Swill-cooked oil found by police in Chongqing was related to a production and marketing chain covering six provinces, including Sichuan, Yunnan and Henan. Its volume was enough to feed more than 2,600 families for one year. However, due to a legal loophole, punishing those found guilty remains difficult.
Li Xiang, 30, a TV reporter who worked for Luoyang TV in Henan Province, mainly covered stories about social life and public security, was stabbed to death outside the gate of his residential compound around 1 am Monday, after returning from a weekend gathering. The murder has sparked a new debate on the safety of journalists, as speculation suggested the crime was in retaliation for Li's coverage of the illegal cooking oil trade.
We may feel good during fallow periods and yet lack confidence when in the right. Too many failures and too little success deeply affect our judgment. However, China is unlikely to stay fragile. Problems are emerging but the country's capacity to digest problems is proving very sturdy indeed.
Chinese police had investigated over 132,000 cases and detained more than 90,000 suspects by November in a nationwide crackdown on a set of highly attended offenses, especially food and drug safety cases.
The high-profile campaign aims to eliminate illegal food producers and vendors, factories producing counterfeit goods and markets built for the disposal of stolen goods, pornography, gambling and drug trafficking.
Time to pop official bubble
Cooking oil scandal needs national efforts