Not odd at all, IMO. Shooting a couple of the clueless milk dealers and maybe a couple of low-level government inspectors as quickly as possible ensures that the real story never gets out–probably involving much higher level officials and corporate leadership.
According to this article, China’s milk consumption has doubled since 1985, and doubled again since 2004. It is really hard to make sense of the rate of growth here, especially of basic consumer products. It seems like every industry is suddenly doubling it’s growth in the matter of a handful of years.
The blame for this belongs on many levels, but I believe the ultimate problem is simply that things are growing too fast for regulatory agencies to keep up, along with of course the systems that allow corruption to persist.
Anyway, I don’t want to be a prig about “cultural sensitivity.” Obviously there are bad things going on and every culture has its flaws- sometimes major ones. But I have noticed that Americans tend to refer to “the Chinese” exactly like how we referred to “the Russians” a couple decades ago. And Chinese people notice this, too and it makes it difficult for them to understand that we don’t think of them as enemies.
When nations get to be a certain size , friction occurs between the establishment and the young turks. I have no problems equating China with being the enemy and persuing a containment policy towards them.
Being a trading partner is not the same as being a friend, its nice when it is , but otherwise its just a business relationship.
The issue is NOT how we refer to the Chinese. The issue, is not cultural, it is altering a basic foodstuff. The reason milk and dairy products consumption has skyrocketed is because of a concerted government effort to increase said consumption. The rationale for this is a mixture of realistic public health concerns and a tiny mix of racial policies(the Japanese are taller, on average, than us because of dairy consumption).
This same government has been coverning these dairy violations for years. I’m assuming you don’t read or understand Mandarin as they’ve been discussing this issue for over two weeks non-stop. They’ve discovered that these same producers, until they discovered cheap melamine, added bovine urine and skin. Just heard, 53,000 infants sick.
Leave politics out of this as this is Chinese domestic issue.
Also, I would like to ask, which “Chinese” think the big, bad US media are anti-Chinese. Methinks you hang out with a sub-group of 14-21 year-old students. Par-for-the-course reactions.
I have had over 300 foreign employees over the years and you sound exactly like someone who has been here less than 5 months.
Don’t be angry. Learn Chinese. Broaden your horizens. Then make sweeping statements.