【经济学家 111029】惩罚了沃尔玛，中国食品就安全了吗？
【中文标题】惩罚了沃尔玛，中国食品就安全了吗？
【原文标题】Food safety in China In the gutter An American firm is punished, but China’s food safety problems run much deeper
【登载媒体】经济学家
【原文链接】http://www.economist.com/node/21534812
执法人员在检查一车泔水。
上海一家餐厅外边有人在回收废油。
从餐厅和地沟里收集的几桶废油。
执法人员在检查河北省地沟油作坊的废水。
装地沟油的油桶。
可疑物品。
消费者努力识别假食用油。
执法人员破坏处理地沟油的大缸。
北京街边的食品摊和勇敢的消费者。
沃尔玛，一家美国连锁超市，最近在中国这个发展速度最快的市场中度过了一场噩梦般的经历。10月25日，他的13家店面在西南部城市重庆重新开张。在此之前，这些商店因为一款猪肉产品的标签贴错而被判闭店两个星期。中国的官员最近突然在食品安全方面良心发现，一家大型外国公司成为了自然而然的目标。
与食品有关的丑闻，通常在官员的忽视和腐败作用下，让中国遭遇了很多政治尴尬。2008年8月中国在积极筹备奥运会时，领导层为了创造一个安全、清洁的环境，而刻意去压制被三聚氰胺这个有害化学物质污染的奶粉逐渐扩散的新闻。当中央政府在9月份承认问题存在的时候，已经有数万名婴儿染病，若干婴儿死亡。
公众对这起事件的愤怒情绪促使食品安全法在2009年通过，其主要目的是提高标准、加强监督、加大惩处力度。2007年，前国家食品药品管理局局长因在认证食品安全过程中收取贿赂，而被判处死刑。这件事似乎比食品安全法对公众更有安慰的效果。有毒食品依然在市面上销售。今年，当局严查类固醇克仑特罗的使用，三月份在猪肉制品中发现了此物质。这种化学物质可以让猪肉变得比较瘦，但是有可能引起心脏病、腹泻和肌肉痉挛。
与此相比，沃尔玛在重庆的违规程度根本不值一提。官方称，一款普通猪肉的标签被错贴成价格更高的有机猪肉。但是，惩罚的力度除了关闭店铺，公司还被罚款57.5万美元。两名沃尔玛员工被逮捕，25人遭到调查。公司的中国总裁和一名高级副总裁辞职（沃尔玛总部否认与此事有任何关联）。60人组成的小组前往重庆调查，沃尔玛亚洲首席执行官对市场表示道歉。
沃尔玛在这个国家有350家商店、将近10万名雇员（当然也有实力雄厚的中国竞争对手），它因此成为官方自然而然的靶子。从2006年到现在，它在重庆被处罚了21次，理由从广告违规到出售过期食品。但是一家中国杂志《财新》在其网站上的报道中说，近期对沃尔玛的处罚是近年来重庆市政府对任何零售企业惩罚中最严厉的一次。政府对沃尔玛各方面的对待“令人担忧地”违背了法制的精神，不符合罪罚相当的基本原则。
中国一些评论人士指出，重庆非常热衷对这类问题表现出强硬的姿态。党委书记薄熙来曾经对这里的犯罪团伙开展了姿态鲜明的（有人说是无情的）打击行动。薄先生还曾经提倡共产主义平等、节俭和诚信的价值观（他的儿子在哈罗和牛津就读）。他那些热情的民族主义拥趸拥护对沃尔玛的打压，他们希望借明年中国领导层换届的机会，薄先生可以在北京谋得更高的职位。一家推崇薄先生的中文网站上的评论说，沃尔玛事件表现出重庆对食品安全问题的“坚决态度”，以及对任何违法事件绝不手软的处理决心。
很多中国人似乎并没有同样的想法。沃尔玛事件发生之前，另外一件食品丑闻似乎更让公众震惊：很多餐厅在制作和使用“地沟油”。就是循环使用的食用油，在餐厅把用过的油倒入排水沟之后，又被取出再次使用。有人把浮在表面的油舀出，用化学品掩饰其气味之后再次使用。这种油含有致癌和毒性物质，即使是政府的新闻机构新华社也说，地沟油是在食品安全方面“近来最令人胆寒的事件”，它揭示了“当今中国食品界真实、丑恶的现状”。
上个月，警方说已经有32人因加工地沟油被捕，在14个省份查获了90吨地沟油。媒体一片大哗，即使政府控制的媒体也报道，每年大约有200万吨脏油被不知情的消费者吃下。这相当于中国所有餐厅食用油消耗量的十分之一。上个月，一个调查此问题的记者李翔的神秘死亡事件在中国互联网用户中引起了怀疑，他们认为这是犯罪分子试图让媒体缄口。
公众对于政府管理食品市场能力的深深不信任态度，让政府感到紧张（官方也承认查处地沟油存在诸多难处）。10月19日，温家宝总理在主持国务院会议室承认，据政府发布的信息，群众对商业行为中缺乏诚信的现象“非常不满”，并呼吁加强人民的诚信教育。在他任期的最后17个月里，温先生身上的担子不轻啊。
原文：
Recycling waste oil from the back of a Shanghai restaurant.
Barrels of waste oil collected from restaurants and sewers.
Checking the waste water at a gutter-oil workshop in Hebei.
Rolling up the gutter-oil, on barrel at a time.
Suspicious stuff.
Consumers struggle to spot the counterfeit cooking oil.
Law-enforcement officers destroying vats used to process gutter oil.
A roadside cook in Beijing, with brave customers.
WALMART, an American supermarket chain, has been having a tough time recently in China, one of its fastest growing markets. On October 25th it reopened 13 stores in the south-western region of Chongqing which were closed for two weeks as punishment for mislabelling a pork product. Chinese officials have recently had a pang of food-safety conscience, and a big foreign firm has offered an easy target.
Food-related scandals, often exacerbated by official negligence or corruption, can cause major political embarrassment in China. In the approach to the Olympic games in Beijing in August 2008, the leadership’s efforts to create an image of a safe and hygienic China led to the suppression of news about a widespread contamination of milk products with melamine, a chemical that can be toxic. By the time the central government admitted the problem in September that year, tens of thousands of babies had been affected and several had died.
Public anger over the incident hastened the passing of a food-safety law in 2009 which was intended to tighten standards, improve supervision and impose tougher penalties on violators. It appears to have done no more to alleviate public anxiety than did the execution in 2007 of a former head of the State Food and Drug Administration for taking bribes to certify products as safe. Toxic foodstuffs continue to be sold. This year the authorities announced a renewed campaign against the use of the steroid clenbuterol after it was discovered in pork products in March. The chemical can make meat leaner, but can also be the cause of heart palpitations, diarrhoea and muscle tremors.
By comparison, Walmart’s offence in Chongqing was minor. Officials said it had mislabelled ordinary pork and sold it as a pricier organic product. But in addition to closing its stores, the company was fined more than $575,000. Two Walmart employees were arrested and another 25 are being investigated. The company’s head in China and a senior vice-president resigned (though Walmart denies any link). A 60-member team was sent to Chongqing to investigate, and its Asia chief executive apologised to the mayor.
With more than 350 stores in the country and nearly 100,000 employees (as well as tough Chinese competitors), Walmart offers a tempting target to officials. It has been punished 21 times in Chongqing since 2006 for a variety of wrongdoings, ranging from false advertising to selling out-of-date food. But Caixin, a Chinese magazine, reported on its website that the latest sanctions against Walmart had been the toughest imposed by the Chongqing authorities on any retailer in recent years. It said aspects of the government’s treatment of Walmart were “worryingly” out of keeping with the spirit of the law, not least the principle that punishment should fit the crime.
Some commentators in China have pointed out that Chongqing has a special interest in appearing tough on such issues. Its party chief, Bo Xilai, has been waging a high-profile (critics say ruthless) campaign against organised crime in the region. Mr Bo has also been promoting communist values of egalitarianism, thrift and honesty (his son’s schooling: Harrow and Oxford). His ardently nationalist supporters cheered the crackdown on Walmart. They hope Mr Bo will take a top position in Beijing during a sweeping shuffle of the Chinese leadership late next year. A commentary on Utopia, a Chinese website that champions Mr Bo, said the Walmart case had demonstrated Chongqing’s “resolute attitude” towards food safety and its determination that every violation should be punished severely.
It is unlikely that many Chinese are similarly convinced. The Walmart case followed close on the heels of another food scandal that seems to shock the public far more: the production and extensive use of “gutter oil”, mainly in restaurants. The term refers to recycled cooking oil, which is often retrieved from drains where it is dumped by restaurants after use. Floating to the top, it is scooped up and recycled, using chemicals to disguise the smell. Such oil can contain carcinogens and toxic mould. Even Xinhua, the government’s news agency, called gutter oil “the most nerve-jittery problem of late” concerning food safety, and one that showed “a really nasty reality of Chinese food today”.
Last month the police said they had arrested 32 people for producing the oil and had seized 90 tonnes of it in 14 provinces. Cynicism is widespread, even in the state-controlled media which reported that an estimated 2m tonnes of the slop are consumed annually in the country by unwitting diners. This is said to be equivalent to about one-tenth of the total used by restaurants. The mysterious death last month of Li Xiang, a reporter investigating the phenomenon, fuelled suspicions among Chinese internet users of an attempt by criminals to silence him.
The government is nervous of the public’s deep mistrust of its ability to supervise the food market (even officials admit that detecting gutter oil can be tricky). On October 19th the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, chaired a cabinet meeting that acknowledged, according to a government release, “great public dissatisfaction” with a lack of honesty in commercial dealings and called for stepped-up efforts to teach people sincerity. Mr Wen has an uphill task in his remaining 17 months at the helm.
沃尔玛的违规不值一提？上帝啊，造假还有理了！bullshut！ 渐生华发 发表于 2011-11-4 12:33 static/image/common/back.gif
沃尔玛的违规不值一提？上帝啊，造假还有理了！bullshut！
他们的强盗逻辑就是：你们那里有很多比我造假还过分的，相比之下我这点假就不算假~！ lyycc 发表于 2011-11-4 12:52 static/image/common/back.gif
他们的强盗逻辑就是：你们那里有很多比我造假还过分的，相比之下我这点假就不算假~！ ...
哈，好像是这个逻辑。。 只许州官放火，不许百姓点灯:@ 想起了那个《超级英雄》苦逼人夫的电影的一幕:(
毒贩子：你以为杀了我一个，这个世道就会变好吗？
苦逼人夫：我不确定……但我决定试试。 惩罚了沃尔玛，比不惩罚了沃尔玛，中国食品要安全一些。 惩罚沃尔玛比一切公共食品安全措施更有效。 这就是辩解的原因，只会让人更厌恶而已。打着质量的旗号来卖假，还振振有词。按照这逻辑那三鹿岂不是也很冤枉了，每一个违法违纪的人都可以指责对方来脱罪了 战争之王的台词: 世界上最大的军火商是你的老板，美国的总统，他一天卖的比我一年还多，有时候在枪支上找到他的指纹是一件很尴尬的事，有时他需要像我这样的自由工作者供应一些他不方便出面供应的货物。所以，你说我是恶魔，但不幸的是，对你我是一个必须存在的恶魔。 美国人在比烂！ 他们说话的调调真让人受不了，这就是话语霸权啊。 墨索里尼总是有理！ 还能更不要脸不，呸！ 对沃尔玛这种无赖更要惩罚的厉害点，， 就该拿这些作威作福的外企开刀。 万岁军 发表于 2011-11-4 13:46 static/image/common/back.gif
想起了那个《超级英雄》苦逼人夫的电影的一幕
毒贩子：你以为杀了我一个，这个世道就会变好吗？
不杀世道更差呀 huaxm 发表于 2011-11-4 13:50 static/image/common/back.gif
惩罚了沃尔玛，比不惩罚了沃尔玛，中国食品要安全一些。
点头:loveliness: 不惩罚更差. 品牌商品具有更大的欺骗品，如果沃尔码广告上宣称自己的商品产品是不能保证的，那就是二回事了。这在国外也是这样。。。品牌店卖出的商品更会受到关注。。。影响面大，而且价格里包含了质量控制的成分。。。小店没有人Somplain是没有管，还不如中国。
你买一个LV包，一个针脚不好都可以要求退货。。。在农贸市场买的，只有便宜，有几处缝不好也没事，回家补补还是一件好衣服。