Global Voices » China: Media Manipulation on the Poisonous Milk Powder Scandal

When the poisoned milk scandal goes from bad to worse and raises international concerns, China government started to increase their control over the media in China. As the scandal involved most well established brands like Yili and Mengniu, ordinary people like Boyue ^[1] feel that there is nothing else can we believe in.

Indeed, the situation is very depressing especially when the government prefers to manipulate the media than encourage public monitor to safeguard people's lives. beta ^[2] disclosed the details of newsroom instruction notes:

中央电视台人士说，上星期五就接到了通知，说只能采用新华社的通稿。还有的记者说，的确已经下文件，让新闻单位最好不要报道有关的评论和儿童因这种奶制品而患有肾结石的事情。

Employees in the China Central Television said they received notice last Friday saying that they should only use news release from Xinhua News. Some reporters said they did receive notice asking them not to report comments and news related to children's kidney stone cases due to the poisoned powdered milk products.

Fu Rui-Lon ^[3] criticized how the government controls the media:

” 三鹿毒奶粉案”延烧至9月15日，中宣部一声令下，紧急刹住了全国各家新闻媒体的深入揭批毒奶粉的热潮，连前两天高调批评这起丑闻的中国官方喉舌新华社，也都取消了批评的语气，转为高调表扬”毒奶粉案”所涉及的各职能部门…一场涉及成千上万个家庭的惨祸，坏事变好事，活生生的转变为党和政府各部门、各级领导身先士卒的光荣模范事迹…都说”多难兴邦”，我认为应该精确理解成”老百姓多难，共产党兴旺”。

The “Sanlu poisonous milk scandal” attracted more and more attention until the Central Propaganda Department gave strict orders on 9/15 to stop all Chinese media to report and investigate this scandal. Xinhua News, which is a mouthpiece of China government, shifted from a critical tone of voice to more positive reports and eulogy for the government departments’ effectiveness in dealing with this scandal…This is a tragedy for hundred of thousands families. However, the sad story is being transformed into a happy story–what we hear now are honorable stories about those leaders and people working in the government…There is a proverb “after disasters a country will be stronger.” I think this proverb should be understood as “when the citizens are suffered from disasters, the Communist Party of China becomes stronger and stronger.”

Lianyue ^[4] worried that the situation will become worse and worse if China government keeps tolerating these corrupted corporations.

三鹿之后，今天伊利又在香港被查出含有三聚氰胺，而目前并无国内任何有关部门及厂家就此事发表看法…中国食品、药品业在国内国际都声名狼藉，可是这一切只引来所谓的正面宣传及删除负面新闻，企业在一次又一次的纵容中，彻底不在乎公众安全…管制信息，禁止媒体与公民的监督权，正是系统崩溃的最大推手…三鹿事件以来，有关部门似乎又把重点放在防民之口，这只会使当前的危机急剧放大，就算硬撑过今天，很快就会迎来下次更大的危机，直至整个系统彻底崩溃。

In addition to the Sanlu Group, the Yili Group is reported to have melamine in their products in Hong Kong. However, there is no comment from China government or Chinese companies yet…Food and pharmaceutical products made in China have very bad reputation. However, all the bad news are dealt by spreading eulogy of the government and blocking reports harmful to the government. These corporations do not care about public safety any more when the government tolerates their wrong doings again and again…After Sanlu's scandal spread out, the government focuses on shutting the media and citizens up and prevent us from monitoring the government and corporate sectors, which only helps escalate the system crisis. If the system survives today, it will soon face bigger and bigger crisis until the whole system falls down.

On Sept 16, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) found out that among 491 batches of products produced by 109 companies they have checked, 69 batches of milk powder products produced by 22 companies were contaminated by melamine in varying degrees (you can find the names of these companies at the end of this article). Two among these 22 companies are very well-known in China: the Yili and Mengniu Groups.

Chinaretail News ^[5] reported:
Contaminated products found in the tests include baby milk powder products produced by Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group, Shanghai Panda Dairy, Qingdao Shengyuan Dairy, Shanxi Gu Cheng Dairy, Jiangxi Guangming Yingxiong Dairy, Baoji Huimin Dairy, Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy, Torador Dairy Industry (Tianjin), Guangdong Yashili Group, Hunan Peiyi Dairy, Heilongjiang Qilin Dairy, Shanxi Yashili Dairy, Shenzhen Jinbishi Milk, Scient (Guangzhou) Infant Nutrition, Guangzhou Jinding Dairy Products Factory, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, Yantai Ausmeadow Nutriment, Qingdao Suncare Nutritional Technology, Xi'an Baiyue Dairy, Yantai Leilei Dairy, Shanghai Baoanli Dairy, and Fuding Chenguan Dairy.