September 18, 2008
Today’s Dongguan Times reported a news conference about the Sanlu scandal with a big photo showing journalists chasing after Yang Chongyong, the sweating vice governor of Hebei Province.
In the news conference, Yang Chongyong admitted that the local government is responsible for the Sanlu scandal. Yang also said after knowing the truth, Sanlu did try to to hush it up by paying the victims’ families and the media up until the time it submited a report to the Shijiazhuang Municipal Government on August 2. Shijiazhuang is the capital city of Hebei Province.
However, after the Shijiazhuang government received the report, it did not, as protocol requires, relay the report immediately to its superior body, the Hebei provincial governments. It was on September 9th that the provincial government finally received the report from the municipal government. But the provincial government, which was supposed to turn the report to the central government immediately, failed to do it.
If trying to cover things up is what was in the mind of the both governments, there was little point, because word of the problems had already spread, and an investigative committee from Beijing had already arrived.
According to Yong, the milk providers tried different ways to increase the solubility of melamine, including heating and adding sodium citrate to the milk.
Also on the front page of the newspaper, inthe main headline at the top of the photo, is an order from State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) that all inspection exemptions to food manufacturers will be suspended from today.
The big names in the industry whose products are supposed to be reliable were once granted the exemption (国家免检产品) because of their reputation. After the Sanlu scandal, such reputations for quality are unlikely to be taken for granted.
- Dongguan Times (Chinese): Shijiazhuan Mayor is to be fired, Sanlu Chairwoman of board arrested