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BEIJING: China's President Hu Jintao has sharply criticised local officials, state media said Saturday, after a contaminated milk scandal claimed the lives of four babies.
There are "painful lessons" to be drawn from a series of health scares in China, the president reportedly told a Communist Party meeting Friday, as stores nationwide pulled dairy products from their shelves.
"There have been some serious work and food safety accidents this year in certain places which have caused major harm to life and to the wellbeing of the masses," the People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, quoted the Chinese leader as saying.
"These incidents show that some officials have lost a sense of principles, of the public interest, of responsibilities, of attention to (people's) suffering," he told Party colleagues.
China said this week that milk powder tainted with the chemical melamine, which used to make plastics, had sickened at least 6,200 babies nationwide and killed four over a period of many months.
Melamine was illegally mixed into milk products and has also been found in a variety of dairy products including yoghurts and ice cream.
It was apparently introduced by dairy suppliers to give the appearance of higher protein levels.
"We must draw painful lessons from these recent accidents," Hu said, calling them a "fresh warning."
"It is only by resolving these problems... that the Party can build a healthy society for all."
The initial reports of the problem only came to light last week in the Chinese-government controlled media.
China has a history of cover-ups involving health and safety scandals.
In one of the worst cases, China initially tried to deny the existence of the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, and only owned up after it spilled over into other countries.
Hu has said the fight against official corruption is a priority in China, where the lack of a free press or an independent judiciary has allowed graft to flourish.
Meanwhile, the milk crisis has China's middle class feeling angry and fearful of other yet more uncovered food scandals and resignation that such dangers are a fact of life in modern China.
"I believe many people get cancer now because of the food we eat," said Cathy Wang, a Chinese citizen.
Whoever was responsible for ensuring the milk was safe should be punished as severely as those who poisoned it, Wang said.
"What else can the government do if it cannot guarantee the basic safety of its citizens?"
"We had toxic rice, pork injected with water, chicken with bird flu, now it's milk. If we care too much, there is simply nothing we can eat," said 30-year-old Huang Yan sipping tea in a Starbucks, where tea and black coffee are now the only hot drinks sold after milk from the chain's main supplier was found to contain melamine.
"Who knows how many other chemicals our food contains?" Huang said. "As long as we live in this nation, this city, we have to accept the reality."
In a Beijing supermarket, Cui Hongchun, a 36-year-old journalist looked sceptically at the store's bargain-price milk display.
"Dare anyone buy it?" he asked.
Milk is not part of the traditional Chinese diet but its popularity has grown alongside China's middle class. Thirty years ago few here drank it but rising incomes, desire for healthier diets and Western-style supermarkets have made it a grocery staple.
Cui normally bought milk for his growing eight-year-old son, who he said gets leg pains if he does not get enough calcium.
"I'm very worried about the milk we bought because it claims to contain high levels of protein," he said. "I will sue them if the milk causes my boy any harm."
At another Beijing supermarket display, Xu Yueqin, a retired woman of 62, faces a similar dilemma.
"We have to drink milk - it has become a habit now. We have it with our cereal every morning," she said. "But we will definitely drink less in future."
Holding her 22-month-old son in the supermarket aisle, Mary Li, a 38-year-old housewife, said a lack of trust meant she always bought imported baby formula.
"This is just one case," she said. "There are many more in this country that have yet to be exposed."
- AFP/yb
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