Charles on… anything that comes along

Fascinating story in The Economist:

The government blames middlemen who collect milk from dairy farmers. They allegedly added water to increase its volume and, to disguise this, mixed in melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, which can deceive inspectors about the milk’s protein content. Melamine gained notoriety last year when several pets in America died after eating food contaminated with it by Chinese-made additives.

The central government has boasted it was quick to react to the latest problem. But the chronology revealed so far suggests otherwise. It has fuelled speculation of a delay to make sure the Olympic games in August were not marred by a food scare.

(Emphasis added.)

The government of Gansu province in China’s west says it told the Ministry of Health on July 16th about an unusual upsurge of kidney stones among infants who had all drunk the same brand of milk. It was not until September 1st that the ministry says its experts tentatively concluded that the powder had caused the sickness. Still, nothing appeared to happen.

Prodding from the government of New Zealand may have been what eventually goaded the Chinese authorities into action. On September 8th it told them what it had learnt from Fonterra, a New Zealand dairy company that owns 43% of Sanlu [until recently one of China’s biggest producers of milk powder]. Fonterra says it was told by Sanlu of a problem with the powder on August 2nd, six days before the games.

(Emphasis added.)

Now, of course one should usually not ascribe to malevolence what can be ascribed to incompetence, but with the tainted milk thing really kicking off (European ban, children still dying) I’m not persuaded that someone who could have taken action didn’t see it, but suppressed it.

After all, what’s the deaths of a few children compared to favourable worldwide TV coverage?

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• That "independent investigation" into MPs' expenses? It's already going on (21 May 2009; score: 61.34%)
• At the Guardian: another podcast, and how much will net access at the Beijing Olympics be limited? (27 February 2008; score: 52.39%)
• London wins Olympics: and now interviewers start saying "Yes, but.." (6 July 2005; score: 42.09%)