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Former Head of Chinese Dairy Pleads Guilty
By DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI The former chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, one of Chinas biggest dairy producers, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to selling fake and substandard milk powder, helping trigger one of the countrys biggest food safety crises, according to the state-run news media.
The former executive, Tian Wenhua, is one of the highest ranking corporate executives ever to go on trial in China and could face life imprisonment or even the death sentence, according to legal experts and the local media.
Ms. Tians plea came on the first day of a trial that involves three other Sanlu executives. She said she knew the company was selling contaminated milk as early as May, but did not report the problem to local government officials until August.
The delays helped worsen a milk powder scandal that only became public in mid-September and eventually led to the deaths of six children and illnesses in nearly 300,000 others, as well as global recalls of Chinese milk products.
The government has accused Sanlu and other big Chinese companies of failing to monitor the quality and safety of their milk powder, and in some cases covering up knowledge that their dairy products contained high and impermissible levels of melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones in children.
The trial involving Ms. Tian is in the city of Shijiazhuang, in the northern province of Hebei. This week, an intermediate court rejected requests by some foreign media to attend. On Wednesday, Chinese state-controlled media broadcast images of Ms. Tian, who is 66, looking pale and ill, standing handcuffed before a microphone in a yellow jacket acknowledging her guilt.
Wang Yuliang, another former Sanlu executive on trial, appeared in a wheelchair. State-run media outlets said he tried to commit suicide earlier this year. The company filed for bankruptcy protection last week.
The trial of the Sanlu executives and separate trials involving 15 other dairy middlemen in Hebei Province during the past week has rekindled anger over a food safety scandal that devastated Chinese dairy makers.
Today in Shijiazhuang, some children sickened by the tainted milk powder and their parents gathered outside the courthouse, according to the state-run news media.
The court said that consumer complaints about Sanlus milk came in as early as December 2007, but that they did not reach top executives until May 2008. Between May and September, when Sanlu stopped production, prosecutors said the company made more than 900 tons of melamine contaminated baby milk powder.
According to state media reports, Ms. Tian said she was told in May that European standards allowed up to 20 milligrams of melamine per kilogram to be present in food products. But in September, some Sanlu products were found to have over 2,000 milligrams per kilogram.
The Shijiazhuang are the latest indication that China is trying to demonstrate it is serious about food safety and fraud in the food and drug industry.
In 2007, after other product-safety scandals, the head of Chinas State Food and Drug Administration was executed after he was found guilty of corruption and dereliction of duty as a regulator.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/world/asia/01milk.html?hp
By DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI The former chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, one of Chinas biggest dairy producers, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to selling fake and substandard milk powder, helping trigger one of the countrys biggest food safety crises, according to the state-run news media.
The former executive, Tian Wenhua, is one of the highest ranking corporate executives ever to go on trial in China and could face life imprisonment or even the death sentence, according to legal experts and the local media.
Ms. Tians plea came on the first day of a trial that involves three other Sanlu executives. She said she knew the company was selling contaminated milk as early as May, but did not report the problem to local government officials until August.
The delays helped worsen a milk powder scandal that only became public in mid-September and eventually led to the deaths of six children and illnesses in nearly 300,000 others, as well as global recalls of Chinese milk products.
The government has accused Sanlu and other big Chinese companies of failing to monitor the quality and safety of their milk powder, and in some cases covering up knowledge that their dairy products contained high and impermissible levels of melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones in children.
The trial involving Ms. Tian is in the city of Shijiazhuang, in the northern province of Hebei. This week, an intermediate court rejected requests by some foreign media to attend. On Wednesday, Chinese state-controlled media broadcast images of Ms. Tian, who is 66, looking pale and ill, standing handcuffed before a microphone in a yellow jacket acknowledging her guilt.
Wang Yuliang, another former Sanlu executive on trial, appeared in a wheelchair. State-run media outlets said he tried to commit suicide earlier this year. The company filed for bankruptcy protection last week.
The trial of the Sanlu executives and separate trials involving 15 other dairy middlemen in Hebei Province during the past week has rekindled anger over a food safety scandal that devastated Chinese dairy makers.
Today in Shijiazhuang, some children sickened by the tainted milk powder and their parents gathered outside the courthouse, according to the state-run news media.
The court said that consumer complaints about Sanlus milk came in as early as December 2007, but that they did not reach top executives until May 2008. Between May and September, when Sanlu stopped production, prosecutors said the company made more than 900 tons of melamine contaminated baby milk powder.
According to state media reports, Ms. Tian said she was told in May that European standards allowed up to 20 milligrams of melamine per kilogram to be present in food products. But in September, some Sanlu products were found to have over 2,000 milligrams per kilogram.
The Shijiazhuang are the latest indication that China is trying to demonstrate it is serious about food safety and fraud in the food and drug industry.
In 2007, after other product-safety scandals, the head of Chinas State Food and Drug Administration was executed after he was found guilty of corruption and dereliction of duty as a regulator.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/world/asia/01milk.html?hp
