Conquer Club

Facing mounting worldwide concern over the safety of its food and drug exports, China sentenced its former top food and drug administrator to death yesterday.

Zheng Xiaoyu, a one-time shining light in the field of pharmaceuticals who became head of the State Drug Administration in 1998, was found guilty of taking $820,000 U.S. in bribes to let companies circumvent safety tests and take their drugs directly to market. At least 10 people died as a result of Zhengs actions, but many more deaths are suspected.

Yesterdays sentencing is seen as a stiff measure aimed at showing the world that China is serious about reining in renegades who would flout government safety standards.

(obviously that was stolen from a website.) anyone else think this is harsh seeing as its just for show and it is known this $820,000 is only small compared to many other bribes which chinese as well as other asian officials have accepted.

This is the Chinese - they are crazy! I once read a book (fictional to be fair) which was based on fact and corruption runs wild. Moreover, they are all very cut-throat and blood-thirsty. I believe many of their executions are still public entertainment spectacles

I voted harsh, but only because I am against the death penalty. $820k is a lot of money, but that's not his major crime. Much more importantly is the 10 (or above) deaths that occurred from his corruption. That should be treated as murder, and he deserves a life sentence (and by that I mean a life behind bars, not just 20 years).

Definately harsh. He was tried for the corruption charges, and corruption should not lead to the death pentaly. Btw, $820,000 is a lot in China, considering their average wage is around $1,000 a year.

I only beleive in the death pentaly for mass murder or acts of terrorism. I dont think he should have been given the death penatly, even if he was tried for their murders, because he didn deliberately murder them, but he should have got a 40 year or more sentance.

There should be three options on this poll: harsh, fair, and none of our damn business. Seriously, what are you all talking about, "I believe this" and "20 years, with parole, no parole, life, death only in cases of..." like there was jurisprudence in China or something, with "laws" and people who use "evidence" to reach "verdicts." The dude joined the Party of Mao Zedong, so it's not like he can say "that's harsh" or "that's fair" when someone higher up gets mad and decides to cap his ass for whatever reason. You in the mafia and wake up on day tied up in the trunk of a car, you can hardly say, "Wow, I never saw THIS coming!"

Fair, this should happen to more corrupt officials responsible for any amount of deaths. Then maybe they will begin to take their jobs seriously.
granted this comes down to money lost, but allow me to add all the pets that were killed because of things such as this.

I may not support China at all, but this ones for justice.

I voted harsh but I can be persuaded to think fair. I don't really have a strong feeling one way or the other.

No more corrupt than Tony Blairs decision to abandon the investigation into the BAE systems multi million pound bribes to the Saudis over the arms deals.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6728773.stm[/url]

... Voted fair, as ten people DIED because of this man. These innocents woke up in the morning, brushed their teeth, then dropped dead from the poison in their toothpaste. (not sure all 10 died from toothpaste - Cool was the name of the stuff).

... In the People's Republic, being caught with drugs is a capital (death sentence) offense, as is any attempt to sell or distribute pornography.

... I remember when I was there, think it was about 2 years ago (same year as the tsunamis), a guy in Guangzhou slipped some poison into a street vendor's batter (the guy made cakes). It was a competition thing, as they both sold the same stuff. 16 people died as a result. The man (murderer) was quickly caught, and he was dead in less than 2 weeks.

... The Chinese government holds public executions, and the family of the executed is charged for the cost of the bullet used for the execution. A rather grisly touch, if you ask me.

... What always scares the hell out of me is the way a huge number of people who commit relatively minor crimes (tax evasion, theft... ) get the death penalty. Thing is, executed prisoners are the chief source of organ - sales in China. Need a kidney or a liver? If you have about 30K USD it's not hard to get one in China.... if you can live with yourself afterwards.

.... Anybody here ever seen those cadaver models that are positioned in poses - playing tennis, or sitting at a computer? They were rather popular here in Japan for a while.... (don't know about the US & Europe) ... Those, too, are Chinese prisoners, executed and sold to the company that puts on this "educational" exhibition. (link below). There's a factory in China where the dead are processed - pumped full of chemicals to preserve them for the show... assembly-line style.

http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/

... I have family there, which is why this stuff concerns me ...


...

flashleg8 wrote:No more corrupt than Tony Blairs decision to abandon the investigation into the BAE systems multi million pound bribes to the Saudis over the arms deals.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6728773.stm[/url]

Bring out the guilitine!

Nobunaga, a bit off subject but theres a museum in Chicago of an "artist" who altered dead bodies and preserved them in wax(graverobbing) as seen in the new version of "House on haunted hill"

Anarchist wrote:Nobunaga, a bit off subject but theres a museum in Chicago of an "artist" who altered dead bodies and preserved them in wax(graverobbing) as seen in the new version of "House on haunted hill"

... That's a bit macabre. Thing is, in the People's Republic, resistance to the death sentence (there has always been some) has zero chance of success, as it's huge profits for the Party Generals who run the prisons (and accept most of the monies involved in the transactions).

... I've never been a Human Rights "activist", as such, but this stuff just makes me want to scream.

... And I've always wondered why true activists don't spend more time demonstrating against deals with the PRC than they do hurling rocks at G8 Summits.

far from Disney isnt it?

(by Disney I mean the cartoons not their own little secrets-that they have)

WHOA i was completely shocked when I read that he was sentenced to death. Way too harsh. It's something to show that you can uphold the law, but something else when you give a completely unfitting punishment. This guy did cause many deaths, but didnt' deserve a death sentence

i didnt know all of this stuff, i merely saw on the news about this minister sentenced to death and looked up an article on the internet about him. what exactly was it that he did?

alex_white101 wrote:i didnt know all of this stuff, i merely saw on the news about this minister sentenced to death and looked up an article on the internet about him. what exactly was it that he did?

... Here's the article:

... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6699441.stm

"Thirteen babies died of malnutrition in 2005 after being fed powdered milk that contained no nutritional value." ....


... People have been dying all over the world from imported food and the like, from China. The stuff (toothpaste, for example) contained highly toxic chemicals unsafe for human consumption. The man convicted and sentenced to death was the head of the Chinese "Food & Drug Administration", and took huge bribes to let a lot of drugs go by unchecked. Or so I understand. Corruption which has led to the deaths of a lot of people.

... Personally, I think this is 90% show. The Chinese just banned/declared unfit, a huge lot of food goods imported from the U.S. as well.

... One thing you always have to remember when you read any news about the People's Republic, the Chinese government fears its own people much more than it does any foreign threat. Keep that in mind and stuff going on there starts to make sense.

...

China has a population of 1.75 billion people, but an economy smaller than the UK (60 million people). Money like that is big bucks behind the bamboo curtain, and the death penalty has more to do with restoring faith in the market place.

I'm not surprised by their decision to sentence him to death. The Chinese mentality is still very far away from the west, as demonstrated in this video(Warning: Not for the feint of heart)

Huckleberryhound wrote:China has a population of 1.75 billion people, but an economy smaller than the UK (60 million people). Money like that is big bucks behind the bamboo curtain, and the death penalty has more to do with restoring faith in the market place.

China has a population of 1.3 billion, and an economy larger then the UK's. Get your facts right.

Aegnor wrote:I'm not surprised by their decision to sentence him to death. The Chinese mentality is still very far away from the west, as demonstrated in this video(Warning: Not for the feint of heart)

That is absurd. That video is just unbelievable.

I voted fair.

Chinese views on the death penalty are far removed from what we have here (though not from the US...) so that they executed him is hardly surprising, especially if he neglected his job in favour of cash that ultimately led to deaths of people.

Titanic wrote:

Huckleberryhound wrote:China has a population of 1.75 billion people, but an economy smaller than the UK (60 million people). Money like that is big bucks behind the bamboo curtain, and the death penalty has more to do with restoring faith in the market place.

China has a population of 1.3 billion, and an economy larger then the UK's. Get your facts right.

Oops, what i meant to say was that their domestic market was worth a fraction of the UK's. This can be seen when comparing the ratio of high end consumer goods, per head of population. This means that the foreign market is where the Chinese get most of their revenue, thus making it so important.

2006 figures....Population, total: 1,313,973,700

I stand corrected.

to be honest, (and i don't wan't to start a debate on the death penalty here)

doesn't killing a murderer make you just as bad as them?

mr. incrediball wrote:to be honest, (and i don't wan't to start a debate on the death penalty here)

doesn't killing a murderer make you just as bad as them?

No, it doesn't. You must do what's necessary, and sometimes, that includes killing another person as punishment for crimes commited. Do you consider soldiers who kill enemy combatants in war 'murderers'? You have to have some perspective. If I see a man raping a woman, and I pull my gun and kill that man, will you say I murdered him? Or saved the woman from more violence?

I think we should follow China's lead here - sentence Bush to death for selling the office of the vice president. Hell, while we're at it, sentence Cheney to death for buying it.

b.k. barunt wrote:I think we should follow China's lead here - sentence Bush to death for selling the office of the vice president. Hell, while we're at it, sentence Cheney to death for buying it.

If we can learn anything positive from modern China, Thats it right there!