China milk scandal firm asked for cover-up help

China held back crucial information for the Olympics

BEIJING: A Chinese company at the centre of the scare over tainted milk powder had asked for government help to cover up the extent of the problem, state media said on Wednesday in the newest development in the widening scandal.

In the Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily, Shijiazhuang city government spokesman Wang Jianguo said they had been asked by the Sanlu Group for help in “managing” the media response to the case when first told of the issue on August 2, six days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

China’s latest food safety problem, involving the addition of the industrial chemical melamine to milk to cheat in quality tests, has caused public outrage and put the spotlight back on deficiencies in industry oversight and weak regulatory bodies.

China has already said the city government in Shijiazhuang, home to the Sanlu Group whose contaminated milk sparked a recall now spread worldwide, sat on a report from the company about the tainting for more than a month, while Beijing hosted the Olympic Games.

“Please can the government increase control and coordination of the media, to create a good environment for the recall of the company’s problem products,” the People’s Daily cited the letter from Sanlu as saying. “This is to avoid whipping up the issue and creating a negative influence in society,” it added.

This week, Reporters Without Borders said Beijing had ordered news of the scandal hushed up ahead of the Olympics.

Meanwhile, 31 new milk powder brands have been found tainted.