China gets tough on white collar crime

[DaveE]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19686498/

BEIJING - China on Tuesday executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog who had become a symbol of the country’s wide-ranging problems on product safety.

Zheng Xiaoyu’s execution was confirmed by State Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Yan Jianyang at a news conference held to highlight efforts to improve China’s track record on food and drug safety...............

[turbo6bar]

It would be a good thing in DC. Problem is what will we do with the United States Capitol after most Congressmen are sentenced.

[kach22i]

Zheng was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths and other substandard medicines. Cao was given a death sentence last month with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes and dereliction of duty.

Such suspended death sentences usually are commuted to life in prison if the convict is deemed to have reformed.

................................Last week, China’s food safety watchdog said almost 20 percent of products made for consumption within China were found to be substandard in the first half of 2007. Canned and preserved fruit and dried fish were the most problematic, primarily because of excessive bacteria and additives, the agency said.

Seems to me that the punishment fits the crime in this case, people died.

I'd like to hear from all the Libertarians and extreem right wingers who seem to want to let the free market shove anything they want down our throats unchecked and unregulated. China is like the USA was over 100 years ago, a scary place in many ways.

[Dantilla]

Originally posted by kach22i
I'd like to hear from all the Libertarians and extreem right wingers who seem to want to let the free market shove anything they want down our throats unchecked and unregulated.

That's as silly as saying the liberals want the government to confiscate all private property.

[Rick Lee]

Originally posted by kach22i
Seems to me that the punishment fits the crime in this case, people died.

I'd like to hear from all the Libertarians and extreem right wingers who seem to want to let the free market shove anything they want down our throats unchecked and unregulated. China is like the USA was over 100 years ago, a scary place in many ways.

Unlike China, the US market is far more capable of policing itself due to our extremely litigious society and abundance of tort lawyers. That culture does not (yet) exist in China, so there really is no one to rely on besides the gov't. And don't pretend their gov't. gives a rat's a$s about food or drug safety either. Life pretty cheap over there and their gov't. doesn't have to bother with elections. However, they are very image conscious with the rest of the world and bad quality control spells doom for exports and that is something they very much care about.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally posted by turbo6bar
It would be a good thing in DC. Problem is what will we do with the United States Capitol after most Congressmen are sentenced.

Fill it with normal, self made men, as opposed to silver-spoon doctors, lawyers, and trust-fund babies?

[kach22i]

Originally posted by Rick Lee
Unlike China, the US market is far more capable of policing itself due to our extremely litigious society and abundance of tort lawyers. That culture does not (yet) exist in China, so there really is no one to rely on besides the gov't. And don't pretend their gov't. gives a rat's a$s about food or drug safety either. Life pretty cheap over there and their gov't. doesn't have to bother with elections. However, they are very image conscious with the rest of the world and bad quality control spells doom for exports and that is something they very much care about.

So you propose that trial lawyers and the court system replace regulation? Our legal system will become even worse, something akin to India's.

How can the legal system work if there are few laws, governing agencies and regulations in which to hold neglectful and malicious companies to?

Seems like flooding the courts with tort cases is the wrong direction.

On the other hand there is a thing as too much regulation and too much government control, I just want to know where that line is in your mind.

I'm seeking that "line" in a round about way myself and have no doubt that I have a few contradictions and exceptions in me on this topic. Don't we all?

[The Gaijin]

"Kill one to scare 10,000". I think the Great Helmsman came up with that one. Just the way things have been done over there for about 5000 years..

[Rick Lee]

I didn't propose that, but there needs to be some of it and there is none in China right now. Furthermore, unless the government really has a hard on for someone, it's pretty easy to buy your way out of trouble there. Don't think for a second that judges hand out rulings based on oral arguments, case law and long deliberations. They go through the motions, get their directions from the party bosses and rule as they're told to do. Their former FDA head was pretty much executed before his trial began. The fact that his two year reprieve was ignored just means the party bosses decided the international attention they were getting was too much and so they went ahead called for the mobile execution van to pay this guy's prison a visit and make the int'l news go away.

[turbo6bar]

Agree with Rick Lee on China. We can't even begin to compare Western culture, government, or economic policy with the Communist system. Their concepts of freedom, responsibility, and fairness are wildly different from our own.

This execution is likely little more than shifting blame.