China cover-up more damaging—journalist
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:32:00 10/05/2008
Filed Under: Food, milk crisis, Health
MANILA, Philippines—More damaging than the tainting of dairy products with melamine is the cover-up of the scandal by Chinese authorities, a China-based Filipino journalist said yesterday.
Chito Sta. Romana, chief of the ABC News Bureau in China, said the tainted milk scandal was proof of a “failure of the Chinese system of governance,” particularly its regulatory system.
“It’s the result of the greed that has been unleashed on Chinese society by the economic reforms [and is proof] of the failure of the system of governance,” he said at a Sulo Hotel press forum in Quezon City.
What complicated the scandal was the cover-up by Chinese authorities in the run-up to the Olympics, said Sta. Romana, who is in Manila for a visit.
“It’s clear that Chinese officials at the local level knew about this as early as July, some say as early as December. But they didn’t want to bring it to the attention of the national leadership and they didn’t want it revealed to the media because of the Olympics,” he said.
Food safety has been an issue in China, more so when China-made pet food that was being exported to the United States was found to be tainted with melamine, according to Sta. Romana.
“It has come back with a vengeance. In this case, milk. And it has become a source of panic,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean that all milk from China is bad.”
Sta. Romana also laughed off talk the Chinese purposely laced the dairy products with melamine in support of the state’s one-child policy.
“I don’t think so. If it turns out to be the case, it would really be a major scandal. It could be the tipping point in terms of public dissatisfaction because this is one case where the public panicked—
[it’s] very similar to what happened with SARS,” he said, referring to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003 and 2004.
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