China's milk victims complain of intimidation

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Posted on 17th March 2009 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 3/17/2009

By ANITA CHANG
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Families whose children fell ill from tainted milk have come under pressure to drop compensation lawsuits, victims’ advocates said Tuesday, showing the government’s lingering uneasiness over one of China’s worst contamination scandals.

Local officials were calling and visiting at least a half-dozen families, urging them to drop their cases against the dairies and accept a government-sanctioned compensation plan giving 2,000 yuan ($290) to most victims, said Zhao Lianhai, the father of a child sickened by the milk.

At least one family has decided to back out of their lawsuit, said Zhao, who has rallied other families through a Web site he created.

“One parent told me, ‘I’m more than 30 years old but I’ve never before seen the county and village officials. Everyone in the family is really scared,’” said Lu Jun, an AIDS activist who has been working with families of tainted milk victims in central China’s Henan province.

Infant formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine was blamed for killing at least six babies and sickening nearly 300,000 across China in the scandal that began in September.

Unscrupulous middlemen are accused of adding melamine, which is high in nitrogen, to watered-down milk to fool quality tests for protein content. When ingested, melamine can cause kidney stones and kidney failure.

The scandal rocked the country, culminating in a law enacted in recent weeks that consolidates hundreds of disparate regulations covering the country’s 500,000 food processing companies.

The accusations that local officials are trying to intimidate victim’s families come despite this month’s announcement by the executive vice president of China’s highest court, Shen Deyong, that parents who rejected the government’s compensation plan were welcome to file lawsuits against the dairies.

It was not clear why local officials would try to stop the families after Shen’s announcement. But different levels of government in China often disagree on how to handle matters, and local officials may see lawsuits as a threat to their authority with the potential to upset stability in their community.

More than 600 families have demanded higher compensation than the government plan offers — one-time payouts using money from dairies named in the scandal. Families that take the money can’t sue for more unless they can prove they were forced to agree to the compensation plan, lawyers have said.

Wang Zhenping, whose 1 1/2-year-old son became ill after drinking contaminated infant formula, said he has received four phone calls from health bureau officials in Henan’s Zhoukou city in the last two weeks. They also have visited his mother’s house twice.

“The last time they called me, I told them to call my lawyer,” he said, planning to continue his legal fight against Sanlu, the dairy at the center of the crisis.

Phones at the Zhoukou city health bureau rang unanswered Tuesday.

Lawyers representing the victims’ families have also run into obstacles in recent days.

Li Jinglin, an attorney who was representing parents of children sickened by Shengyuan brand infant formula, said the Beijing city justice bureau called his law firm last Friday and told his superiors he should not be working on the case. Li said he withdrew from the case but hoped another lawyer could take his spot.

A coalition of lawyers working to sue the 22 dairies named in the scandal is focused primarily on getting at least one case involving the key dairy Sanlu to be accepted by a court in the northern city of Shijiazhuang.

“We just want the courts to accept at least one case as an example,” lawyer Lin Zheng said.

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Associated Press researcher Xi Yue in Beijing contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

In switch, China courts accept tainted milk suits

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Posted on 3rd March 2009 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 3/3/2009

By ANITA CHANG
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) — For months, courts across China refused to accept the lawsuits from families whose children were killed or sickened in a tainted milk scandal. Now, in a turnaround, hundreds of families are planning to file suit after the country’s highest court this week said cases would be accepted.

The move signals a change in the way Beijing is handling fallout from the scandal, which killed at least six babies and sickened nearly 300,000 with kidney stones and kidney failure. A government-sanctioned compensation plan had been expected to ease public anger, but instead it gave embittered, outspoken parents across China a common cause.

“There will be lawsuits against all 22 dairy companies,” said Zhao Lianhai, who has rallied victims’ parents through a Web site he created.

He said Tuesday the 600-plus families involved want compensation for emotional harm as well as medical and other expenses — demands that go beyond the government’s one-time payouts.

But it was not clear how the government planned to handle the cases. One lawyer who filed a lawsuit this week on behalf of dozens of families said he was told the court was supposed to guide him toward the existing compensation plan.

Infant formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine was blamed in the scandal that was exposed last September. Unscrupulous middlemen are accused of adding melamine, which is high in nitrogen, to watered-down milk to fool quality tests for protein content.

The crisis highlighted the need for major overhauls to China’s food safety system, culminating in a law passed over the weekend that consolidates hundreds of regulations covering the country’s 500,000 food processing companies.

On Monday, Shen Deyong, executive vice president of China’s highest court, said courts will accept compensation cases in the scandal.

“The courts have done the preparation work and will accept the compensation cases at any time, ” Shen said in an online interview with the official People’s Daily Newspaper.

Already, Beijing attorney Li Jinglin said he filed an 8 million yuan ($1.2 million) lawsuit Monday in northern China’s Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court on behalf of 54 families. Their children became sick after drinking Shengyuan brand milk, whose parent company is based in Qingdao.

Li said he expected a response from the court this week. But he said a court official told him: “We have the responsibility of guiding you toward accepting the compensation plan from the companies involved … According to our situation, we are prepared to give the same amount of compensation as the dairies.”

A man in the propaganda department at the Qingdao court said he was not aware of the case.

Under the payout plan organized by the dairies, families whose children died received 200,000 yuan ($29,000), while others received 30,000 yuan ($4,380) for serious cases of kidney stones and 2,000 yuan ($290) for less severe cases.

More than 95 percent of victims’ families had accepted the money, Shen said in the interview.

Since the scandal broke, victims’ parents tried several times to file lawsuits, but courts refused to take their documents. Chinese courts often turn down class-action suits, preferring to deal with cases one by one to avoid running afoul of Communist Party officials, who ultimately control the judiciary.

At least 100 families who have already accepted compensation money plan to file lawsuits, lawyer Xu Zhiyong said, conceding that some could be rejected.

“Strictly speaking, after you sign the agreement accepting the compensation, you can’t file a case. But if you can prove that you were forced to accept the money, then you can sue,” he said.

One parent who took the money said it wasn’t enough, but he didn’t plan to fight on.

Luo Ming, whose 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with kidney stones but apparently has recovered, said he spent 40,000 yuan ($5,850) in medical fees and travel costs and was forced to take six weeks of unpaid leave from his job as a machine designer in central Hunan province.

In January, local health authorities told him 2,000 ($290) in compensation was the best the family could expect.

It wasn’t enough, Luo said. But “my job has been affected, and the government hasn’t helped me. So I’m just going to give up.”

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Associated Press researcher Xi Yue in Beijing contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Trials open for 9 over China tainted milk scandal

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Posted on 29th December 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 12/29/2008

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Nine people went on trial Monday in connection with China’s tainted milk scandal, state media reported, following the announcement of steps to compensate the families of hundreds of thousands of children harmed by contaminated infant formula.

The tainted formula gave babies painful kidney stones and news of the problem sent parents around the country rushing their babies to emergency rooms for tests to see if they were affected. Chinese dairy exports such as chocolate and yogurt were also found to be tainted, triggering a slew of product recalls elsewhere in Asia and in Europe, Africa and Latin America.

At least four of the suspects on trial Monday could be given the death penalty.

Hearings were held in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, where the company at the heart of the scandal — Sanlu Group Co. — is headquartered, along with three other cities in surrounding Hebei province, according to state broadcaster CCTV and the Xinhua News Agency.

The first trials in the case began for six men on Friday.

All 15 on trial have been charged with producing and selling melamine. The industrial chemical was added to raw milk because — like protein — it is high in nitrogen and can make protein levels appear higher.

Sanlu’s chairwoman and general manager, Tian Wenhua, is scheduled to go before a Shijiazhuang court Wednesday.

At least six babies died and 294,000 other children suffered kidney and urinary problems from drinking the baby formula made from the contaminated milk.

The four suspects in the Shijiazhuang trial are accused of endangering public safety and could face sentences ranging from 10 years in prison to the death penalty. It identified them as Gao Junjie, his wife Xiao Yu, Xue Jianzhong, and Zhang Yanjun.

The four are accused of having produced 200 tons of a mixture of melamine and malt dextrin, a food additive made from starch, that they marketed to milk producers, according to the reports.

Between November 2007 and August 2008, they sold 110 tons to milk producers — including Sanlu — for a total of 1.23 million yuan ($180,000), the reports said.

Although melamine, a common industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizer, is legal to produce and sell in China, CCTV said the court believed the men’s actions had “greatly harmed the health and safety of the consumers, especially infants, therefore violating the criminal law of China.”

It was unclear if CCTV was quoting the court. Calls to the Intermediate People’s Court went unanswered.

Xinhua said the other five are charged with producing and selling poisonous food, but did not give their names or other details.

The trials come amid moves by authorities to end a national disgrace that highlighted widespread problems with food safety and corporate and governmental malfeasance.

On Saturday, China’s Dairy Industry Association said 22 dairy producers would make a one-time cash payment to families of victims and establish a fund to cover medical bills for future health problems.

Lawyers — who are seeking to bring a lawsuit against the companies involved — say they understand most children who suffered kidney stones from the tainted milk would get 2,000 yuan ($290), while sicker children would be paid 30,000 yuan ($4,380).

Chinese courts have rejected all claims filed by the victims’ families, including a lawsuit filed this month by lawyers representing 63 defendants that sought nearly 14 million yuan ($2 million) in compensation from Sanlu.

The state-owned company has been declared bankrupt according to New Zealand’s Fonterra Group, which owns a 43 percent stake in Sanlu.

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Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Parents file lawsuit in China against dairy firm

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Posted on 2nd October 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 10/2/2008 12:45 AM

By SCOTT MCDONALD
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) _ The parents of a baby allegedly sickened in China’s tainted milk crisis are suing one of the country’s biggest dairies in the first known lawsuit stemming from the scandal, a lawyer said Thursday.

Although product liability lawsuits have become more common in recent years, the lawyer, Ji Cheng, said he would not know until next week if the court in Henan province would take the case.

“The court will make the decision whether to accept this case after the National Day holiday,” Ji said told The Associated Press. China is marking its founding with a weeklong holiday, and government agencies are closed.

The hospitalized 14-month-old from central China’s Henan province was fed infant formula made by Sanlu Group Co. from birth, according to a report by Caijing, a leading Chinese business magazine.

Lawyers said they had not heard of any other civil lawsuits being filed in response to the melamine contamination of liquid milk, yogurt and other products made with milk. Four infants have died and more than 50,000 have become ill after drinking the contaminated formula, which has been linked to kidney stones.

The lawsuit comes amid increasing public awareness of an individual’s legal rights in China. Some parents who lost their children when shoddily built schools collapsed in a massive earthquake in May reportedly tried to sue local governments, but were offered cash in return for signing pledges not to pursue legal action.

Ji said one of the sick child’s parents filed a lawsuit in a court in Zhenping county seeking US$22,000 (150,000 yuan) in compensation from Sanlu for medical, travel and other expenses incurred after the child developed kidney stones. The amount could go up because the child is still being treated.

China’s State Council, the Cabinet, has ordered hospitals to provide free treatment for sick infants, but the baby is at Beijing Children’s Hospital, which will only offer free treatment to children diagnosed ill after Sept. 12, when the scandal broke, Caijing magazine said.

One lawyer suggested his profession was under pressure to not accept lawsuits connected with the scandal.

“About one week ago, the Beijing Judicial Bureau asked Beijing lawyers to attend a meeting and requested them not to accept problematic milk powder-related cases,” said Zhou Shifeng, who was out of town and did not attend the meeting.

Other Beijing lawyers told The AP they had not come under any pressure to reject such cases.

On Wednesday, China said 15 more companies were accused of selling compromised products found to be contaminated with melamine after a new series of tests. The tainted samples were mostly milk powder products for adults.

Thirty-one samples of Chinese milk powder provided by 20 companies were found tainted with melamine after new testing, according to data seen Wednesday on China’s food safety administration’s Web site. Five of those companies had already been fingered in the scandal. Product safety officials could not be reached for comment.

The scandal has sparked global concern about Chinese food imports and recalls in several countries of Chinese-made products including milk powders, biscuits and candies such as the widely sold White Rabbit sweets, which have been pulled from shelves in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Officials in the United States on Wednesday reported finding tainted White Rabbit candies for sale at Asian food markets in the state of New Jersey, after finding them earlier in California and Hawaii. Officials in Germany said they had discovered them for sale in the southern state of Baden Wuerttemburg.

The Shanghai-based maker of the candy, Guan Sheng Yuan Co., said last week it was halting production of the sticky, taffy-like confection, an iconic brand beloved by generations of Chinese.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

China dairy brand won't survive tainted formula

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Posted on 24th September 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 9/23/2008 11:59 PM

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) _ China’s Sanlu milk brand — the company at the center of China’s tainted baby formula scandal — won’t recover from the damage it has suffered, its New Zealand partner said Wednesday as it slashed the value of its holding in the company.

Tens of thousands of Chinese children have sought medical care, nearly 13,000 have been hospitalized and four infants have died because of Chinese-made infant formula contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine.

The Chinese government has now taken control of Sanlu Group Co., 43 percent owned by New Zealand’s Fonterra Cooperative, and shut down its operations, Fonterra Chief Executive Andrew Ferrier said at a briefing.

Told that Chinese authorities had now reported Sanlu received complaints about its infant formula as early as December 2007 but failed to alert authorities until Aug. 2, Ferrier said, “If these allegations prove to be true, then I’m appalled.”

“Sanlu has been damaged very badly by this tragedy,” he told reporters as he announced Fonterra’s annual results.

“The (Sanlu) brand cannot be reconstructed,” Ferrier said, adding he “can’t see clearly at this point” whether Sanlu group “will stay intact.”

He noted melamine contamination “is in dairy products across the whole country,” with 22 Chinese companies caught up in the scandal.

If it was true that local Chinese officials didn’t report the contamination to the central government until Sept. 9 as Beijing now claims, “then I am shocked,” he said.

“We were under the belief that people were aware at all levels” by early August, he said, adding, “It could have been that people were fooling us … at the local authority level.

He said he would not speculate when asked whether there had been a cover-up of the scandal because the Olympic Games were about to start in Beijing at the time the contamination was first reported by Sanlu on Aug. 2.

Ferrier again insisted that Fonterra “pressed” for an immediate public recall of Sanlu infant formula from that time — a step only taken on Sept. 9 after the New Zealand government alerted Beijing authorities to the poisoned formula.

“We pushed as hard as we could in the system,” he said Wednesday.

Fonterra, which trades dairy products in 140 countries, would now introduce “more comprehensive testing for every conceivable poison … round the world” in milk it purchases, he said, adding, “You can never be 100 percent absolutely certain against a criminal contamination of your supply chain.”

Ferrier said “we don’t know” when asked if Fonterra retains confidence in Sanlu’s board and management.

“You can bet Fonterra is gun shy about this whole thing and we need to get to the bottom of it,” Ferrier said. “There will be material changes to management and governance of this investment.”

While Sanlu had been profitable in 2007 and 2008, Ferrier said Fonterra had slashed the value of its investment in the Chinese dairy group by US$139 million to an estimated US$62 million.

Fonterra has poured nearly US$200 million into the joint venture since buying a 43 percent stake in December 2005.

Company Chairman Henry van der Heyden said the melamine contamination “is a criminal event,” but added his board was unanimous that Fonterra remain “committed to China.”

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

China's product safety watchdog steps down

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Posted on 23rd September 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 9/22/2008 5:06 PM

By TINI TRAN
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) _ The head of China’s food safety watchdog resigned Monday for failing to stop the widespread contamination of baby formula as the number of children sickened in the scandal soared to nearly 53,000, including four infants who died.

The shake-up came as investigators revealed that China’s biggest producer of powdered milk, Sanlu Group Co., had received complaints as early as December 2007 linking its infant formula to illnesses in babies. Months later, tests revealed the milk was tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, which causes kidney stones and can lead to kidney failure.

“During these eight months, the company did not inform the government and did not take proper measures, therefore making the situation worse,” China Central Television reported, citing an investigation by the State Council, China’s Cabinet.

Melamine, used to make plastics and fertilizer, has been found in infant formula and other milk products from 22 of China’s dairy companies. Suppliers trying to cut costs are believed to have added it to watered-down milk because its high nitrogen content masks the resulting protein deficiency.

The number of sick children reported by the Health Ministry has jumped from 6,200 to nearly 53,000. Of those, 12,892 remain hospitalized, with 104 of them in serious condition. Another 39,965 children have been treated and released.

The ministry did not explain the sudden increase in the number of cases but it suggested health officials were combing through hospital records from May through August to trace the origins of the contamination.

Baby formula and other milk products have been pulled from stores around the country and Chinese dairy products, including baby formula, milk candy and ice cream, have been recalled or banned in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Hong Kong.

In a reflection of the breakdown in supervision of the dairy industry, Sanlu and several other leading companies embroiled in the scandal had been given inspection-free status by the food safety watchdog.

That privilege has since been rescinded, but the World Health Organization stressed Monday it was only a first step and urged closer monitoring.

Quality issues can crop up at any point in the supply chain, from the farm to the retail outlet, said WHO China representative Hans Troedsson, adding: “It’s clearly something that is not acceptable and needs to be rectified and corrected.”

The resignation of Li Changjiang, who headed the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine since 2001, comes a year after he and the government promised to overhaul the system in response to a series of product safety scares.

New regulations and procedures were introduced in an attempt to restore consumer confidence and preserve export markets after a string of recalls involving tainted toothpaste, faulty tires, contaminated seafood and in March 2007, pet food containing melamine that was blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats in the United States.

A series of improvements were announced from establishing a national food recall system to random inspections to increasing exchanges with quality inspectors in other countries.

In an indication of Beijing’s determination to improve product safety, the government in July 2007 executed the disgraced chief of China’s food and drug agency, who was convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for letting fake medicine into the domestic market.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Li stepped down with the approval of China’s Cabinet.

The agency “failed to conduct a proper inspection in this case, and Li Changjiang bears responsibility for this. The State Council has accepted his resignation,” China Central Television reported.

In addition, the top official from Shijiazhuang, where Sanlu is based, was fired Monday for “failing to deal with the case properly,” the official Xinhua News Agency said. Party secretary Wu Xianguo is the latest in a string of city officials who have been sacked over the scandal.

The discovery of the tainted milk is especially damaging because Sanlu was considered one of the most reputable brands in China, winning an industry award in January and being featured on state television last fall as a domestic company with stringent quality controls.

WHO was having discussions with Chinese officials on how to strengthen its food quality system, said Troedsson, its country representative. Local authorities need increased training to create a “more robust reporting system,” he said.

“It is important to know if information was withheld, where and why it was withheld,” he said. “Was it ignorance by provincial authorities or was it that they neglected to report it? Because if it was ignorance there is a need to have much better training and education … If it is neglect then it is, of course, more serious.”

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Associated Press reporters Anita Chang and Henry Sanderson contributed to this story.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.