NPR's been airing a lot on the subject since Zheng Xiaoyu was shot Monday. Apparently the state food and drug administration's responsibilities and enforcement aren't as robust as other countries because of the way it was originally structured, and nobody's bothered restructuring it.
Still I suppose if you really wanted to send a message...seriously, this would make feel so much more confident buying food in China.
On the other hand, it is one of those ideas where you'd think of it and then go "..too far?"
According to Chinese officials it was, "Cough syrup made of antifreeze? Well give me a few bucks and I'll make sure you can sell it to some dumbass roundeye".
Apparently the state food and drug administration's responsibilities and enforcement aren't as robust as other countries because of the way it was originally structured, and nobody's bothered restructuring it.
One of the core problems is that there are four to six different national regulating bureaucracies (Agriculture, Industry, Trade, Health, etc.) all vying for the same authorities in hopes of making more money off of license fees, commissions, public funding, and of course... bribes.
And since there's such a bureaucratic log-jam, when bad things happen each bureaucracy can pass it off as someone else's responsibility.
That's to say nothing of the corruption and bureaucracy at the provincial and local levels.
Incidentally, the same problems troubled American product regulations through a good deal of the 20th century. Experts are predicting that China will have its problems resolved much quicker than we did.
It's not a battle for survival, certainly, but there's still plenty of conflict over it. Without water, your economy can't really go anywhere.
Of course It will be interesting to see what solutions we come up with. There should be some kind of prize for a cheap desalinization system that families could use in case of emergency.
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L.A. is fucking thirsty.
NPR's been airing a lot on the subject since Zheng Xiaoyu was shot Monday. Apparently the state food and drug administration's responsibilities and enforcement aren't as robust as other countries because of the way it was originally structured, and nobody's bothered restructuring it.
On the other hand, it is one of those ideas where you'd think of it and then go "..too far?"
According to Chinese officials it was, "Cough syrup made of antifreeze? Well give me a few bucks and I'll make sure you can sell it to some dumbass roundeye".
One of the core problems is that there are four to six different national regulating bureaucracies (Agriculture, Industry, Trade, Health, etc.) all vying for the same authorities in hopes of making more money off of license fees, commissions, public funding, and of course... bribes.
And since there's such a bureaucratic log-jam, when bad things happen each bureaucracy can pass it off as someone else's responsibility.
That's to say nothing of the corruption and bureaucracy at the provincial and local levels.
Incidentally, the same problems troubled American product regulations through a good deal of the 20th century. Experts are predicting that China will have its problems resolved much quicker than we did.