BEIJING (AP) — China’s Communist Party has punished eight more senior government officials for their roles in last year’s tainted infant formula scandal, a state news agency reported Friday.

Milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine was blamed for the deaths of at least six babies and the sickening of nearly 300,000 others. The scandal forced the head of China’s quality watchdog to resign, and courts have sentenced two men to death for producing the chemical and supplying dairies with toxic milk.

The crisis also highlighted the need for major overhauls in China’s food safety system, and led to a law enacted this month that consolidates hundreds of separate regulations covering the country’s 500,000 food processing companies.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the Communist Party’s disciplinary body removed Wang Bubu, chief of the law enforcement and supervision department at China’s quality watchdog, from his official and party posts. A deputy chief of food circulation supervision at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce was also fired, it said.

Six others — from agencies including the State Food and Drug Administration and the Ministries of Agriculture and Health — received penalties including demotions and having their misdeeds recorded, Xinhua said. Xinhua said all were punished for their failures in supervising.

Several senior city officials were fired last year in Shijiazhuang, the northern Chinese city where the dairy at the heart of the scandal was based. The chairwoman of the company has been sentenced to life in prison.

The scandal has been blamed on middlemen who added melamine, which is high in nitrogen, to watered-down milk to fool quality tests for protein content. Melamine can cause kidney stones and kidney failure.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

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.

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.

By GILLIAN WONG
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) — More than 200 families whose babies fell ill after drinking tainted infant formula said Monday they are taking their case to China’s highest court after being repeatedly ignored by lower courts.

The lawsuit involving 213 families poses a challenge to the government’s attempts to end one of the country’s worst food safety crises. The scandal over milk spiked with an industrial chemical has been blamed for the deaths of six babies and the sickening of nearly 300,000 others with kidney stones and kidney failure.

The 22 Chinese dairies involved have proposed a 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) compensation plan, but many parents want higher compensation and long-term treatment for their babies.

“The reason why I’m bringing this case to court is not about money but about my child’s future,” said Zhang Ge, a single mother in Beijing who quit her job at an Internet advertising company to look after her sick son.

Beijing attorney Xu Zhiyong said lawyers for the families mailed an application Friday to the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing to sue the dairies.

But it seemed unlikely the court would hear the lawsuit, given that lower courts have so far refused to hear at least a dozen lawsuits in the politically sensitive scandal.

The lawyers’ group has not been notified if the application has been received. Phone calls to the inquiry office of the Supreme People’s Court rang unanswered Monday.

The government and the dairy companies had hoped the nationwide payout scheme would ease public anger. Instead, it has given embittered, outspoken parents across the country a common cause.

Xu said the lawsuit seeks 36 million yuan ($5.3 million) in total compensation for the families. It also demands payment of medical expenses incurred from tainted milk-related problems for the rest of the victims’ lives.

“The compensation being offered is just too little,” Xu said in a phone interview. “The parents are also not happy about the plan to give free medical care only till 18 years of age.”

Previous applications to sue Sanlu Group Co., the dairy at the center of the scandal, in lower courts in Hebei, where the company is based, were ignored, Xu said.

Investigations have found that milk suppliers added melamine, which like protein is rich in nitrogen, to watered-down milk to fool quality tests for protein content. Melamine, a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers, can cause kidney stones and kidney failure.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.