CHINA:PREMIER WEN Jiabao promised to improve Chinese food safety as the impact of a scandal over toxic milk that has killed four infants and sickened over 50,000 children continued to reverberate throughout Asia.
Mr Wen announced no new initiatives but said Beijing would instill business ethics after a string of product safety disasters.
"We plan not only to revitalise the food industry and the milk powder industry, we will try to ensure that all China-made products are safe for consumers and consumers can buy with assurance," the premier told the World Economic Forum in the port city of Tianjin at the weekend.
The latest scandal erupted this month after the industrial chemical melamine, which is used to make plastics and fertiliser, was found in milk powder and linked to kidney stones in children. The chemical was also found in liquid milk, yogurt and other products.
There is a certain scepticism about China's ability to deal with food and product safety crises. The current scandal took place even though there have been many such incidents, with the same sackings, arrests, promises and expressions of remorse in previous years.
The absence of a free reporting environment is a key concern.
A number of lawyers who are acting for families of infant victims of the toxic milk say they are under official pressure to drop their cases, and say the government is increasingly sensitive about the health scandal.
In the run-up to the Beijing Games, the propaganda ministry issued a 21-point plan to journalists forbidding them to report on issues like Tibet and Falun Gong. Food safety was also a key topic.
The latest products added to the list of contaminated goods in the tainted milk scandal include Heinz baby cereal in Hong Kong and wasabi snacks in Japan, while Indonesia has found melamine in 12 products imported from China.
