As predicted by me, the two people directly responsible for the addition of melamine to baby milk in China have been sentence to death. The Chairperson of SanLu, Tian Wenhua, has been given a life sentence. Many are baying for her blood as well, but the deal she has with the Communist Party (not to [...]
The NY Times reports that some of the parents whose children have been made ill by melamine-tainted milk have rejected the compensation deal offered by the Chinese government. This is actually pretty courageous of them considering that every court so far has rejected private compensation claims (chinese law does not allow them), so they run [...]
A short article in the Dominion post about the trial of Tian Wenhua, the Chairwoman of SanLu confirms what I have been surmising about her fate in recent blog posts. I am of the opinion that she is the high profile Communist Party sacrifice, designed to appease the Chinese people. I suspect she had little to [...]
The trial of Tian Wenhua, the chairwoman of the Sanlu group, is over before it has begun. The lady has pleaded guilty to the charges and confessed to knowing about the scandal at least three months before it was made known to the rest of the board. Fonterra are at their hand-wringing best again: Fonterra [...]
Small amounts of melamine have been detected in US infant formula, according to the FDA. This has been attributed to the plastic lining of the cans it is stored in. To put it in perspective, however, the amount is minute – 137 parts per billion compared to 2,563 parts per million in the toxic milk [...]
It is good to see that some lawyers in China have finally taken the initiative and started a class-action lawsuit against SanLu, the company involved in the tainted milk scandal. Readers of this blog may remember that such lawsuits are virtually unheard of in China because they are generally actively discouraged by the authorities. It [...]
A further six people have been arrested over the tainted SanLu milk scandal. The Chinese are still telling us that only four children have died (despite the fact that we know it’s at least five). There are 3654 children who are still sick and three are “serious” – whatever that means in Chinese government terms. [...]
There was a heart-rending section on the SanLu scandal on TV One’s Sunday program. Not really a lot of new information but an excellent interview with a brave chinese farming couple, who had lost their baby to the poisoned milk. It was only at the end of the section that they announced that the child [...]
Apparently, the briefing paper on the SanLu milk scandal given to Helen Clark (on 5th September) suggested that organised crime syndicates, rather than the officials at SanLu were responsible for the adulteration of milk with melamine powder. “The Chinese milk supply has been targeted by Chinese organised crime, which has been adding as a byproduct of the [...]
SanLu is likely to face bankrupcy, making Fonterra’s stake (which was recently written down by $139 million to $62 million) increasingly dicey. One News reports: Industrial experts told the newspaper that it is unlikely a single company will be able to take over Sanlu as its debts total more than 700 million yuan ($NZ169 million) [...]
