China: Melamine Inevitable, even for EU Commissioner

Melamine-tainted milk gave made-in-China a tough punch, and to reassure the world of China's product safety, premier Wen Jiabao affirmed that “we'll revive the Chinese food industry very soon,” at the World Economic Forum held in Tianjin last month.

The widely-influential milk scandal was resulted from the industrial chemical melamine added to not only milk but yogurt and infant formula. It has led to kidney stones crystallized in body that inflicted hundreds of babies, and killed 3.

At the Forum, Wen kept on saying, as China daily described,

Wen said he was very moved when he saw in television European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson drinking a cup of Chinese milk on Friday to show his trust in China-made products. “It's because he not only sees the present, but the future as well,” Wen said.

This Mandelson, 9 days later, was rushed to hospital in England due to unbearable pain, and after inspection, the trouble-maker is revealed—–kidney stone.

Mandelson might have gone through his most dramatic days in the period of time. In the reshuffle on Friday, Mandelson made a surprise return to the Britain cabinet under Brown's appointment. And on his first day in the office, kidney stones sent him to doctors. Would he relate his misfortune with the milk drunk a few days ago?

Mandelson\'s pain, where is it from?

Whatever, Chinese blogger have already picked up their pens for responses.

Blogger “prostate inflamed” published on bullg.cn an entry, named “the Chinese milk stunned the world again“. Nothing more did he do than juxtaposing the two news stories, “Wen was impressed by Mandelson's drinking of China milk”, and “on his office move-in day, Mandelson was sent to hospital due to kidney stones “.

Fishabc0 could only sigh in his comment,

立竿见影

Quick into effect, as pole set up shadow seen.

And Nasheishei summarized in one word:

黑色幽默

Black humor.

Netizen 无上荣光 (Ultimate glory) exclaimed:

我喜欢英国幽默。这绝对是一场精彩的行为艺术表演!这是对中国政府官商勾结坑害百姓的机智嘲讽。非常精彩!

I love British humor. This is absolutely a wonderful show of performance art! This is a witty irony against the government-industry conspiracy in China that exploit us people. Fabulous!

Another well-known blogger 宋石男, in a further step, wrote to analyze Mandelson's kidney stones,

在我看来,事件真相有两个可能:

1、曼德尔森早就知道自己有肾结石,故意当众喝中国牛奶,是在落井下石。

2、曼德尔森不知道自己有肾结石,勇敢地当众喝中国牛奶,是好心办了坏事。

In my opinion, there are two possibilities of the truth:
1. Mandelson had known his kidney stones long ago, but simply drank Chinese milk at public to further ridicule China.
2. He had no idea with his kidney stones, and drank milk out of good intention, but just worked out something awful.

Whichever is the truth (I personally incline to the latter), it would be as 老碗 says,

中国奶的确没让世界人民失望

Chinese milk didn't disappoint the world.

But overall, it's never good to be a group of people, who can only make fun of ourselves, while find no way out, no way to change, even no no way to keep ourselves and baies from poison.

驴夫 says,

最近心情很忧伤 看到这个故事于是忧伤有了愉悦 成了愉悦的忧伤

I have been very sad, grieved recently, but reading this story brings me kind of joy, a joyful grief.

This is our bitter joy melted in milk

(Pictures from Wikipedia, use under permission license)

10 comments

  • bob burns

    I drink a Lt of milk in China every day. My health is excellent

  • Bob drink a lot too

    Yes, so do I. Our physical condition is the most outstanding in the world since practice makes perfect. So when the world is finally polluted to be unlivable, WE will survive.
    Those babies are just selected out by the nature. No mercy for them. In Darwin’s point of view, we will finally rule the world, because the fit survive.
    Sounds great?

  • What a weird world we live in. The real answer is probably not so much about china but about nutrition in the developped world in general. We have so many chemicals in our food that half the population is probably dealing with kidney problems to some degree.

    Also, I love that you say “summarized in one word”, then show 4 Chinese characters in the quote and it takes two words to express in english. At some point ‘word’ just loses its original meaning :-)

  • CHINA HAS AGAIN SHOWN IT’S COMPLETE DISREGUARD FOR EVERY THING EXCEPT PROFIT & GREED. IT WILL BE INTERESTING WHEN THE THREE GOURGES FALLS. GOD OR SOMEBODY HELP THEM. PLEASE.

  • oiwan

    talking about greed, it is not only Chinese. I think the world’s manufacturers know that it is impossible for China to product so much milk product, we don’t have grassland and we don’t have enough crop to feed our own people…

    All these companies know that, because it is much more expensive to get milk from other countries. It is also out of greed that they place the order from China. in the end, the so-called milk product only have a few % of real milk and a lot of chemicals.

    It is like the financial market, everyone in the game know that the bonds are without material backup and it is a matter of time that they burst out, but still they believe that they can make profit and get away from it. putting ordinary people’s live at risk.

    if there is a moral crisis. it is not only china, but the whole world.

  • BobChen

    @Jeremy:my bad math…

    @Owiwan: A global crisis, a time for reflection on ourselves, also a great time for great things to be done. This is nonsense? Perhaps, but living as a challenged generation give us meaning.

  • Pointdexler

    I guess it is time for God to bring in the great flood again and wipe out the human race and start all over again….

  • It is a global crisis. We live our lives based on trust. We assume that the green light means “go” and the red light signals “stop”. We assume that business is based on fair trade and the “food” on the markets should be eatable.

    Based on global issues, we should have a global FDA agency, global laws, global security, global environment agency, etc. We are all related. We breathe the same air system, and drink the same water/ocean system. One country’s poison will permeate to every cornor of the world. None of us is immune. Business entities and all consumers should wake up and change the way we produce crops, the way the business packaging the products, the way we create tons of garbages (most of them are packaging materials), and the way we treat the mother nature (land, water, air, etc.). What comes around goes around.

    Dr. Trudy Hu, Chairman Hu, Oregon, USA

  • Hello Dr. Hu
    The promising globalization prospect has to face basic economic problems such as “free ride”, mutual distrust etc. But in issues concerning our basic rights- survival- this could be a good start.
    But another problem is, even we Chinese can’t control the domestic food, how come an international system without strong jurisdiction govern the food safety issue in individual states?

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