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Quality watchdog chief quits amid milk scandal

By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-23 07:27

Li Changjiang resigned as minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) Monday, owning "responsibility for the milk food contamination".

The scandal saw another head roll with the sacking of Wu Xianguo, Party chief of Shijiazhuang, where one of the contaminated milk food producers, Sanlu Group, is based.

Contaminated baby milk food has claimed the lives of four infants and left about 53,000 others suffering from various urinary tract problems, including kidney stones.

About 13,000 children are still in hospitals across the country getting treatment for complications created by melamine-contaminated milk food, the Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

Nearly 40,000 others have recovered or are convalescing after getting treatment.

Li, who vacated his office on the 16th floor of the AQSIQ building after seven years, would have retired in another year.

The minister of the country's top quality watchdog is the highest-ranking official to lose his job because of the milk food scandal.

The State Council, which earlier decided AQSIQ had to own "supervision responsibility for the milk food contamination", accepted the 64-year-old's resignation.

The country's cabinet took the decision in accordance with official accountability regulations, and appointed Wang Yong, former deputy secretary-general of the State Council, to replace Li.

"I'm sorry for the contamination. We quality supervision authorities should bear unshirkable responsibility for it," Li had told reporters on a train to Shijiazhuang, provincial capital of Hebei, on Sept 14. He was on way to see how local inspectors tested the tainted milk food.

After the inspection, Li rushed back to Beijing. By that time it was about 1 pm the next day. But instead of going home to catch up on lost sleep, he held an emergency meeting in his office with other officials.

"The minister has always worked very hard, but the power of one person is limited," an AQSIQ press officer said Monday. "We're all very sorry to see him leave."

Born in 1944 in Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang province, Li is known to be forthright and decisive. So when the State Council decided to set up the AQSIQ, it asked Li, then deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, to head the new agency.

"It's no easy job," Li said in an interview last year.

Quality issues of Chinese products hit international headlines last year.

First, it was found additives exported from China had contaminated pet food in North America.

Then came reports on allegedly unsafe Chinese seafood, candies and toys.

As the AQSIQ chief, Li held many press conferences, gave numerous interviews and made several field trips accompanied by journalists. And unlike some other government officials, he was almost always ready to talk to reporters.

Despite leading a national campaign on food safety and product quality, he later conceded that last year had been a difficult time for Chinese quality supervision departments. "It was a year full of sweet, sour, and bitter experiences," he said in an interview.

The milk food scandal shows more intense efforts are needed, experts said. "If the safety supervision mechanism is not reformed, it's likely that such a scandal would break out again," Chen Junshi, a senior researcher with the National Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety, said.

At least six government departments are involved with food safety. That makes their duties and responsibilities overlap, causing law enforcement problems, Chen said. "And the problem is far beyond what Li could handle."

Also yesterday, the Party chief of Shijiazhuang was removed for his failure to report the scandal to the higher authorities in time and for his incompetent handling of the incident.

City mayor Ji Chuntang, vice-mayor Zhang Fawang and three other officials had been removed earlier.

The CPC's Hebei provincial committee has named Che Jun, deputy secretary of the provincial committee, as the city's Party chief.

Probe finds Sanlu 'lied'

Dairy giant Sanlu Group lied about its contaminated baby milk formula for eight months, while tens of thousands of infants got ill, said an investigation team sent by the State Council.

Sanlu Group began receiving complaints about suffering infants as far back as December 2007, it said.

Xinhua contributed to the story