Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Two are sentenced to death over toxic milk scandal

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Latest Breaking News Donate to DU
 
WhiteTara Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 08:18 PM
Original message
Two are sentenced to death over toxic milk scandal
Source: times online

Two men are to be executed and one of China’s top dairy company bosses will spend the rest of her life in jail after at least six babies died and 300,000 fell ill after drinking infant milk powder that was deliberately tainted with an industrial chemical.

Outside the closed court distraught parents wept and railed against what they saw as the leniency of the sentence against the head of the dairy company Sanlu Group.

Some demanded that responsibility be laid on Communist Party officials, whom they blamed for assisting the cover-up and thus delaying a public announcement that Sanlu’s baby formula had been mixed with melamine. The nitrogen-rich chemical mixed into the milk fooled tests by appearing to boost the product’s protein content.

The severity of the first sentences to be announced reflected the sensitivity of a case involving milk products manufactured by a state-run venture that hid the scandal, apparently with the connivance of local officials, to avoid bad publicity during the Beijing Olympic Games in August last year.

All eyes had been on the sentencing of Tian Wenhua, 66, the former chairwoman and general manager of the Sanlu Group. She was the most senior official charged in the food safety crisis, which highlighted corporate and official shortcomings as well as corruption. She had pleaded guilty to charges of producing and selling fake or substandard products and received the maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5570314.ece
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 08:22 PM
Response to Original message
1. There are a lot of things to complain about in China, but there are times when
Edited on Thu Jan-22-09 08:25 PM by BrklynLiberal
I would like to see the corporate criminals in this country punished more along the lines that the Chinese do it..
There are many who deserve it at least as much as those Chinese criminals.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
unkachuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 09:01 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. exactly....
....I wonder how many wall street and banking executives in this country will be executed for causing the pre-mature/deaths of thousands of Americans due to loss of jobs, income and housing?

....not being able to eat healthy, stay warm, receive healthcare or have a safe and secure place to live is going to take it's toll on the health and well-being of millions of Americans....
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 11:20 PM
Response to Reply #3
9. They truly were endangering the health and lives of Americans...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
madville Donating Member (743 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 08:32 PM
Response to Original message
2. Sounds fair
Sounds fair to me.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
provis99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 09:06 PM
Response to Original message
4. in the US,
CEOs that did this would get a bonus added to their golden parachute, not a jail term or death sentence. Its an odd day when China seems to care more about the health of its consumers than the US does. Oh, I forgot; that's how capitalism works; If you die from what you eat, its your own fault, not the company's.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 09:28 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. I wouldn't blindly call China a shining beacon for human rights issues,
just like how Che is grossly overrated, but it is odd that China would respond with condign action.

Failure may be a basic freedom, but there comes a point when responsibility is needed.

How are they to die? Nice quick painless injection in return for all the slow, painful deaths they were responsible for?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
jmowreader Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 09:32 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Nice quick painless lead injection is more like it
The Chinese execute people by strapping them into a chair facing away from the door in a windowless room. After a period of time, someone comes in and shoots them in the back of the head.

And then they send the executed person's family a bill for the execution.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
conspirator Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 07:22 AM
Response to Reply #5
12. I agree. I think China is actually more worried about ...
the buck$ they are going to loose in food exports with this scandal then the actually dead babies.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
babythunder Donating Member (342 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 10:33 PM
Response to Reply #5
13. I think you missed the point
which if our corporate criminals were staring at possible death sentences or life sentences I think we would see a slightly different attitude among those Wall Street thieves.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
jmowreader Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 09:30 PM
Response to Original message
6. Very surprised Tian Wenhua wasn't sentenced to death
The two who were sentenced to death were in charge of the factory that made the melamine powder and mixed it with powdered milk. How the woman who ran the company that sold the finished milk escaped her date with the hangman, I will never know.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
woundedkarma Donating Member (128 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 10:48 PM
Response to Original message
8. I haven't been reading this that closely but...
I think murdering two people even if they deliberately laced the stuff with melamine to kill infants purposely... IS STILL WRONG.

I doubt that it was ever on purpose. H*ll even our country is saying that melamine is okay (just not in the amounts that were in the chinese stuff and not mixed with something else, I forget what)

Do they really deserve to die? I'm not even sure the woman deserves life in prison. Just how much did they know about things? Doesn't this story say "milk products manufactured by a state-run venture that hid the scandal" ... state-run. Which means they're probably the scape-goats for people higher up who are in power.

Lets see a real trial, real evidence and a jury before we convict these people. Sadly china doesn't do things that way.

Bush is gone. We are AMERICANS and we should get back to what America stands for.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Left Coast2020 Donating Member (597 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-22-09 11:38 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. I wonder how Obama will adress China's Human Rights issue?
If you own a company in China, i.e. construction, and one of your workers falls off a crane or building, the company owner suffers the consequences.

I saw this exact behavior when I was there last month when a guy was on scafolding without a safety-harness. If he fell, that was it. And when they clean windows, just a single line from the roof while lowering yourself down.

Amazing.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
WhiteTara Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 01:37 AM
Response to Reply #8
11. yes, it was purposeful
they wanted to up the percentage of protein content knowing full well it was poisonous. This happene after the cat/dog food contamination. This was done for money and the woman said she knew about it four months before notifying anyone. I think that is why she got life and they got death. I think that is why she got life

I think greed muist be punished to the full extent of the law. I think George Bush should pay for his crimes and the punishment for those is also death.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Fri Dec 27th 2024, 02:33 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Latest Breaking News Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC