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MILK SCANDAL SOURS CHINA'S 'SOFT POWER'

Willy Lam

Asia Times, October 10, 2008

China's formidable state machinery was able to stage the largest Olympics in history and to have a "Taikonaut" perform a 20-minute spacewalk last week. Yet the world-scale scandal emanating from contaminated milk products has exposed the worsening malaise in the country's political and administrative structure.

As of early October, four children died and more than 60,000 children were sickened after having consumed milk powder tainted with melamine, an illegal chemical used by farmers to fake the protein content of their milk. Not only rich countries such as the United States and Britain, but also Asian and African nations ranging from Singapore and Vietnam to Gabon and Ghana, have banned Chinese-made dairy goods and a wide range of biscuits and candies made with Chinese ingredients.

More than a dozen big-name manufacturers within China's $20 billion dairy industry - as well as the country's food safety regulatory system - have been found guilty of either conniving in the use of the chemical or failing to spot the malpractice, according to reports.

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