China: Death Row for FDA Chief

(Beijing, China) Ironically, not only did patients die from fake medicines but the head of the Chinese Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, was sentenced to death after being convicted of the corruption which allowed the distribution of fake medicine.

From Khaleej Times:

Zheng, 62, headed the watchdog agency from 1998 to 2005 but was expelled from the ruling Communist Party earlier this year after investigators said he abused the administration's approval powers to obtain bribes and win illegal profits from drug companies.

The specific circumstances of which Zheng was convicted of orchestrating were the malnutrition deaths of Chinese babies fed fake milk and the deaths of an unknown number of people in Panama and China after they were given fake medicine.

I wonder if Zheng was in charge of inspecting pet food and toothpaste, both of which have been found to contain poison. Since he left the agency in 2005, possibly not.

However, does it really make a difference who is in charge? China is a communist police state run by thugs and, by definition, thugs are corrupt. I suspect that all future heads of the Chinese FDA will be just as corrupt as Zheng, but more careful about killing people.