Fonterra Advised Sanlu on ‘Safe’ Melamine Level

Thanks to TEAA, our valuable friend in Wellington, for sending the link to the New Zealand article

The Moderators have vociferously maintained that Fonterra executives knew about Sanlu’s melamine-tainted infant formula years in advance of the scandal breaking out, despite their denials.

The truth is now beginning to come out in dribs and drabs! Here’s how the story is unfolding:

Tian Wenhua, the former President and General Manager of Sanlu, who received a life sentence for her part in the Sanlu tainted infant formula scandal,  said during her trial that “she made the decision not to halt production of the tainted products because a board member, designated by New Zealand dairy product giant Fonterra that partly owned Sanlu Group, presented her a document saying a maximum of 20 mg of melamine was allowed in every kg of milk in the European Union. She said she had trusted the document at that time.” Xinhua reported.

[Note: Readers are reminded that Sanlu Was First Banned in 2004, then Reinstated.]

Fonterra should set the record straight and release minutes at the center of the Chinese contaminated milk scandal, Green Party MP Sue Kedgley says. (January 28, 2009, 8:09 pm). Source Stuff.co.nz. Image may be subject to copyright.

NZ Green Party MP Sue Kedgley said Fonterra’s credibility was on the line after the statement made by Tian Wenhua that “Fonterra approved a level of melamine in baby milk formula sold in China,” and has asked the New Zealand dairy cooperative to release the minutes of the conversation between the Fonterra director and Sanlu’s former president.

“Fonterra is our biggest exporter and it is critical for its international reputation that the dairy company front up with evidence to dispel any doubts about its business practices in China,” Ms Kedgley said.

“If the minutes of the recorded conversation demonstrate—as Fonterra claims—that Fonterra was adamant it was totally unacceptable to sell milk with any level of melamine contamination in it, this will help set the record straight.”

“Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier today said the conversation had been minuted, but he did not intend to release it to media while a court appeal was pending.” NZPA reported. [Moderators wonder how difficult it might be  for Fonterra to change the content of the said minutes to save its own backside.]

Fonterra chief executive, Andrew Ferrier. Do you trust him with your little baby’s kidneys? Ferrier on Tuesday confirmed Tian had been given a document by a Fonterra board member, but he is economical with the truth about the content of the document. Mr Ferrier and his colleagues have so far gotten away with murder. Photo: NZPA. Image may be subject to copyright.

“Everybody wants to move on, I think that’s the message that we’re getting from our shareholders. We’ve learned some painful lessons, we’ve learned to be more suspicious about supply chains, we’ve learned to shrink down our time of implementation of measures.” Ferrier said.

[Mr Ferrier, due to their kidney failures, at least 6 Chinese babies will never be able to “move on!” And another ½ million or so babies could move only with great difficulty.  MSRB Moderators.]

Related News Links:

• Fonterra needs to release minutes, say Greens [ http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0901/S00132.htm ]
• Former dairy boss in milk scandal plans to appeal life sentence

Related Links:

• China Syndrome
• To NZ PM Clark: Confirm or Deny! [“Gotcha!”]
• Demand Answers From Chinese Govt
• Shame on Chinese Govt
• Taiwan Cares about Citizens, China Doesn’t!
• Scale of Sanlu-Fonterra Corporate Manslaughter Widens

This post has 570 words, 2 images, 6 links.

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What happens when you kill Chinese babies?

Q. What happens when you knowingly sell poisoned food products and kill at least six Chinese babies [the actual toll is a state secret] and sicken about ½ million other infants?

A. It all depends on who you are!

If you are a prominnet member of ‘National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,’ like Tian Wenhua, 66, the former President and General Manager of Sanlu, you get a prison sentence!

Sanlu Group‘s official logo. Image may be subject to copyright despite Sanlu bankruptcy!

If you are not politically well connected, and haven’t paid the right amount of kickbacks to the corrupt officials, like the two men who supplied melamine to adulterate the milk, you would get a  death sentence.

Sanlu show trial: Sanlu Group executives Tian Wenhua, Wang Yuliang, Hang Zhiqi and Wu Jusheng stand trial on 31 December 2008. (Xinhua/Ding Lixin. Image may be subject to copyright.

As for other executive/employees:

• The three other former top Sanlu executives on trial together with
  Tian under the same charge got sentences varying from five to 15 years.

• Wang Yuliang and Hang Zhiqi, both top executive of
  Sanlu, were respectively sentenced to 15 years and 8 years in
  prison.

• Wu Jusheng, former manager responsible for Sanlu’s  raw milk department, received a 5-year sentence.

[Note: A total of two death sentences, three life sentences and six sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years were handed to the defendants, while 40 others still await trial.]

Q. What about Fonterra, which owned 43% of the joint venture company?

A. Fonterra directors literally got away with murder!

But how could that be? Surely China is no longer a  colony.  Even Hong Kong …

Fonterra’s new Logo. Readers will excuse the “Dairy for life [sentence]” pun.  Image may be subject to copyright.

This is how it works. It always has. If the others who were involved in killing Chinese babies come from a country where the corrupt Chinese officials have a personal interest/stake, then those foreign nationals and their agent are excused.

As for the response by the baby-killer Fonterra directors: They are “still studying the verdict.”

Related News Links:

• China melamine trial triggers anger, questions
• China sentences two to death over tainted milk

Related Links:

• China Syndrome

363 words – 3 images – 3 links

Mandelson: Duplicitous to the Grave

Submitted by a reader:

Mandelson stunt, which impressed Wen Jiabao, prompting his promotion, ends in kidney ‘failure!’

Politics of Kidney Stone

Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Lord Mandelson, a British Politician and a former European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner, was rushed to hospital with kidney complaints and subsequently diagnosed with having kidney stones, said the British media.

Nothing to it: White, clean and full of protein (!) Peter Mandelson Drinking the local milk during a televised press conference in China.

In an otherwise carefully calculated political stunt, Lord Mandelson in his former role  as an EU Trade Commissioner gulped a glass of Chinese milk on television during a press conference on September 26, a move which prompted the establishment to appoint him as Britain’s Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to appease Beijing.

Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier was overwhelmed by Mandelson’s selfless act of health sacrifice and said: “He committed this act because he not only sees the present, but also the future.”

Alas, it was a short future indeed for Lord Mandelson since it lasted only 9 days before he was rushed to the hospital.

Lord Mandelson’s spokesman said: ‘He won’t want to comment.’

At least 56,000 Chinese babies needed treatment for kidney stones and 4 died [we may never know the exact number of the dead, a state secret] when Chinese companies added melamine, an industrial chemical, to make watered-down milk appear nutritious and used the tainted milk to manufacture infant formula.

The worst contamination case involved infant formula manufactured by a joint venture operation owned by China’s Sanlu and New Zealand’s Fonterra.

Related Links:

• Fonterra File
• Plight of the Chinese
• China Syndrome
  

A Positive Step by Chinese Lawyers!

Chinese Lawyers Act in Sanlu-Fonterra Corporate Manslaughter Case

Two Chinese lawyers have filed a suit against Sanlue-Fonterra joint venture dairy operation in China. It is hoped that their example would lead to more legal cases obtaining adequate compensation for the families of the dead and injured babies.

Allow No Insult Added to Injury!

Although, no amount of monetary compensation can ever replace a lost loved one, the parents and families of the dead and injured babies shouldn’t have to be financially worse off now than they were before, when their infants were actually healthy. That would be insult added to injury! [Note: Most of the Chinese parents, and  their dead and sickened babies, were victimized in the tainted infant formula scandal because they trusted Fonterra in the  Sanlu-Fonterra partnership.]

ZHENGZHOU, Sept. 18, 2008 – Parents and their infants queue for medical treatment of their infants sickened by Sanlu-Fonterra tainted baby milk powder at the Children’s Hospital of Zhengzhou in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan Province, Sept. 17, 2008. (Xinhua/Zhao Peng. Image may be subject to copyright.

The following excerpts from a WSJ Law Blog Entry:

Two Chinese lawyers are boldly leading the way in the country’s tainted milk drama. Zhang Xingkuan and Ji Cheng, of Beijing’s Deheng Law Office, have filed suit against a Chinese dairy company on behalf of the parents of a one-year old boy allegedly sickened by tainted milk powder.

Zhang tells the WSJ that they’re seeking compensation of 150,000 yuan ($21,900) to cover hospital fees, travel expenses, time off from work and other costs. The attorney said that the parents claim the boy developed kidney stones from drinking milk powder made by Sanlu. Sanlu’s officials couldn’t be reached for comment. According to a report in the Washington Post, nine of the brands containing dangerous levels of melamine were produced by Sanlu, a 43 percent stake of which is owned by New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra.  More …

Related Links:

• China Syndrome
• Fonterra File

Demand Answers From Chinese Govt

Up to five percent of infants in Shanghai could have kidney stones after drinking tainted milk formula

“A recent citywide health check of children under three years old showed about five percent were diagnosed with symptoms of possible kidney stones after being fed contaminated powdered milk,” the China Daily reported.

China’s Health Ministry has not provided any update on the casualty figures for a week.

The World Demands to Know

1. How many infants, babies and children have died after drinking contaminated baby formula/milk/milk products?

2. What are the numbers of infants, babies, children who are sickened after being fed tainted baby formula? How many more are likely to die?

3. What is the Government of China doing to protect Chinese babies from tainted milk and other contaminated foodstuff, and prevent the export of deadly products to other countries, in the future?

4. Why hasn’t the Chinese Government prosecuted the 7 directors and other executives of Sanlu-Fonterra joint venture on the charges of corporate manslaughter, homicide?

Related News Links:

• Shanghai fears grow in China milk powder scandal

Related Links:

• Fonterra File (Index page)
  

To NZ PM Clark: Confirm or Deny!

Update : Sanlu Was First Banned in 2004, then Reinstated

Submitted by a Reader

An Open Letter To NZ PM Helen Clark:

Tell the Truth to the Parents of the Dead and Sick Chinese Babies, they are Humans, Too!

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark claims her government learned of the contamination problem on September 5. She slept over it for three days and then decided to inform Beijing after local Chinese officials refused to act.

She deputized New Zealand ambassador to China Tony Brown to tell the Chinese government.

“We were the whistle-blowers and they [the Chinese government] leapt in and ensured there was action on the ground,”  Clark said. “We cannot have it on our conscience.”

Fonterra had “been trying for weeks to get official recall and the local authorities in China would not do it”,  Clark told TVNZ.

“I think the first inclination was to try and put a towel over it and deal with it without an official recall,” she said.

What a load of old codswallop!

They are Humans, too, Ms Clark, Despite their “Squint Eyes” and Your Official Briefing

Parents of the babies with kidney stones talk to reporters at a hospital in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, Sept. 11, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)

Now, Tell the Truth!

Do you confirm or deny, preferably under oath, that your senior SIS agent in China, “Y,” told you about the tainted Sanlu powdered milk incident before September 5, 2008?

And you better think real hard before you answer the question.

[Hint: We know you lied the first time.]

Related Links:

• Chinese, New Zealand contaminated milk powder kills two
• Global Food Alert: Deadly Baby Milk From China, New Zealand
• Consumers being deceived of origin of powdered-milk: New Zealand Dairy Products Bangladesh marketing products with fake information
• New Zealand Health Warnings

Fonterra had Foreknowledge

• Dozens of Chinese babies die ‘from fake milk’ [2004]
• China ‘fake milk’ scandal deepens [2004]

Truth About New Zealand

• The Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’
• The poisoning of New Zealand

Chinese, New Zealand contaminated milk powder kills two

Update : Sanlu Was First Banned in 2004, then Reinstated

Submitted by a Reader:

Two Dairy Giants Join Forces, Babies Start Dying

Breaking News [09:06UTC]: At least a second infant died today from consuming Sanlu-Fonterra milk powder. The casualty toll now includes at least 1,253 babies sickened, with 340 hospitalized, 53 in serious condition.

Tainted Chinese imports are of course common in the US, Japan and other countries.  Many products including dangerous toys, melamine-contaminated food, fake medicine, tainted dietary supplements, toxic cosmetics and dangerous toys leaving Chinese factories invariably find their way into the US. See Below for a selected list of the tainted imports.

New Zealand, on the other hand, has one of the poorest standards of food hygiene in the developed world. As for Fonterra, New Zealand’s dairy giant,  they have previously been caught red-handed conducting deceptive business practices.

In 2005, Fonterra Limited, a leading multinational dairy company of New Zealand bought the major share of the Australian company. From then the New Zealand Dairy Products Ltd, the local distributor of Fonterra Ltd started marketing of the Red Cow and Diploma brands of powdered-milk. But, the New Zealand Dairy Products Ltd has been marketing both the brands of powdered-milk printing the ‘Product of Australia’ on the packets, which is totally false. Due to this false claim, both buyers and consumers are being cheated by purchasing New Zealand’s [lower quality, cheaper] product in the name of [higher quality more expensive] Australian product.

New Zealand’s Fonterra is the largest marketer of dairy products in the world, exporting 90% of its total production to 120 countries. Fonterra has total revenues of NZ$12.3 billion (US$8.5 billion) in 2005.

The Facts About the Latest Tragedy:

• The powdered milk production is a joint venture between New Zealand Fonterra and China’s Sanlu group. Fonterra is not just a minority shareholder.
• Sanlu received complaints about the sick infants as early as March 3, 2008.
• The FDA (and just about everyone else in the world with access to Internet) knew as early as April 2007 that food ingredients imported from China were tainted with melamine. How could Fonterra, the largest marketer of dairy products in the world, claim ignorance about melamine contamination of food products in China?
• Fonterra claims they only found out about melamine content of their milk powder on August 2, 2008. Not withstanding the previous point, why did it take 40 days to have the product removed [and only partially] from the retail shelves?
• New Zealand has total contempt for Asians, especially the Vietnamese, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and Indians. New Zealand establishment considers the “yellow,” “brown,” and other “colored” races as non-human. During the Vietnam war, WMDs manufactured in New Zealand, including Agent Orange, and New Zealand soldiers were used to commit genocide against the North Vietnamese. In the past few weeks at least 4 Chinese women were killed in New Zealand, and the body of another dead Korean was discovered.
• New Zealand’s senior SIS agent in China, “Y,” informed both the ethically-challenged New Zealand PM, Helen Clark, and its “multiple minister,” the morally-castrated Phil Goff, about the tainted baby formula incident, possibly by as early as march 5, 2008.
• Fonterra, their directors [and New Zealand Government] have committed corporate manslaughter.

Brief History of Tainted Imports from China

June 2007. Chinese-made toothpaste found was containing diethylene glycol, a poison used in some antifreeze, in mainland US, Puerto Rico and Canada.

November 2007. Chinese-made toys sold by Australia-based Moose Enterprises contained  a powerful chemical which turned into a toxic “date rape” drug when eaten.

In the past few years there have been numerous recalls of Chinese-made toy because they contained lead paint or tiny detachable pieces that kids could swallow.

December 2007. Frozen Chinese gyoza dumplings laced with pesticide sold in Japan made a dozen people seriously ill. Japanese  government refused to disclose what it knew about source of the poisoning. Only after many people in China were taken ill from consuming the same product supplied by the same Chinese manufacture in July/August 2008 did the full facts surface. The incident may have been a major factor in forcing Japan PM Fukuda to resign.

(September 2008) Mikasa Foods Co., an Osaka-based wholesaler, which sold Chinese imported “industrial-use” rice unfit for human consumption [the rice contained excessive levels of the pesticide methamidophos] to food manufacturers, will fire its entire workforce of about 100 employees because of fallout from the scandal, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported.

“In four months, FDA refused 298 shipments,” Washington Post wrote in May 2007. The products included:
tainted milk powder.

• Contaminated duck eggs, pork and seafood.
• Dangerous children’s wear
• Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.
• Frozen catfish pumped with banned antibiotics.
• Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.
• Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

“The Food and Drug Administration detained more than 100 food imports from China at U.S. ports in April 2007.” The FDA rejection document cited the following reasons for rejection:

• “Filthy”  fruits, juices and extracts
• Fruits including prunes tinted with dangerous chemical dyes
• Frozen shrimp treated with nitrofuran, a cancer-causing antibacterial.
• Poisonous swordfish.

Various melamine-tainted food items were also rejected because they were dangerous for human/animal consumption.

Among the tainted imports were:

Pet food ingredients spiked with a potentially dangerous” chemicals which arrived in the US including pet food, and animal feed for chicken, hogs and farmed fish. After numerous pet deaths were attributed to the chemical, the FDA called for a series of recalls and quarantines beginning in March.

Previous Milk Powder Incidents:

(BBC 20 April 2004) Dozens of Chinese babies are said to have died from malnutrition in the past year after being fed fake or inferior-quality baby milk powders. According to official media reports, up to 200 babies who were fed formula milk of little nutritional value were affected. Local media said some of the babies developed what doctors called “big head disease”, where infants’ heads appear abnormally large in comparison to their bodies.

(Medical News Today, April 2004) It is not uncommon in China for some companies to sell products such as fake rice or medicine to people.

(Xinhua, April 2004) The inspection showed 45 types of substandard milk powder were sold on the retail market in Fuyang City. They were produced by 141 factories149 brands. Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hebei, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, Beijing and Shanghai municipalities and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Related Links:

• To NZ PM Clark: Confirm or Deny!

• Sanlu Was First Banned in 2004, then Reinstated
• At least 6,200 infants develop kidney stones, 3rd 4th baby dies
  

• Fonterra Directors Must Have Known!
• Fonterra: 43 percent Liable, 100 percent Moral Cowards!

• Another Human Tragedy Deepens in China
• CPC Big Guns: The Root of All Evil in China
• Global Food Alert: Deadly Baby Milk From China, New Zealand

• Consumers being deceived of origin of powdered-milk: New Zealand Dairy Products Bangladesh marketing products with fake information
• New Zealand Health Warnings

• Victims of Sanlu-Fonterra Business Venture Top 6,200

Fonterra had Foreknowledge

• Dozens of Chinese babies die ‘from fake milk’ [2004]
• China ‘fake milk’ scandal deepens [2004]

Truth About New Zealand

• The Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’
• The poisoning of New Zealand

Index pages for related articles:

• China Syndrome
• Fonterra Files

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