“Please forgive us,” a group of Chinese dairy firms said in a New Year text message sent to millions of mobile phone subscribers.
The 22 dairy firms, led by the now-bankrupt Sanlu (三鹿), apologized and asked forgiveness for the contamination of their products by melamine, which killed at least six babies and made 290,000 ill.
Melamine, an industrial compound used in plastic and fertilizer, was added to milk to cheat protein tests.
PHOTO: AP
The chairwoman of Sanlu, Tian Wenhua (田文華), and three other company executives are on trial at a court in northern China for the contamination. Tian is expected to be sentenced to life imprisonment, although the verdict may not be reached for several weeks, the Beijing News said yesterday.
“We are deeply sorry for the harm caused to the children and society,” the text message read. “We sincerely apologize for that and we beg your forgiveness.”
Another 17 people involved in producing, selling, buying and adding melamine in raw milk have gone on trial in the last week.
Sanlu said it discovered the problem and reported it to local authorities in Hebei Province on Aug. 2, just days before the Olympic Games began in Beijing.
But nothing became public until early September, when the New Zealand government said it brought complaints by Sanlu’s partner, Fonterra, to the attention of the Chinese government.
Meanwhile, clusters of babies ill with kidney stones had cropped up in Chinese hospitals.
“If we were in Europe or another country, it wouldn’t be a question of apologies, it would be a question of legal responsibility,” Beijinger Shi Zhiqing said.
Meanwhile, Fonterra has rejected claims the former head of its Chinese joint venture pleaded guilty to charges related to the tainted milk scandal, reports said yesterday.
Tian had “absolutely and unequivocally” pleaded not guilty in a Chinese court to the charges, a Fonterra spokesman told the New Zealand Herald.
The verdicts have yet to be delivered, but Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said he would be saddened if Tian were convicted, let alone executed.
“She seemed to live and breathe Sanlu,” Ferrier said. “She only wanted the best for Sanlu and it would be very sad if she’s found guilty of any crimes.”
Fonterra, which wrote off its 43 percent shareholding in Sanlu for a loss of NZ$201 million (US$114 million), was not represented at the one-day court hearing.
However, the Fonterra spokesman told the Herald he received assurances about Tian’s not pleading guilty while making inquiries in Asia at Ferrier’s request.
Chinese authorities have made no attempt to press charges against Fonterra. Even so, Ferrier said Fonterra wanted the Sanlu affair resolved before it would re-invest in China.
“It is our intention to re-invest in China at an appropriate time, providing we have enough comfort and control in the supply chain,” Ferrier said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat