China launches inspection on food, drug safety

BEIJING - The latest inspection on food and drug safety issues has exposed several weaknesses such as loose oversight and light penalties, according to the office of the central committee for comprehensive law-based governance.

Led by the office, five teams of officials from 13 central agencies, including the Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate and Ministry of Public Security, were dispatched to the provinces of Liaoning, Fujian, Henan, Hubei and Sichuan and wrapped up their inspection recently, a statement from the office said Wednesday.

Although food and drug safety has improved notably in recent years, supervision and law enforcement in this regard lagged behind the public expectation, the statement said.

Some local governments did not pay adequate attention to this issue and judicial penalties for offenders were not heavy enough, it said.

The inspectors also found that the mechanisms to encourage honest practices in enterprises were not in place and oversight over e-commerce platforms needs to be tightened.

Local authorities have been asked to correct the problems and a new round of inspection of the results of the remedies will start soon, the office said.