China’s first civil lawsuit seeking compensation over last year’s tainted milk scandal has been delayed for further investigation, state-run media reported Wednesday.

A district court in Beijing late last month began hearing a case filed by Ma Xuexin, whose 20-month-old son developed kidney stones after drinking the poisoned milk, the China Daily said.

The case against now-bankrupt dairy producer Sanlu Group and a Beijing supermarket was delayed after the defendants requested further investigation into the link between the child’s illness and the tainted milk, it said.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: lawsuits, milk contamination, Sanlu
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

A total of 21 Sanlu executives and middlemen were tried and sentenced in January by a court in the northern city of Shijiazhuang for their involvement in the case.

The official Xinhua news agency, citing a court statement, said Zhang Yujun was executed “for the crime of endangering public safety by dangerous means,” while Geng Jinping was convicted of producing and selling toxic food.

It said Zhang produced more than 770 tonnes of melamine-laced protein powder, of which he sold more than 600 tonnes, between July 2007 and August 2008.

Geng sold more than 900 tonnes of tainted milk, Xinhua added.

But the woman most widely blamed for the tragedy received a sentence of life in jail.

The BBC interviews people in China for their reactions to the executions:

It’s a chain of responsibility and many mistakes were made along this chain. I think bigger companies should take more responsibility for their actions, and the government should take more responsibility too.

I can’t say this couldn’t happen again. We don’t have a very good social environment and I don’t think it’s been handled very well.

I think the food industry is improving a bit, but there’s still a long way to go. People are more aware of the consequences of damaged food. I do think about those people whose children have suffered.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: death penalty, milk contamination, Sanlu, tainted exports
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The founder of the organization “Home for the Kidney Stone Babies,” Zhao Lianhai was arrested in Daxing district by the police on Friday night. Li Xuemei, Zhao’s wife, told the Global times that about a dozen police officers from Daxing District Public Security Bureau and Tuanhe substation presented a warrant for Zhao’s arrest.

When Zhao refused to go with them, as the summons did not clearly state why, the police officers called their superior, who amended the warrant, alleging Zhao was suspected of being involved in the crime of “provoking an incident.”

Officers took away many items, including two computers, a video recorder, a camera, a USB drive, campaign T-shirts and an address book.

The arrest occurred just two hours after Zhao and Wang Gang, the father of a baby stricken by Sanlu’s poisoned milk powder , successfully received an official apology from Haidian police.

Catherine A. Yeung of Under the Jacaranda Tree has translated a petition for his release. Excerpted:

It is understood that Zhao’s arrest is linked to another incident that took place earlier. The trial of the first compensation claim lodged by the parents of a Kidney Stone Baby was supposed to commence on 10 November 2009. Many people, including the parents of some victims, had worked very hard for over a year in preparation for the trial. However, a day before the trial, the plaintiff’s parent Wang Gang was arrested and roughed up by the Police. Information in relation to the court case was confiscated. As a result, the trial had to be postponed.

Because of this, Zhao Lianhai has been busy collecting signatures for a letter of protest. It is ashamed that the Beijing Police will treat such a peaceful act of protest as a provocation. The signatures that Zhao has collected from over 500 netizens are now used as evidence against him. His computers, cameras and campaign T-shirts are all confiscated. Who, in their right minds, could have imposed such cruelty on the children and their parents, who are already victims of the worst man-made disaster? The slogan we once used to advocate for the release of another rights activist (“Your Mum asks you to go home for dinner”) is now changed to: “The 2 kids are calling for their Dad to come home for dinner”.

The Beijing Police had made a serious mistake when they arrested Zhao Lianhai. They are making a bad situation even worse by inflicting more pain on those whose sufferings are already unbearable. So on this bitterly cold winter day we urge all netizens to join us in protest against the detention. We urge you to sign this petition to call for the immediate release of Zhao Lianhai.

Earlier, in March, Ariana Eunjung Cha wrote about Zhao for the Washington Post:

When Zhao Lianhai created a Web site for parents of children hurt or killed by contaminated milk, he did not set out to challenge the Communist Party. He did it because his son was sick. The 3-year-old had been diagnosed with kidney stones and Zhao was scared. He needed advice.

Within days, more than 4,000 families signed up, and soon the discussion evolved from technical questions and answers about medical care to demands for punishment and compensation. It wasn’t long before the 37-year-old former advertising salesman became the de facto spokesman, organizer and lobbyist for thousands of parents across the country whose children had suffered after drinking infant formula or milk that had been illegally doctored with the industrial chemical melamine.

In a country where every leader must be appointed, approved or otherwise sanctioned by the party, the fact that Zhao has been allowed to operate relatively freely is a testament to the government’s careful approach to those he represents. It is perhaps out of respect for their concerns — or fear of them.

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: melamine, milk contamination, Sanlu, Zhao Lianhai
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

When Zhao Lianhai created a Web site for parents of children hurt or killed by contaminated milk, he did not set out to challenge the Communist Party. He did it because his son was sick. The 3-year-old had been diagnosed with kidney stones and Zhao was scared. He needed advice.

Within days, more than 4,000 families signed up, and soon the discussion evolved from technical questions and answers about medical care to demands for punishment and compensation. It wasn’t long before the 37-year-old former advertising salesman became the de facto spokesman, organizer and lobbyist for thousands of parents across the country whose children had suffered after drinking infant formula or milk that had been illegally doctored with the industrial chemical melamine.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: milk contamination, Sanlu
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

State media said a court in Hebei Province rejected the appeal by Tian Wenhua, the former chairwoman of now-defunct Sanlu Group, at the centre of the dairy contamination.

The 66-year-old was the highest-ranking executive charged over the scandal.

According to state media, the court also upheld a death sentence against Zhang Yujun, convicted of producing and selling the tainted milk, and a life sentence against Zhang Yanzhang, who acted as a middle man in supplying the toxic product to dairies.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: milk contamination, Sanlu
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

A Chinese court plans to auction off the assets of the Chinese dairy at the heart of a tainted milk scandal that sickened hundreds of thousands of children and was blamed for killing six, reports said Saturday.

Sanlu Group Co. was declared bankrupt by a court in its north China base of Shijiazhuang on Thursday. Its real estate holdings, buildings and equipment will be auctioned March 4, along with its investment rights and interests in three other dairy companies, newspapers and the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Fonterra, a New Zealand farmer-owned cooperative that owns 43 percent of Sanlu, has already written off its $139 million investment. Fonterra was responsible for alerting Chinese authorities about the tainted milk scandal last August.

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fonterra, milk contamination, Sanlu
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

A dairy boss is appealing the life sentence she received for involvement in a tainted milk scandal that sickened hundreds of thousands of Chinese children, state media said Sunday.

Tian Wenhua submitted an appeal Sunday to the People’s High Court in Hebei province, saying there was a lack of evidence supporting the charges against her, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing her lawyer, Liang Zikan.

At her trial in December, Tian pleaded guilty to charges of producing and selling fake or substandard products after infant formula tainted with the industrial chemical melamine was blamed in the deaths of at least six babies and the illnesses of nearly 300,000 others.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: milk contamination, Sanlu, Tian Wenhua
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

On the afternoon of January 22, the Intermediate People’s Court in Shijiazhuang announced a death penalty sentence for Zhang Yujun, who sold 600 tons of a mixture containing the industrial chemical melamine to dairy farmers and dealers as a means of boosting protein readings. Zhang’s workshop was allegedly China’s largest source of melamine and earned him 6.8 million yuan.

Also sentenced to death was milk producer Geng Jinping, who had been convicted of producing and selling toxic food to dairy companies.

Gao Junjie, another melamine producer, received a suspended death sentence with two years reprieve.

Besides Tian, another two former deputy general managers of Sanlu, Wang Yuliang and Hang Zhiqi, received 15 years and 8 years in prison, respectively.

See also a report on the sentences from the New York Times.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food safety, milk contamination, Sanlu, Tian Wenhua
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

A nation’s outrage over poisoned baby formula is focusing on the trial of a former dairy executive who, at first glance, looks anything but a criminal.

Tian Wenhua, 67, took the stand December 31 in a courtroom in Shijiazhuang, in north China’s Hebei Province, for her involvement in the melamine contaminated milk scandal that’s rocked China for months.

Tian is a mother and former veterinarian described by associates as modest and kind. But she may face life in prison after pleading guilty to producing and selling poisonous food while serving as president of Sanlu Group, the most prominent of nearly two dozen dairies linked to the milk that sickened about 300,000 children across China and killed at least six.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: milk contamination, Sanlu, Tian Wenhua
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Yi Yongsheng and Jiao Hongfang, villagers in Gangu County of northwestern Gansu Province, confirmed with Xinhua on Friday that they received 200,000 yuan (29,247 U.S. dollars) from the company Wednesday.

Yi declined to give further details on the compensation. He said he was busy and then hung up the phone.

Their five-month-old son died on May 1, 2008 after suffering from kidney failure caused by the contaminated milk. He was believed to be the first child who died after drinking formula containing the industrial chemical, melamine.

By accepting the money from Sanlu, Yi and Jiao gave up their rights to sue the company.

The report says that 3,000 families have accepted the compensation package. Read also an International Herald Tribune report. Other families have rejected offers of compensation in an effort to push for increased research into the health effects of melamine.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food safety, melamine, milk contamination, Sanlu
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall