Top officials sacked over China’s vaccine scandal
Authorities also order the seizure of ‘illegal gains’ from Changsheng Bio-tech, the company that made nearly half a million substandard doses for children
Four top officials at ground zero of China’s latest vaccine scandal have been sacked and dozens of others disciplined after a meeting of the country’s leadership on Thursday, according to state media.
The government also ordered the seizure of all “illegal gains” by drug maker Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology, which made nearly half a million substandard vaccines for children.
In their first gathering since the end of the annual informal retreat in the coastal town of Beidaihe, the Communist Party’s seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, headed by President Xi Jinping, ordered the sacking of Jilin vice-governor Jin Yuhui, who had overseen food and drug regulation in the province since April last year.
Other top officials to lose their jobs included Li Jinxiu, deputy chairman of the Jilin People’s Political Consultative Conference and a former provincial food and drug chief; Changchun mayor Liu Changlong; and Bi Jingquan, party secretary and deputy director of the State Market Regulatory Administration in Beijing.
Beijing also asked Jiang Zhiying, a top party official from Jilin, and Jiao Hong, director of China’s national drug regulator, to make a “deep self-inspection”, and imposed penalties on 35 other unidentified officials.