HEY!

It is perhaps a side note in the growing number of recalls from China that some Chinese officials and businessmen involved in raising the ire of American consumers are winding up dead, one way or another.

During the recent pet food contamination scandal (NY Times source), the Chinese goverment official who had run their equivalent of the FDA was executed.

Zheng Xiaoyu, formerly head of China’s State Food and Drug Administration was executed six weeks after his conviction

Zheng Xiaoyu, who had run China’s State Food and Drug Administration for a decade until two years ago, was charged last year with accepting bribes. He was quickly tried and executed in close proximity to the recent food scandal. His request to appeal his case was denied. Zheng’s deputy, Cao Wenzhuang, has also been sentenced to death, but currently has a two-year stay of execution.

And now with the Mattel recall, a leading business executive is reported to have hanged himself. Zhang Shuhong was co-owner of the Chinese company Lee Der Industrial, a Mattel contractor.

As best as I can figure from the reports, (NY Times source) Lee Der Industrial had the toys produced by a Chinese company called Early Light Industrial Company, which subcontracted the painting to another Chinese company called Hong Li Da, which subcontracted the painting to another company who used lead paint (contradicting Mattel’s standards).

Was the toy exectutive’s death a suicide, and was he the one responsible for the lead paint? I don’t know. Was the Chinese FDA official responsible for tainting the food supply of Americans and their pets? I don’t know that, either. But they have not been legally charged with either (the FDA guy was charged with bribery, not on the latest food problems). Both men, however, have been designated as responsible parties for perpetuity.

Will we, as consumers, be less likely to complain now? Will we now more graciously accept our inexpensive, lead-painted toys and our drug-tainted seafood, now that we know that the penalty for our displeasure is the death for the responsible (or blamed) parties?

I don’t know that, either.

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