A number of of new-born babies have died from being fed fake and shoddy milk powder in Fuyang county in East China's Anhui Province (and in other cities).

The babies died from long-term nutrient-deficiency caused by the fake milk powders. For infant milk powder, the state-regulated standard portion of protein is 18g per 100g. A quality inspection report of the deadly milk powder read: each 100g of the milk powder contained only 1g of protein. And this is what was being fed to the new-born babies. The mothers might just as well have been feeding their babies tap water but the parents had the false belief that their babies were getting what they needed to be healthy.

Most of the dead infants were the babies of farmers who were not well acquainted with brand products and who wanted to settle for some plain products to save money.

So they saved money but they lost their children. Had they known they would never have bought the "milk powder".

The makers of the fake milk powders would certainly never feed their product to their own babies. They would use the money they obtained from selling the deadly milk powder to buy nutritious milk powder for their babies.

Murder, by definition, means the willful killing of people, with malice aforethought. What could this crime be other than murder? This is murder, outright murder. And how is this different from murder for property or robbery or kidnapping?

But there is some difference - these "murders" should have been more preventable than these other types of murder. If any link in the supply chain could have been tightened, if all those involved in the issuing of business licenses, or public health qualification certificates, or quality inspection certificates, had not been reduced to no more than fiction, the "milk powder murders" would not have taken place so easily.

It is the confession of some officials from the administrative authorities in Fuyang county that they were quite helpless to act before the influx of the fake milk powder into the city's market from other cities that allowed the phoney powder enterprises to operate. "Some officials are more concerned about the taxes those enterprises will pay than what they manufacture."

So it seems that the officials obtained their salaries solely from those enterprises rather than from the taxes paid by the people, including the taxes paid by the parents of the dead babies.

Who could have failed to see that there were no manufacturer's name or address or ingredients or shelf-life on the packages of the phoney milk powder?

Every reasonable person with normal eyesight could not have failed to do that. But the distributors were solely concerned about the profits. The officials were solely concerned about the taxes. If it is murder, they are all accomplices.

And I have heard that sometimes officials would alert those sellers to the timing of proposed inspections. To cope with such social evils, people spend money on more expensive products.

Isn't it fair to ask that policemen, administrative officials, judges and various government officials should be more responsible, responsive and efficient in discharging their duties for the benefit of the people. Isn't it fair to ask that they should ensure that the consumers should be free from terror when they shop.

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