ministry of Agriculture's stockbreeding department head Wang Zhicai was demoted, it said.

The move marked the latest in a series of official sacks and demotions following the scandal over melamine-tainted milk, which left at least six infants dead and almost 300,000 ill.

Both Li Changjiang, China's top quality control official and Wu Xianguo, Party chief of Shijiazhuang city where Sanlu was based, stepped down last September soon after the scandal rocked China and the world.

Sanlu, a leading dairy manufacturer and at the center of the scandal, declared bankruptcy last month. One of its main competitors, Beijing Sanyuan Food Co Ltd, snapped up its assets for 616.50 million yuan ($90 million).

The children affected by the scandal were reported to have developed kidney stones, among other urinary tract infections, after consuming the infant milk formula produced by 22 different dairy producers.

These dairy products were tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical, which was blended into the products to make them look more nutritious, and passed off as protein, complete with fake readings shown on the package.

As a result, China's dairy industry suffered a steep fall in revenue last year, so much so that earlier this month, Premier Wen Jiabao specifically highlighted the development of the dairy industry in his work report, saying China should "implement a plan for reinvigorating the dairy industry".

China Daily - Xinhua