China's State Council has set up a food safety commission consisting of three vice premiers and a dozen minister-level officials, following a string of nationwide crackdowns and arrests in the wake of new melamine-tainted milk products being discovered.
The lineup of the commission's members, which was announced Wednesday, includes Vice Premiers Li Keqiang, Hui Liangyu and Wang Qishan, as well as more than ten heads or vice heads of government departments in charge of health, finance, and agriculture among others.
The high-profile establishment of the commission showed the Chinese leadership's determination to address the country's food safety issues, Prof. Wang Yukai with Chinese Academy of Governance told Xinhua Wednesday.
The State Council's announcement followed reports of a number of melamine contaminated milk products being found in Shanghai as well as Liaoning, Shandong, and Shaanxi Provinces in recent months.
"The reemergence of the tainted milk products is a sign that China's food safety system is far from perfect," Wang said.
Hopefully, the establishment of the new food safety commission would make melamine-laced milk a thing of the past, he said.
"With a powerful vice premier in charge of coordinating the government departments in dealing with food safety issues, ... the new commission is expected to spot problems with China's current food safety system and to solve them before they lead to tragedies," Wang said.
Food safety drew national attention in China in 2004, when at least 13 babies died from malnutrition in the eastern province of Anhui and another 171 were hospitalized, after consuming shoddy infant milk powder that contained too little protein.
Source: Xinhua Net