Death for greed

Zheng Xiaoyu, director of China's State Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005 has been executed today in Beijing. He accepted 6.5 million yuan in bribes from pharmaceutical companies to be granted drug licenses. In his defense, Zheng said he only made a “mistake” by accepting the money. The bottom line is, in his greed to get rich, he granted licenses for the sale of fake drugs which led to the death of several people. Can there be anything more despicable than playing with the health of the people to increase your own wealth? (The Independent: Disgraced Chinese food regulator is executed)

Zheng deserved not one, but multiple death penalties. One serious question is how he could have kept up his corrupt practices at the head of an important administration without being denounced. Certainly somebody higher up in the Ministry of Health should also have been punished. What about all his collaborators who knew about the corruption and possibly profited themselves? Only a few have been convicted, many more escaped punishment. And finally, all those bosses of pharmaceutical companies who offered Zheng bribes? We haven't heard of any executions of those criminals.

Ultimately, where's the guarantee that Zheng's successor's hands will remain clean? The bottom line is the corrupt ideology promoted by Deng Xiaoping that “to get rich is glorious”. Those who are getting rich are doing so at the expense of the poor and the environment. The only thing which is glorious is to serve the people. Yes to achieve socialism and communism, the productive forces have to be developed to the fullest extent. But that does not mean letting a small bunch of wheeler-dealers get rich by oppressing and exploiting the people. There is a word for this kind of social system: it's called capitalism.