Fonterra, Why You Again?

Parents across China are in panic when newspapers revealed many girls and infants were found to sexually matured.  Their breasts developed and their female hormone level are equal or higher than female adults.  They all had been drinking milk powder produced by 'ShengYuan'.

Resembling what happened after the melamine tragedy two years ago when millions children poisoned and hundreds died, the government reacted exactly the same.  The national diary monitoring agency refused to test the milk powder sent to them by parents, citing cost issue.  While news and rumors alike keep fomenting for days and into weeks, not even one sample of milk had been tested.  Well, that's what you expected from a communism dictatorship control, right?

Yes, but there is other discoveries, not on communism ideology, but on greedy money, nonetheless.

Recall the melamine incident two years ago.  The manufacture, SanLu (or Triple Deers in Chinese), which was found to produce the fatal milk over years were a subsidiary of the Fonterra of New Zealand.  Fonterra claimed that although they knew the issue long before, they couldn't tell the public because they only have 44% share of the manufacture.  On one hand they urged their Chinese partners to alert the public, on the other hand, they sat still watching millions of children poisoned by their milk each and everyday and did nothing to stop the production.  Fonterra acted only after Chinese news media broke out the horror story.  Fonterra notified then New Zealand Prime Minister, who commanded her Foreign Minister to talk about this with his Chinese counterpart.

This time, too, Fonterra is talking after the news media stepped in.  ShengYuan had long claimed Fonterra as its exclusive source of diary materials.  Imported source had been the most known sell point of ShengYuan.  Many Chinese parents who had been scared from the quality issue of Chinese product buy ShengYuan diary product because of this line.  Only after the news coverage of the hormone issue, Fonterra released an announcement stating that it was not ShengYuan's exclusive source for raw materials.

Why You Again? Fonterra?

Fonterra is not the only foreign diary player in China.  As a matter of fact, all major international diary producers had significant presence in China, the largest diary market in the world.  In the aftermath of the melamine incident two years ago, and numerous other quality related issues, many Chinese consumers only buy foreign imports and foreign brands.  ShengYuan is the only domestic brand with meaningful market share in infant diary product.  That largely have to be attributed to their advertising line of the Fonterra tie.  How come Fonterra is the one who is linked to the only two major diary product scandals? Why Fonterra?

Only greediness can explain.  Instead of setting up partnership with reputed brands or setting up own produce and manufacture channels like other international brands do, Fonterra adopted a cheap approach to the Chinese market by lending its names to junk brands, like Sanlu and ShengYuan.  Fonterra enjoyed the profits when it worked, and severed the tie when it didn't.  Fonterra, do you really think you can come out of this clean?

Milk, Milk, Milk

.1. Shengyuan Milk was widely reported by newspapers to having caused many infants sexual pre-mature. Girls and boys alike as young as 4 months old was found to have breasts developed as mature women. Shenyuan Milk is a major diary producer in China, with concentration in Northern area including Beijing and Hebei.

.2. A new round of diary product with over-dozed melamine are emerging in China. The government believes it is made from materials that was not properly destroyed in the previous round of cleanup. The Ministry of Heath stated that there was no 'technical methods' to guarantee all over-dozed product be destroyed.

.3. A new national diary product was released. This is the update to the standard made in 1986. Notably, required protein ingredient was lowered from 2.95% to 2.8%. The measure is believed to deter common practice of adding melamine to boot up protein ratio. Also, the allowed bacteria was increased from 500K to 2,000K. In comparison, the upper limit of allowed bacteria in South Korean standard is 7K.

.4. The Chinese Customs announced that mainland people could no longer get more than two tins of powder milk from oversea family members in mail. Ever since the melamine case broke out, many of the overseas Chinese community had taken the duty of sending powdered milk to their families with little kids in China. The new measure will effectively kill milk-by-post due to high cost of shipping.

- Whatcha gonna to do when they come for you? -

Collateral Damage of Obama's China Visit

Father of a stoned-child victim of the Sanlu Milk, Mr. Zhao Lianhai became a collateral damage of President Obama's China visit.

Although Zhao and Obama did not know or hear of each other, Beijing resident Zhao was arrested days from his home before Obama's visit because the authority was afraid Zhao, the organizer of an advocacy group for victims of Sanlu Milk, would petition the case to Obama.

Zhao was formally changed to provoking a fight, a weird charge indeed. Does the authority think Zhao would invite Obama to a duel? Or does the authority think Obama's rescue of Melamined Chinese kids could provoke a duel between Obabma and Hu?

The owner of the Sanlu Milk which poisoned hundreds of thousands of kids, killed dozens, were half Chinese government, half New Zealand company Fonterra. A Chinese court ruled that the company would operate under another name, Beijing Sanyuan. The same court ruled that the 'new' company does not have obligation for any compensation for medical expenses of sick kids.

Civil Rights Lawyer Detained

Lawyer Mr. Zhiyong Xu was detained by police. His name was blacklisted by the CCP's propaganda branch. Searching for his name in Google Chinese returns a message saying the search term contains illegal words.

Mr. Xu represented victims of Sanlu Milk.

Dead Horses Galloping

With the endless media attention on the poisonous powder milk incident, you would thought one more attempt to blame the government to be beating a dead horse. After all, even according to official figures, thousands of infants had been hospitalized, with hundreds of kidney failures and the death toll had been keep mounting. You know what? This magic world is full of surprise. Do you see that dead horse galloping?

1) The central Communism government told its citizen low doze of melamine is safe, citing US FDA research;
2) Local government issued an order that the Sanlu Dairy stopped reimbursing examination fees for infants who had drank Sanlu infant formula;
3) The Health Ministry, whose top official Mr. Gao Qiang had been named to lead the national task force in handling the poisonous powder milk scandal, issued an order that infants with kidney stones smaller than 4mm should not receive medical assistance.

The Prime Minister Mr. Wen Jiabao is coming to New York City to address the U.N. How shall we show our appreciation to Mr. Premier?