. Half the time I read about China is sounds like Hell.
Absolutely Dead-C,
Its like China is growing so quickly in certain areas of industry, that other parts of society--like government regulatory control--is left behind and always playing catch-up.
And a lot of the growth is raw, naked, unchecked capitalism: of course even the most honest of people/companies is tempted to play dishonestly to make more money. By the time any backlash is about to clamp down on recent corrupt practices, those that profited, have taken the money and split to other countries. Leaving the new suckers behind to face the music.
Talking more of contaminated baby formula; basically poisoned and dangerously diluted for no other reason that to maximize profit. No shit was given about the worldwide consequences for other Chinese producers of baby milk, or other Chinese industries, and Chinese industry, as a whole, suffered.
If there was a proportionate growth of the Chinese equivalent of the FDA, it could have protected all of the decent industry that were harmed by a few people's greed.
When other unscrupulous businesses saw what the Baby Formula people did, and how much they made and got away with--more companies did likewise--further damaging the reputation of Chinese Industry. Such as the raw chemical suppliers diluting chemical precursors which sickened & killed thousands of patients worldwide that used contaminated Heparin.
People are getting theirs, while the getting is good--fuck everyone else. Capitalism is spreading malignantly in China, unchecked.
What the restaurant people did is just their small scale version of doing whatever they feel like to maximize profits.
The damage done to Chinese industry has caused their government to use capitol punishment when these greedy individuals are eventually caught. They were short-sighted, only trying make money, not damage Chinese reputation, but the Chinese government knows full-well the ramifications and have set a strict example: mess with our reputation, and we will execute you.
Once their version of the FDA and other Gov. regulation-enforcers catch-up, there should be far fewer instances like this.
Should be.