Wow - Now that's getting tough on corruption !!

Source: Guardian, UK

Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Tuesday May 29, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The disgraced head of China's food and drug agency was sentenced to death today amid a wave of consumer safety scandals that have rippled across the world.

Zheng Xiaoyu was found guilty of accepting 6.5m yuan (£433,000) worth of bribes from pharmaceutical companies to expedite the approval of new drugs.

Underscoring the state's determination to crackdown on corruption and consumer safety violations, he is the most senior official to receive the death penalty in seven years....The unusually harsh penalty may have been handed down to reassure foreign as well as Chinese consumers that the government is taking action.

Earlier this month, Australia, Panama and the Dominican Republic recalled thousands of tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste that allegedly contained dangerous levels of diethylene glycol, a toxin...In April, the US government blamed tainted pet food from China for the fatal poisoning of several dogs and cats. ...


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2090404,00.htm...