The number of mainland children known to be affected by tainted milk products since the scandal emerged nearly two weeks ago has passed 50,000. Belatedly, state leaders have taken decisive steps to show they are taking the matter seriously. This is necessary to address widespread anxieties and anger over the manmade blunder.
Over the weekend, Premier Wen Jiabao offered a personal apology to the people. It was good that a top official finally said sorry. The leadership needs to be seen to identify with the people's deep sense of a betrayal of trust. Unlike a series of health and safety scares overseas about mainland products, this one is largely confined to China and has harmed and frightened the people. It shows that a promised crackdown on criminal and negligent production practices has a long way to go.
The chief of the mainland's quality watchdog has become the most senior official to lose his job over the scandal. During his tenure, Li Changjiang had presided over numerous food-related scandals, from tainted milk powder, fish, duck eggs, pet food, toothpaste to dumplings. Every time a fresh crisis occurred, he exhorted his staff in both Beijing and the regions to step up quality inspections and vowed to discipline officials who failed to heed safety concerns. But the outbreak of one scandal after another showed that his admonitions had been in vain. In the circumstances, Mr Li is right to have tendered his resignation to demonstrate accountability. However, questions have to be raised as to whether the watchdog is structured or resourced to do its job properly and whether the job is simply too big. Mr Wen has conceded that the entire milk production and manufacturing chain is riddled with safety loopholes. But the alarm bell for the mainland's food sector had clearly been rung years ago. Why have so many stakeholders continued to act as if they had heard nothing?
We have argued before in these columns that Beijing must step in to overhaul the food sector. In so far as the dairy industry is concerned, Inner Mongolia , where it is centred, lacks the capital or technology to meet soaring domestic demand across vast distances without compromising quality and safety. Yet, big dairy companies are still able to dictate price to inefficient, small-scale farmers who lack the incentive to improve their operations and quality of output. Instead, preservatives and other dangerous chemicals such as melamine are added to artificially enhance shelf-life, taste and nutrient values.
Mr Wen has pledged to reform the dairy industry and the inspection regime to ensure a similar scandal never happens again. But food safety has to start at the most basic level with everyone involved in the production process acting with a sense of responsibility to the end user. The best screening mechanism in the world will not be able to spot rotten milk, if the people involved in manning it have a vested interest in cheating. Unfortunately, that appears to be the case with the mainland's dairy industry, where too many people have conspired to fraudulently 'enhance' the quality of substandard milk.
While China still claims to be a communist country, it is a shame that its socialist market economy is exhibiting characteristics of primitive capitalism. For the healthy development of the nation and its people, the drive for wealth of its entrepreneurs, be they small operators or state-owned behemoths, must be tempered by the moral imperative of doing no harm to consumers.