Transparency is best medicine for chronic corruption in drug watchdog

The snowballing corruption scandal centring on Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, is significant in several ways.

First, it is the latest example of the endemic corruption that permeates every branch of the government, and is another telling sign of the failure of the mainland leadership's anti-corruption campaign.

Second, it calls into question the future of the watchdog, which was only set up in 1998 along the lines of the US Food and Drug Administration.

Third, it again raises important questions over how to better monitor leading government officials and their immediate family members.

State media reports said his son, Zheng Hairong, and wife Liu Naixue had also been arrested on suspicion of colluding with him to sell drug manufacturing permits.

Two of Zheng's top aides - Hao Heping, head of the watchdog's department of medical equipment, and Cao Wenzhuang, chief of the drug registry department - were also arrested. Both Hao and Cao once worked as Zheng's secretaries.

It is believed mainland leaders have been shocked by the scale and extent of corruption within the watchdog. On January 24, Premier Wen Jiabao held a special State Council meeting on Zheng's corruption case, and concluded that he was 'in serious dereliction of duty, took advantage of his power to accept bribes, and protected and encouraged his family members and aides to engage in illegal activities'.