Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China has executed two men for their role in a scandal involving melamine-tainted milk powder for children. The Xinhua news agency said the executions were carried out on Tuesday, but did not say where.
Last year, at least six children died and more than 300,000 other infants got sick from milk powder contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertiliser that was added to give an apparently higher protein content. The scandal broke wide open after a Portuguese company, which distributed the milk powder in Europe by Sanlu, complained about it. Sanlu was China’s largest milk powder maker at the time.
The executed men were Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping, convicted respectively of distributing and selling more than 600 tonnes and 900 tonnes of tainted milk powder.
In reality, the two were but the weakest link in a chain of production and distribution that was much wider. In fact, 21 other people were convicted for their role in the affair, but got time in prison.
Only Zhang and Geng were sentenced to death in January. They went through the appeal process up to the Supreme Court, which is the only court that can impose the death penalty.
An anonymous commentator on Xinhua wrote that the two executions show that the government is taking the matter seriously. The new stricter laws it introduced on food safety are an example of that.
Yet, Beijing is also bent on preventing any popular protests. In early November, police arrested a father who was organising online a group of parents who sought compensation for the harm done to their children.
Police also arrested a group of parents who protested the life sentence imposed on top Sanlu officials as too lenient, claiming that the company and its partners knew about the problem all along.
Months before the scandal broke, the New Zealand firm Fonterra, partner with Sanlu, had warned Chinese authorities that the milk was toxic, but because of the upcoming Olympic Games, neither central nor local authorities chose to heed the warning.