One would think that a country that could render an extravagant Olympic ceremony, lead the world in annual gross domestic product growth, and oversee its media and film productions very closely to avoid negative perceptions, could easily oversee the safety of its food products.
Unfortunately, that is exactly the problem. China hasn’t done much to oversee them.
One could argue that a stronger economy leads to a higher standard of living for a country’s citizens. After all, a strong economy is merely for the benefit of the people that are part of said economy.
What happens, however, if the economy itself is chosen over the people that it benefits? From the previous logic, it might sound like a paradox, but it is possible, and that is exactly what China has done.
From toys to toothpaste, pet food to seafood, and medicine to milk, China has failed to control and oversee the private sector of the market to uphold safety standards that are required and are very much integral to the safety of consumers.
The most recent of these scandals — milk — reportedly “killed four and sickened about 53,000 children,” according to the Los Angeles Times. This latest controversy has caused fervent conflicts about the government’s effectiveness in overseeing the country’s food industry.
The country’s leaders are so worried about short-run perception of its economy by its citizens, as well as the world, that it prioritizes the issues that would give the country a short-run grandiose impression: Imposing censorship within the public media, putting up an extravagant Olympic ceremony for the world to see, and, more recently, attempting to send three astronauts to the moon to prove the economic and scientific advances that China has gone through, while the issues of long-run perception, humanity and health hazards become secondary.
The folly of this system is that by ignoring safety hazards on products that people consume, and not looking at the long-term effects of these delays, they become a greater issue that overrides the short-run façade and grandiose acts that the country has put up.
Proof of this claim is that the Chinese government allegedly knew the hazards of the milk beforehand and has been warned about them since March. But, according to the L.A. Times article, the government’s fear of public protest to higher prices and the potential of tainting the Olympic Games “led the officials to discourage price increases or to impose caps” on Sanlu, the company that makes the milk products.
China is now limiting the news about the scandal to the mainstream media and warned lawyers of the families who were affected by the deadly milk to not talk to the foreign press.
These precautions set by the Chinese government, which might be seen as a protective tool for the country’s economic showcase, only place their overall moral perceptions in a deeper hole. If China would set the safety of its citizens and consumers as a priority instead of its economy, then the overall perception from the media, the citizens and world would be more positive.
Noelan Arbis is sophomore international studies major.
