posted by Damozel |
To show its seriousness about improving the safety of Chinese products, China executed this man today.(New York Times) Former Chinese Food and Drug Administration head, Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, was executed for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash. "Mr. Zheng, who had appealed his May 29 sentence on the grounds that it
was too severe and that he had confessed to the bribery charges against
him, became the first ministerial-level official put to death since
2000 and only the fourth since China opened it doors to the outside
world nearly 30 years ago." (New York Times)
As a citizen of the state of Florida, I feel a bit of a hypocrite in feeling as shocked and disgusted as I do by this news. I will leave it to human rights groups, residents of Britain, other EU countries, and other civilized (and recently civilized) nations to express the appropriate disapproval. Though I personally oppose the death penalty without qualification, I reside in a state whose citizens haven't yet quite achieved that level of civilization. Even so, I imagine that some people who support the death penalty in what they consider appropriate cases will be shocked by this particular application.
It is unclear how the execution of the law was carried out. The usual method in China, The New York Times tells me, is for the guilty part to be shot in the back of the head by "court police," though sometimes these days they use lethal injection. China leads the world, it seems, in court-ordered executions, though even by their standards the sentence "was uncommonly harsh and [the] execution uncommonly swift." (New York Times)
There were political reasons for this. (New York Times) The senior leaders imagine that this will demonstrate that they "have begun confronting the country's poor product safety record." (New York Times) Ms. Yan Jianguing, the deputy policy Director of the agency that the late Mr. Zheng once headed said, “As a developing country, China’s current food and drug safety situation is not very satisfactory because supervision of food and drug safety started late....Its foundation is weak so the supervision of food and drug safety is not easy.”
What we will have to learn from the experience is to improve our work and emphasize public safety.”Or am I being too judgmental here, too quick to hold another culture to a standard that even my own is ambivalent about? Evidently, Mr. Zheng had become a "symbol" of his country's "wide-ranging problems on product safety." (The Independent) The word I usually prefer when justice is applied to "symbols" is "scapegoat."
Questioned about the former minister's death sentence, Ms. Yan said that the late Mr. Zheng has brought "shame to the nation." Imagine if we made that a capital crime here. I am all for accountability in government, but what about restitution, redemption. rehabilitation? I'd love to hear George W. Bush's thoughts on this, now that he's evidently decided that clemency is a good thing. (Bush's Clemency Record)
At any rate, knowing that the Chinese idea of cracking down on product safety is to execute one---because there must certainly be others---corrupt official somehow doesn't reassure me that Chinese products actually are safer. It doesn't affect my reservations on that score in the slightest. And it certainly doesn't increase the appeal of Chinese-manufactured goods. As for Mr. Zheng "shaming the nation," you really can't----speaking as an opponent of the death penalty--- redeem one shameful act by committing another. As I wish more Americans would realize.
Kahn, China Executes Former Food Regulator (New York Times)
China executes former head of food and drug watchdog (The Independent)
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