China: Crisis on “Made in China”

The anger on the poisonous milk powder incident continues to roar everyday. Apart from Sanlu (三鹿), the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China(國家質檢總局) released last night (Sept 16) that one fifth of baby powder manufacturers in the country are involved in the melamine scandal. 22 dairy enterprises, including national brands like Yili (伊利)and Meng Niu(蒙牛)are involved in manufacturing poisonous milk powder. Up till now, at least 6,422 6,244 babies got sick with kidney stone disease.

Following I-fan and Bob Chen's posts, here is another update on the public sentiment in China.

Don't buy “Made in China”

William long is outraged by the Internet censorship practice in this crisis and urged: if you really love this country, please don't buy “Made in China”

今天我博客上讨论的关于某某奶粉事件的文章被上面的人要求删除了,我感觉这个企业的公关能力真的很不错,在中国,最佳的企业公关不就是这样吗?把企业的利益和政府的利益捆绑在一起,以政府的行政力量来为企业公关,将网络和舆论上所有不利于自己的信息都删除,这是何等的舆论优势啊。这样,所有不明真相的人们可以继续喝你们制造的奶粉,在不知不觉中走进坟墓了。

Today, I was requested to delete a blog post about the Sanlu milk powder incident. The public relation capacity of this company is really strong, isn't that a model of China best enterprise? To tie the interest of the company with the interest of the government and use the government's administrative power to do the company's PR and delete all the information and opinions that are against the company's interest. Sure they are in a powerful position. Then all those people who don't know the truth will still by your milk powder and walk into the grave.

The blogger then comments ironically:

  

中国最大的问题就是人太多,特别是有知识、有思想的人太多,如果这些人都死掉的话,中国就没有任何问题了。

The greatest problem in China is that we have too many people who have knowledge and independent thought, if all these people are dead, we don't have anymore problem.

  

听说这个企业还曾经要花300万去公关百度等门户网站,看来真是小看了它,其实只要花一半的钱去政府进行公关就足够了。

There is hearsay there the enterprise spent 3 million yuans in search engine, it seems that we have underestimated its power, they only need to spend half the amount to push the government's PR machine.

  

如果你真的爱国,请一定记住,不要购买中国制造的任何产品。

If you are a genuinely patriot, please remember, don't buy any “made in China” product!

Shen Yizhe agrees that for the sake of our future generation, we should be critical of our national products:

再这么下去,海洛因、冰毒的制贩都快失业了,而国家的中长期禁毒斗争将转移到食品加工业。看着新西兰总理用一副不可思议的表情讲述着河北省地方政府试图掩盖毒奶粉事件,并拖延召回三鹿产品后,这时候日本人一定会想起毒饺子,这个到现在都没有结论的无头公案,和毒奶粉同样出自河北。此时,是不是该换日本人抵制中国货了?用韩寒的话说,抵制日货是因为日本人伤害了我们的感情,而支持国货的下场是我们的下一代付出了健康和生命的代价。孰重孰轻,一看便知。

If the situation goes on like this, real drug dealers would probably lose their job and the nation's anti-drug campaign would move to the food industry. When the New Zealand Prime Minister commented on the Hebei province government's intension to cover up the poisonous milk power issue and delay the recall of Sanlu product, his facial expression told us that he felt the whole thing incredible and ridiculous. We must have reminded the Japanese about the poisonous dumpling incident, which the truth hasn't been revealed yet. Both the dumpling and the milk powder come from Hebei province, I guess it is now the Japanese's turn to boycott China product. Using what twocold's expression, “boycotting Japanese product is an expression of our feeling, but the price for supporting our national products is our next generation's health and life.” So which one weights more?

Instead of advocating boycott, Wang Xiaofeng educates the consumers in China by doing some simple mathematics:

其实大家可以好好算算这道算术题,当某一种食品在自然界中的产量很少,但是市场上数量又很多,你可就要小心了,如果不掺假,那是不可能的。尤其是打着“绿色食品”“无公害食品”“有机食品”幌子的,您尽量别碰。牛奶里面无牛奶,果汁里面无果汁……有一天我在超市里看到Tang果珍,配方里的东西跟水果居然无关。你算算吧,橙子的产量是有限的,哪有那么多果肉工人挥霍。我去超市买东西,很多时候耽误在研究包装纸上的配料表上了,很多东西我看着就难受,能不买基本上不买。

Please do the mathematics carefully, when the food is a scarce product in the natural world, but we have abundant of it in the market, you need to be careful. It is rather impossible that they do not add extra substances inside. Don't touch the products which stress “green” or “organic”. There is no real milk in milk, not real fruit in the fruit juice… I once spotted a Tang fruit product, and there isn't any fruit in the ingredient. Please do the calculation. We have very limited oranges in the country, where can we get so many fruit for the mass food industry? When i shop in the supermarket, most of the time i spent is on the ingredient table. I feel very bad and will try to avoid buying these products.

Covering up

Comes Violet(紫罗兰奔你来)got some internal information from Yili's milk station in Inner Mongolia asking the workers in the station to remove all kinds of chemicals such as Hydrogen peroxide and melamine, and destroy all the milk products that contain starch and other chemicals.

The writer urges reporters from all over the country and overseas to go to Inner Mongolia for uncovering the story:

内蒙古的奶站加三聚氰胺是向山西省的奶农们学习的,经验是从山西传过来的,这些东西奶农们都知道,他们说,山西的奶牛根本在品质方面就不是奶牛,但是那里的奶却合格,而内蒙古本地的奶就不合格,最后发现山西那边的奶站就是加了三聚氰胺才合格的,所以现在往奶里掺三聚氰胺,淀粉,双氧水是一个公开的秘密。

The practice of adding melamine comes from Shanxi. Their milk's quality is not as good as inner Mongolia, but milk powder coming from Inner Mongolia could not pass the protein standard. On the other hand, because of melamine, Shanxi's milk managed to pass the test. That's why it is an open secret for the milk station to add melamine, starch and Hydrogen peroxide.

现在主要是没有中央媒体的记者来采访,实际上问一下当地的老百姓,就能找到奶站和奶农,他们就和我说的一致,可惜我当时没有录音,因为我不是记者。

Now the main problem is that we don't have reporters here to interview milk farmers, what they said will be consistence with my information. Unfortunately, I am not a reporter and I haven't recorded the details.

How about Olympic milk product?

Twocold (韓寒)notices the mainstream news reports stressed that milk products for the Olympics are not contaminated:

通过这次事件,我终于认识到,我们真是一个礼仪之邦。你看小日本,把好的留给自己国家,稍差一点的出口。而我们始终是有骨气的国家,就要和小日本反着来,这才是反日。

I finally realize from this incident that our country is really full of courtesy. Look at Japan, they leave their citizens the best product and export the secondary ones overseas. For our country, we are doing the opposite thing. This is really “anti-Japan”.

However, Nickwong doubts whether the Olympic milk products are really safe:

1、如果国家承认奥运会使用或出口奶制品含有三聚氰胺,则将有引发国际丑闻和外交事故的危机,所以即使有,政府也不敢承认,反正都已被人吃掉或扔掉了。(希望能有国外的有心人查过尚未正式闭幕的残奥会);2、但如果照国家和三鹿的说法,牛奶掺毒仅是不法奶农所为(警方很快抓获疑凶,办其他案也不见这么快过),连三鹿公司1100多项先进的检测程序都没法检验出来,何以肯定奥运会使用的伊利奶制品不含三聚氰胺?

1. If the government admitted that Olympics and export milk products contain melamine, it would become an international scandal and crisis. I don't think they dare to admit that. In any case, the products have been consumed. (I hope that someone could double check the Paralympic Game's milk product). 2. According to Sanlu and the government's explanation, the melamine was added by milk farmers (the police act on that extremely effectively) and escaped the 1,100 quality tests by Sanlu, how can they be so sure that Yili's products at the Olympics do not contain melamine?

The blogger also notices that back in 2007, a milk station manager complains that since 2005 the industry has started adding extra substances in the milk, including some sort of protein powder and fat powder. But his complaint was neglected by Yili.

Who is to wipe the ass?

Heibei government tried to pacify the anger by taking up the medical cost of the sick babies. However, Caodan wonders why Hebei government has to wipe the ass for Sanlu in the incident:

实在是太操蛋了,虽然看起来它是一个非常有爱心的举动。但为什么这份钱由政府来出?政府哪来的钱?还不是纳税人的?但为什么人家纳了这个税,要去让政府帮三鹿擦这个屁股?还是说,政府在给自己擦屁股?但河北政府又说,河北政府在三鹿集团里没有股份。

那么,这是一家企业因自己的产品不合格而导致其消费者受害,理应由他自己来赔偿。而且它还是个营业额高达70亿之多的企业 ,为什么会把这笔帐算在河北政府,即河北纳税人头上?这实在是太令人费解了。

This is f__king ridiculous, it looks as if the government is showing its care for the people. But why should the cost be taking up by the government? Where does the government money come from? Isn't it from all the tax payers? Why let our government to wipe Sanlu's ass with our money? Or the government is actually wiping its own ass? But the Hebei government claimed that they didn't hold any Sanlu's stock.

This enterprise hurts their consumers with its own product, they should pay the compensation. Moreover, its turnover has reached 7 billion yuans, why should Hebei government / tax payer bear the consequence? This is unbelievable!

According to the latest news, several party leaders in the Hebei province have stepped down because of their involvement in the Sanlu milk powder scandal.

62 comments

  • Supersaint

    In China, the government is trying its best to provide for its people. For instance in this case, all the babies that fell ill drinking the milk will be receiving free treatment and the perpetrators will be prosecuted. In sharp contrast, American government kept bailing out the perpetrators who have cheated by using people’s money for this purpose. AIG is in huge turmoil and needs money. The government uses tax payers money to lend out to this company interest free and let the company keeps its profit when everything is settled later. So, the poor American taxpayers will take all the risk if AIG fails in its bid to help itself but gain nothing if it is successful. Not only that, the hard working savers in the bank will be penalize when the central bank keeps its interest rates low to make way for the greedy and debt ridden corporate blood suckers.

    By the way, are you from Taiwan?

  • 这是一个操蛋的政府!
    This is a f**king government.

  • Afraidofmilk

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/4693592a13.html

    ‘Sabotage’ behind poison milk – Fonterra

    Quoted:On a conference call he was repeatedly asked why Fonterra did not go public itself earlier and he replied that it would have been irresponsible for Sanlu not to have followed the guidelines of Chinese authorities. Fonterra has a 43 per cent stake in Sanlu.

    “I can look myself in the mirror and say Fonterra acted absolutely responsibly in this one. If you don’t follow the rules of an individual market place then I think you are getting irresponsible.Unquoted.
    Well, Andrew Ferrier, CEO of Fonterra, now your multinational big global company are “absolutely responsible” for the deaths of so many babies, should you act like a responsible man, and RESIGN ?

  • Afraidofmilk

    http://health.people.com.cn/GB/14740/126387/126556/8047943.html

    人民网北京9月13日电 在今天下午举行的国新办新闻发布会上,
    People.com.cn 13/9/2008: On this afternoon, State Council (Premier Wen Jiabao’s office) Press Office is conducting a press conference,

    卫生部党组书记高强在今天下午国务院新闻办召开的新闻发布会上说,
    Party secretary Gao Jiang said:

    三鹿集团从3月份开始就陆续接到了一些患泌尿系统结石病的投诉,
    Sanlu group, beginning from 3/2008, had received some complaints from customers about getting stones on urinary tracts,

    在集团确认奶粉的质量出现问题以后,在相当长的时间内没有向政府报告。在这个问题上,三鹿集团应该承担很大的责任。

    after problems on quality of milk powder had been confirmed by Sanlu group, for a long period of time, they did not reported to the government. Just on this issue, Sanlu group should bear a big part of the responsibility.

    Mr.Andrew Ferrier, CEO of Fonterra, which holds 43% shares of Sanlu group, you are a responsible man, and do you know

    (1) Confucius said:Things that you dislike, do not give to others.You do not like to drink poison milk yourself, why did you let others drink poison milk everyday?
    (2) When Japanese committed a major blunder, they would carry out Hara-Kiri on themself.

  • hwang

    I am Chinese and on many issues such as Tibet, Olympics and our approach to democracy, I whole-heartedly side with the Chinese government. But this event is too much. Maybe it’s the local government, or maybe it’s the regulatory bodies, some people are just not doing their job. Or they are too busy counting money. Those are infants! I can’t imagine how much sorrow this brings to the families. Compensation, free medical treatment…all these are not going to bring back lives and reverse the damage. The issue is how to prevent this from happening again. We have to understand that unscrupulous businesses are always out there. What we need is a strong, independent regulatory body that does their job in providing the final quality check before products reach the consumers, and independent consumer protection groups that report complaints to relevant authorities in a regular and timely manner. And yes, dishonest businesses must be punished! I always believe that although western media or internet users sometimes exaggerate our problems and distort facts, we have to keep our own house clean first before getting defensive and rushing into needless arguments.

  • posion lover

    Date: 2008/09/17
    Mengniu has recalled all three products from the market and, in consultation with Arla Foods, suspended all production of milk powder at Mengniu Arla’s factory in Hohot in Inner Mongolia until the company has conducted a full investigation into the extent of the problem.

    “The situation is extremely distressing for all the families who need milk of the highest quality to feed their children. It is extremely important that we get to the bottom of the problem so that consumers’ safety can be guaranteed and confidence in the Chinese dairy industry maintained,” says CEO Peder Tuborgh, Arla Foods. “Together with Mengniu and the authorities, we’re doing everything we can to safeguard quality.”

    http://www.arlafoods.com/APPL/HJ/HJ202COM/HJ202D01.NSF/O/A8688A6747617A23C12574C7002BFB26

  • Supersaint

    It is easy to point fingers and blame others when crisis occurs. The real question is were you aware of the lack of regulations before the event were known? how many people have you warned about the tainted milk before anyone knows about it? Most importantly, now that the problem has been known, what did you do to help improve the situation? You are right that there are greedy people around that worry about nothing but their own pocket be they Chinese or other nationals. The difference is in the government and regulators. Are they caring for the societies concerned and the affected people? or are they only concern about their own welfare and did nothing to relief people of their sufferings? Ring any bell here? Whatever is done is done and cannot be undone. The perpetrators will have to be brought to justice. laws will have to be improved and preventions will have to be made. Some governments don’t even care about the problem let alone catching the culprits and prevent things from happening. they only worry about their votes!

  • paul

    Supersaint said the US government uses tax payers money to lend out to AIG interest free.

    No, they will be paying above the interest rate for the loan. But I agree, the government shouldn’t do this.

    I will repeat what I often say, people in China are ignorant. They are not told the facts about what is happening in their own country.

    The media is being told to only follow the Xinhua story line on the milk issue.

    It took the New Zealand company to blow the whistle. Still, they should have done it earlier.

    Is anyone really surprised at this case? How many times have such cases happened before?

  • Supersaint

    paul,
    if you were saying the Chinese are ignorant, you westerners are equally ignorant too. You are also spoon fed poison by CNN, and all other networks that had nothing better to report than blowing up crisis on other countries. US are often portrayed as angels in the news by their own network. Even Hollywood movies also show US armies as good ol saviour of the world. are all these not ignorance as well? Its useless of pointing fingers and say who is better or who is worse at the moment. Our world is in deep trouble now, every country. But one thing I can be proud of to say that in China, every crisis helps the country to improve in its people’s living condition. They learn and improve and I believe this crisis will help them too. We have seen the country in larger problems than it is now, ww2, cultural revolution, 1989 riot, and this. They will improve their productivity and quality in the near future. Whereas as we can see in US, they keep making bigger mistakes and drag more people into their own crisis than before. War here and there, tech crisis, islam war, iraq war, and now this mess. It looks like US keeps dragging other countries into deeper shit than anybody else. But u guys just do not seems to care about all these.

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