Local cadres blamed over mouse head meal at college canteen in China

Name: Student claims mouse head in canteen dish, but college said is duck neck
Uploaded: 2023-06-18T11:00:17.000Z
Duration: 2 min 11 s
Description: Student claims mouse head in canteen dish, but college said is duck neck

Communist Party mouthpiece says case exposes multiple failures by lower-level officials

Provincial inspectors find the material in the dish was a rodent and not duck neck as district inspectors had concluded

Reading Time:2 minutes

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Provincial officials declared the foreign object was part of a mouse, not duck neck as earlier suggested. Photo: Guancha.cn

Minnie Chan

Published: 7:00pm, 18 Jun 2023Updated: 7:05pm, 18 Jun 2023

The mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party has taken aim at “grass-roots cadres” after a task force concluded that a “foreign object” found in a school meal was a mouse head and not duck neck as previously claimed.

A commentary in People’s Daily on Sunday said the case exposed the failure of local cadres to face problems, their ignorance of the rule of law, and lack of awareness about the power of the internet.

“Failure to face up to problems will only trigger bigger problems … the more the truth is concealed, the greater the crisis of confidence will happen,” the commentary said.

“[This incident] shows some grass-roots cadres not only have a minimum awareness of the rule of law but also lack understanding [of the influence of] the internet and public opinion.”

02:11

Student claims mouse head in canteen dish, but college said is duck neck

The reprimand came after a student at Jiangxi Industry Polytechnic College in Nanchang posted a video of “an object with teeth, eyes and nose” in his rice dish at a college cafeteria on June 1.