Yesterday, a Chinese court rejected a class-action lawsuit filed by dozens of families whose children were victims of China’s tainted milk scandal. The 63 defendants, including the parents of two babies who died, were seeking $2 million in compensation from the state-owned dairy producer Sanlu Group. Official statistics state that six babies have died and nearly 300,000 became sick with kidney stones and urinary problems after drinking infant formula contaminated with melamine, a chemical used to make plastics. There are suspicions that more children died but were buried before anyone thought to test for melamine poisoning.
The six defense lawyers representing the lawsuit were told the case could not be tried because government departments were still investigating the scandal. A dozen other individual cases have been filed against Sanlu since September, but have also been rejected by the courts due to their sensitivity. The lawyers have been pressured to drop their pro-bono work on behalf of the victims’ families. He Weifang, a former law professor at Beijing University, comments: “This is a very serious problem. The courts should have accepted the case according to the law, and not make their decisions based on instructions from authorities or based on [official] documents. If even the courts are not abiding by the law, how can the people trust the law?”
There has been no mention of compensation for the sick babies beyond an offer of free medical care, but the Chinese government announced today that it will launch a four-month nationwide campaign to ensure food safety and prevent future scandals.
Consumers abroad remain wary of ‘Made in China’ products, and melamine problems continue to spread. Last month, eggs sold in Hong Kong and several Chinese cities were found to contain high concentrations of the chemical, and traces were also found in U.S. manufactured infant formula but later declared safe by the Food and Drug Administration.
WIDE ANGLE’s 2007 film about the reform of China’s legal system, The People’s Court, profiled a human rights lawyer and revealed the lengths to which Chinese people must go to obtain justice.
