AGAINST

Wu Ruidong

Civil servant in Hebei Province

I don't think heavy sentences will stop food safety crimes. The current law has been harsh on such crimes. For example, in the case of the Sanlu scandal, those who contaminate infant milk powder with melamine were sentenced to death. Then president of Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group was sentenced to life imprisonment. Such sentences are some of the most severe in history. However, it hasn't stopped the crime. Milk powder contaminated with melamine was found again in 2009.

So we should probe into the underlying reasons for food safety scandals. In recent years, to pursue high GDP growth, some local governments gave preferential treatment to leading enterprises, like favorable policies and financial support. To some extent, these governments are allied with these enterprises. While contributing to the local economic development, they sometimes ignore credibility and social responsibility.

The consequence of such alliance may be devastating. When an enterprise is involved in a scandal, the government would rather protect the enterprise than protect the public's interests. 

The Sanlu scandal results from the deliberate connivance of local government, not the law. So, to root out such scandals, the alliance between government and business should be broken.

Ma Sheng

Company employee

Light punishment for food safety crime is one of reasons why such crimes happen again and again. But the main reason is the lack of government supervision.

There are special government agencies to assume this function, like the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. However, as those agencies' actions are not unified, they may pass the buck to each other, leading to the reality that nobody actually is responsible for supervising the market.

Second, the current means of supervision is simple but crude. The instruments and equipment used to examine problem foods are out-dated. Some government departments only inspect those enterprises when food safety incidents happen, rather than making their supervision a regular practice. So, they are passive in dealing with food safety issues.

Moreover, some government departments even regard their obligation to supervise as a kind of power. It isolates them from the public and makes supervision from the public impossible.

Liang Jiangtao

Current affairs commentator

This law revision shows the government's commitment to protect food safety. However, it is not the best way.

Punishment by the Criminal Law should be the last choice to fight food safety crimes. Rooting out the problem should not depend solely on extreme legal means. The government's administrative role in supervising enterprises should be strengthened to nip any danger in the bud.

The responsibilities of various departments should be specified to ensure that any link of the production chain is safe. Whenever any unsafe food product is found, matters related to food examination, information exclosure and tainted products recall should also be properly dealt with.