Zheng Xiaoyu headed the food and drug agency for seven years
The former head of China's State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, has been executed for corruption, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports.
He was convicted of taking 6.5m yuan ($850,000; £425,400) in bribes and of dereliction of duty at a trial in May.

The bribes were linked to sub-standard medicines, blamed for several deaths.

China has been criticised over a number of recent cases involving tainted goods, and correspondents say Zheng had become a symbol of the crisis.

Zheng had appealed against his sentence, arguing that it was "too severe" and saying he had confessed his crimes and co-operated with police.

But his appeal, heard in mid-June, was rejected shortly afterwards.

Toxic chemicals

Zheng, who headed the administration from 1998 to 2005, was found guilty of accepting bribes from firms to register their products without making them undergo the necessary checks.

Following his sacking, the Chinese government announced an urgent review of about 170,000 medical licences that were awarded during his tenure at the agency.

CHINESE FOOD SCARES
May 2007 China probes reports that contaminated toothpaste was sent to the Americas
March 2007 Melamine is found in wheat gluten exports from China for use in pet food, prompting a recall of at least 100 pet food brands
Nov 2006 A dye farmers fed to ducks to make their eggs look fresher is found to contain cancer-causing properties, and 5,000 ducks are culled
August 2006 About 40 people in Beijing contract meningitis after eating partially cooked snails at a chain of restaurants


Tackling tainted food crisis

Zheng's sentence was seen as unusually harsh for such a senior figure, but the BBC's Dan Griffiths in Beijing says the government hopes the execution shows it is getting to grips with the crisis.

However, food and drug safety standards vary widely across the country and reform will be a major challenge, our correspondent adds.

At a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday, the food and drug agency admitted it had a huge job ahead to improve its supervision of safety standards.

"As a developing country, China's food and drug supervision work began late and its foundations are weak," spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said.

"Therefore, the food and drug safety situation is not something we can be optimistic about."

She said Zheng Xiaoyu's case had "brought shame" on the department, adding that anyone who abused their power would be punished.

Chinese officials have already acknowledged that the country could face social unrest and a tarnished image abroad unless improvements are made.

Dozens of people have died in China because of poor quality or fake food and drugs, sparking widespread international fears about the safety of Chinese exports.

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

US inspectors have blamed exported Chinese pet food ingredients, contaminated with melamine, for the deaths of cats and dogs in North America.

And they recently halted shipments of toothpaste from China to investigate reports that they may be contaminated with toxic chemicals.

yahoo.ca

yes we should worry, i dont care what happens to chinesse people they just get what they desserve, wherever they go around the world they just do the same: they manufacture shite and fuck the environment.

how very compassionate of you.

fuck chinesse people , if they would only stop behaving like some cockroaches..

wow. if I hadn't seen you around, I would think you were joking but I don't think you are.

supply and demand man. they wouldn't be making this stuff if consumers in the US weren't demanding cheap shit. You're not in the US so you probably don't remember when wal-mart used to have that "made in the USA" pledge/campaign. lol. you'd be hard pressed to find something in there made in the US now and they're the biggest store ever.

__________________

yes i know about that but it's just time to talk about it for the sake of just talking about it..anyway this shit wont last forever ..well i hope so, what about a chinesse genocide??

Mao Zedong is dead. And the Japanese aren't currently invading.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

I'm appalled that they're food and drug standards are so low but under no circumstances should someone executed. I don't see how corporal punishment deals with anything. It's just malicious.

If you lived in China you should know that your government executes people at the drop of a hat. He must have been getting some good bribe money to risk so much. Now he's about to become an unwilling organ donor.

what the japanese have to do in here?

The weird thing is they must have thought this would go down well internationally.

__________________
His last request was a bulletproof vest or a god

nah, I don't think they care too much about international opinion. I think they did it to set an example.

__________________

They must have been concious of it though? He'd been getting away with this for 7 years, and it seems the dodgy exports were a big factor.

__________________
His last request was a bulletproof vest or a god

Well, you mentioned Chinese genocide. The Japanese have some experience in this field. Did you not know that? Halfwit.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

rape of nanking innit. 12,000,000 "organic" chinese food producers were made to drink a lethal dose of DDT by the imperial japanese chemical army. learn your history!

was a foreign bbc correspondent on the radio yesterday who is a huge fan of chinese food, but now she is afraid to eat anything over there and is thinking of coming home

__________________
they made soup out of my research turtles.

But they've got all the MSG kicking. It makes it taste better. My local Chinese has no MSG. Is also quite shit.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

naah. the right ingredients have plenty of unami. cadmium tainted seaweed, for example

__________________
they made soup out of my research turtles.

You don't think so? The Chinese government is definitely paying attention to its international reputation. They kinda have to. I think you're totally right that they executed Zheng to set an example. However, I think it's not only an example to other Chinese govt. officials, but also for the international community, to show that they are taking official corruption seriously. I have heard a lot of soundbites recently about how concerned the Chinese govt. is about the perception other nations have of them during this run up to the Beijing Olympics, which will undoubtedly become politicized considering recent events... like the whole genocide in Darfur and all...

good if i had to choose it would be those japanmanga at least they have good quality control over their products.

So she wants to go back home and starting eat shite from the UK? i dont know wich one to choose from : china crap food or UK crap food?