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In China, food safety is threatened by an increasingly opaque political system

As China has ‘lifted’ its citizens out of poverty, anxiety has shifted from food security to food safety. But the task of improving what goes on the table is hampered by a system hungry to cling to power

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A farm near a coal power plant in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 10:15am, 10 Jan 2021Updated: 2:24pm, 15 Jan 2021

Most Chinese people know the old saying that “illness finds its way in by the mouth” (bing cong kou ru), though far too many continue to learn this lesson in an all-too-literal way.

Thirty-two years ago, when I was a first-year student at college in Shanghai, several of my classmates were among 300,000 residents hospitalised with hepatitis A after consuming contaminated raw clams. Twenty years later, about the same number of Chinese babies fell victim to milk products adulterated with melamine in order to make them appear to be higher in protein. Six died and 54,000 were hospitalised.

From 2003 to 2014, Chinese media reported at least 37 scandals involving fake or toxic food. In the first three quarters of 2016 alone, 500,000 illegal food safety violations were uncovered by regulators in China. Most recently, unsanitary conditions at wholesale food markets in Beijing and Wuhan were reported as being the likely first sources of Covid-19 outbreaks.

China’s ongoing food safety difficulties highlight a dereliction of business ethics and the failure of government regulators to keep pace with an increasingly market-based economy. However, the role of environmental pollution as a source of unsafe food is often overlooked.