This Week’s Column
Here’s this week’s column. Feel free to post comments here.
SHAME: CHINA’S MOST VALUABLE EXPORT
Zhang Shuhong was a nice boss to the end. On the last day of his life the fiftyish entrepreneur greeted his employees as they arrived at his factory and wished them a good shift. Then he went to the company warehouse and hanged himself.
Zhang was co-owner of the Lee Der Industrial Company, the Chinese company that made toys for Mattel using toxic levels of lead paint. Mattel issued a recall expected to cost the company in the neighborhood of $30 million.
Poor guy–he probably didn’t even know the paint his workers were slathering on nearly a million toys for preschoolers was dangerous. “The boss and the company were harmed by the paint supplier, the closest friend of our boss,” reported the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper.
“It is not uncommon for Chinese executives to commit suicide after suffering damage to their reputation,” noted the UK Telegraph.
Zhang’s death followed the July execution of Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, head of China’s State Food and Drug Administration from 1994 to 2005. Zheng was convicted of accepting $850,000 in bribes from eight pharmaceutical companies in exchange for approving fake and substandard drugs. An antibiotic involved in the case killed at least 10 people.
The Xinhua news agency didn’t say how Zheng was killed, but most Chinese executions are carried out with a single gunshot to the back of the head. Shortly afterward a policeman notifies the condemned man’s family by presenting them with a bill for the cost of the bullet.
Now that’s accountability. Can we import some of that too?
The late Mssrs. Zhang and Zheng oversaw corruption and incompetence that pales next to catastrophes for which no American has yet been held to account. Thousands died in hurricane Katrina because officials all the way up to George “Heckuva job, Brownie!” Bush made a conscious decision not to help. Two years later, what’s left of New Orleans is dying, murdered by an appalling political calculus: It is (was) black. It was Democratic. Shouldn’t government officials face a firing squad for killing a major city?
What about Iraq? It wouldn’t bring back the million dead civilians or the thousands of dead soldiers, but watching Wolfy and Rummy and Cheney hold hands as they leapt off the tallest building in D.C. might brighten the day of their grieving relatives.
The same goes for the war against Afghanistan, which state-controlled media has finally conceded is a lost cause. (Lead story in the August 12th New York Times: “How the ‘Good War’ in Afghanistan Went Bad.”) Save some rope for the Democratic politicians and the phony journalists who insisted that Bush had “taken his eye off the ball in Afghanistan” to invade Iraq. The blood splattered by every errant Hellfire missile, every blown-up wedding party and the bullet wounds in Pat Tillman’s body are their responsibility.
If execution is good enough for Cao Wenzhuang, a Chinese FDA official accused of taking $307,000 in bribes, how about his American counterparts? As cancer patients drop like flies, U.S. FDA bureaucrats delay approval of drugs that could have saved their lives.
Eloxatin, a drug used to treat advanced colorectal cancer, has been approved in at least 29 countries–but the FDA rejected it anyway. Under pressure from terminally ill patients, the agency then approved it. But they dragged their feet for more than two years. Some 40,000 Americans died during the delay.
“Twelve drugs–had they been available to people denied entry to clinical trials–might have helped more than one million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters live longer, better lives,” say the founders of the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs.
I’m not sure I’d want to live somewhere as uptight as China. At its border with Tajikistan recently, a white-gloved policeman stood ramrod straight, sweating under a blazing sun, waiting to direct traffic. Because the border was closed for lunch, however, there was no traffic. Even when vehicles began moving, he had no traffic to direct–it was a straight road, not an intersection. Some official thought the border needed a traffic cop, so there he was.
Still, the Chinese get some things right. “Corruption in the food and drug authority has brought shame to the nation,” says Yan Jiangying, deputy policy director of China’s FDA. We could use some shame here in America.
(Ted Rall is the author of the new book “Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?,” an in-depth prose and graphic novel analysis of America’s next big foreign policy challenge.)
COPYRIGHT 2007 TED RALL
12 Comments.
Nerd Alert:
Frank Herbert's God Emperor of Dune had only a few crimes for which the sentence was death: corrupting a member of the government and for government officials who allow themselves to be corrupted.
Ol' Frank had a lot of brains when he wrote the Dune series (pity the same can not be said for his grave robbing son).
While I am against the death penalty (not because I think it is immoral, but rather because of the flawed nature in which it is applied), I, too applaud China for the harshness of its penalties against governmental chicanery.
Taking it one step further, not only should there be a death penalty for government officials who accept bribes or otherwise abuse their offices, capital punishment should also be metered out against members of law enforcement who do the same.
Maybe the next time a lazy cop tries planting a knife and a vial of crack on an innocent suspect he so recently gunned down, he might give it a moment of thought considering what he stands to lose when the facts come to light.
Evil Kumquat
I agree completely Ted. It would be very satisfying to see you slit your own throat in shame for publishing so many America hating articles and cartoons. Please – take accountability now Ted.
Seems you attract a few of the legion of Anonymous, Rall.
While I certainly don't like the death penalty (which my state abolished sometime around 1900 and only brought back for the aftermath of WWII so we could shoot Quisling), I strongly support harsh accountability for our elected and appointed leaders.
George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, etc. should be in line to slit their own throats long before Ted Rall does, if the crime is America-hating. Though, in all fairness, I doubt they actually hate a nation which allows them to persist in their actions, so the real crime is exploitation of the lazy and ignorant masses (summed up so well by our anonymous poster).
I gather that if government officials were given the death penalty for corruption, Washington DC would be like the set of "Dead Alive" in no time.
A MOLE SPEAKS OUT:
alert authorities immediately
Over the past few years I have infiltrated the vast Theodore H. Rall network of Americal-hating liberals. I found out that he, and many, many others have much more contempt for this country and humanity than many of you may be aware of.
For the past 4 and a half years at least, he has been giving money to an organization which involves itself in terrorist activities against innocent people around the world. Infact, I know for a fact that he has contributed at least $4,220.00 plus 25% of his total salary, wages and tips every year since joining. So intense is this mans hate for America, that he contributes part of every purchase he makes toward this organization. Like al-qeida, Some of this organization's many wings are charitable fronts. But precious few of its America-hating members are unaware of that a large amount of their money goes straight to killing innocent people around the world, as well as American servicemen and women. Many are in fact proud of this.
I hope these facts will put an end to any doubts that Theodore H. Rall is a vile, America-hating, terrorist-supporting criminal of the worst kind.
please spread the word.
sources:
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=150856,00.html
http://www.warresisters.org/images/pieFY07.jpg
Remember K-Bee toys in the 90's? They used the threat of "Moving the plant overseas" to stagnate wages for near a decade. The money used from paying less wages than inflation would demand was then used to finance the move. The workers went to a locked company for work one day, and accompanied by a squad of armed guards the owner of the plant made a speech at the town hall of a small town he ruined by outsourcing 20,000 jobs. He then moved the plant somewhere in Asia. This new plant was not only cheap, it paid "Death Camp" wages, where the workers slowly starved for being paid so little. So, he made a mint, right? Not immediately. There were additional costs. The cost of transport, of setup. Very low tech areas so more had to be imported, or done with in less technical means. The entire workforce was constantly unionizing before being machine gunned by the police and then new poor people hired again to repeat. That caused constant delays and lost profit. Then, there was piracy and terrorism. Oh, and on top of that, the "Culture of bribery" from the local governor to the policeman's nephew. "Tea Money" as it's called. So, even with the 'cheap labor' he actually should have stayed in America. That is, if we really had a "Free Market", or actual "Free Trade". The CEO simply paid lobbyists. He got "Tax incentives" and "Subsidies" for this product. Because of tax dollars funneled to him, he made a good profit. Got in Fortune 500 for his 'outsourcing' venture.
What gave you the right to say that everyone has to masturbate to the flag, anonymous?
imagine if the feds spent all the iraq/afganistan money on subsidizing American toy companies who employ an onshore labor force. They could sell their toys at the same price as the imports, the American people could afford them, more Americans would have good jobs, and our kids would be safer. Of course, the company board of directors would still take home ridiculous salaries and technically be draining public coffers, but at least it would do some good in our own borders.
The Chinese usually use lethal injection for politicians. The 7.62mm assault rifle held inches from the back of the condemned's head is reserved for the common folk. Lovely people we do business with…
"Shortly afterward a policeman notifies the condemned man's family by presenting them with a bill for the cost of the bullet."
What the fuck are they teaching in Chinese business schools? They should send a bill for the cost of the labor!
People, people, don't be so hard on anonymous A. They are obviously a person trying to break the cycle of putrid ear puss they are fed by Rush,Ann,Fox News and others. After all, they do read Teds article in search of truth. That person is simply crying for help and suggesting what they may do theirself if it weren't for reaching out to beacons of truth, and enlightenment.
mba – have you considered that perhaps the minimal labor costs are defrayed onto the bullets?