Help beleaguered farmers: drink more milk!

Dahe Daily
September 22, 2008

Today’s Dahe Daily, a Zhengzhou-based newspaper, reported that milk farmers in Henan Province have poured out fresh milk after big dairy producers cut down on their production in the wake of the melamine scandal.

One of the farms in Xinxiang city has dumped four tons of milk per day after one of the dairy producers involved in the scandal, Yili, ceased collecting milk from local farms. Similar incidents have also been reported in other provinces.

According to the article, the local government in Xinxiang is calling for “party members, employees of government, schools, and big enterprises to drink more milk for charity.” The newspaper said that “the problem [of the milk famers in Xinxiang] would be solved if 400,000 people drank half a kilogram of milk a day.”

Under the headline “Milk farmers pouring out fresh milk in tears after Yili and Mengniu refuse to collect,” the article appears to sympathize with milk farmers, but readers might find it this hard to take, because some farmers were the ones who adulterated milk with the deadly chemical in the first place.

Beijing Times
September 22, 2008

Also affected by the scandal are the celebrities who endorsed the products in commercials. Today’s Beijing Times reported that Liu Guoliang, former world champion and coach of China’s national ping pong team, said he would like to withdraw his endorsement and give back all the money he was paid for appearing in a TV commercial for Yili. Snooker star Ding Junhui apologized through his manager and said that he would like to donate part of his endorsement fee to help the victims.

The big photo on the front page (and on the front page of many of today’s papers) shows Premier Wen Jiabao visiting the Beijing Children Hospital, where he talked to families with babies waiting to be diagnosed. According to Xinhua, 1,008 children in Beijing have been diagnosed with kidney stones and have received treatment at 91 municipal hospitals

Another major news item in today’s newspapers was the big fire in a Shenzhen nightclub that took the lives of 43 on September 20. The fire was reportedly caused by pyrotechnics used in a show at the club, which was discovered to be unlicensed. Five local government officials have been fired.