China executes top food-and-drug official for corruption

[Neil D]

Wow! an official goverment person executed. Wonder what bribes he took for what projects that were approved under his administration....?

Jul 10, 2007, 9:11 GMT

Beijing - China on Tuesday executed Zheng Xiaoyu, the former director of its State Food and Drug Administration, six weeks after convicting him of corruption.

Zheng was executed Tuesday morning following the approval by the Supreme People's Court of the death sentence passed against him on May 29, the government's official Xinhua news agency said.

The agency gave no details of the execution, which came amid a growing list of scandals involving fake or poor quality food and drug products in China.

Zheng, 63, was convicted by a Beijing court of 'taking bribes and dereliction of duty' on charges of illegally taking cash and gifts worth more than 6.49 million yuan (850,000 dollars).

Earlier reports said he had accepted about 5 million yuan (651,000 dollars) in bribes from pharmaceutical firms to certify new and only partially tested medicines.

At least 10 people died as a result of the use of improperly tested drugs, state media reported.

Zheng appealed the death sentence, arguing that it was too severe and that he had given evidence that implicated other officials, the agency said.

But the Beijing Higher People's Court upheld the original sentence on June 12 and then asked the Supreme People's Court to ratify the sentence.

The agency quoted the Supreme People's Court as saying the judgments by the two lower courts were 'authentic' and that 'the evidence was complete and the death sentence was appropriate.

'Zheng's dereliction of duty has undermined the efficiency of China's drug monitoring and supervision, endangered public life and health and has had a very negative social impact,' the court said.

A spokeswoman for the food and drug administration on Tuesday said corrupt officials like Zheng had brought shame to the organization.

'We should seriously reflect and learn lessons from these cases,' spokeswoman Yan Jiangying told reporters.

'We should fully protect people's food and drug safety,' Yan said, adding that a planned new regulation of the registration of drugs would ensure the transparency of the drug-approval procedure.

Zheng, who was also accused of 'leading a dissolute life,' led the State Food and Drug Administration from its establishment in 1998 until his dismissal in 2005.

More than 30 others are implicated in the scandal, including several more high-ranking officials and Zheng's wife and son.

The former head of the drug-registration department under Zheng, Cao Wenzhuang, received a suspended death sentence for corruption last week. Such sentences are normally commuted to life imprisonment after two years.

Government legal experts said Zheng's death sentence would have a 'strong warning effect' and reflected the ruling Communist Party's determination to fight corruption, especially among top officials.

China executes more people annually than the rest of the world put together, but the exact number remains a state secret.

Most of those executed in China are convicted of crimes such as murder, rape and robbery, and many people are also executed for economic and other non-violent crimes.

Most of the hundreds of executions annually in China are still carried out by firing squad, but lethal injection is also used.

[John317]

If China your kind o' country?

[Nan]

Wonderful to visit... but not the kind of regime under which I would want to live.

[John317]

Wonderful to visit... but not the kind of regime under which I would want to live.

I may fly over next year for a week or so. Is it easy to make contact with Chinese SDAs and does the government there allow you to talk freely with them or meet for Bible study? I would love to spend time with SDAs there and see how they live and worship.

[Amelia]

Read this article

» 07/11/2007 12:50

CHINA

Beijing expels 100 Christian missionaries in three months in secret campaign

The government wants to throw out anyone undertaking missionary activities in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympic Games. Teachers of English and humanitarian workers from the United States, Canada and other countries, who had been there for more than 15 years, have been deported. It is the most extensive operation since 1954.

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9791&size=A

or

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2007/07/china_expells_1.html

[John317]

Thank you for the link to those articles. I also saw where Christians are in jail and are tortured and die in Vietnam. That's important to know. I was wondering about religious freedom, or the lack thereof, in those communist countries. Most people don't realize it but there is no way a true communist can be anything but a militant atheist, since communism is based philosophically on dialectical materialism. So of course it can't ever acknowledge the existence of anything superior to the communist party or state. Certainly not the individual and certainly not God.

[Neil D]

If China your kind o' country?

Not mine....However, if the principles of China were applied to our current government for it's incompetency, they well may be shot.

[Neil D]

True, but at least it would remove the imcompetant.....

Oh well, it's a policy that I would never endorse anyways...

[bevin]

Quote:

but there is no way a true communist can be anything but a militant atheist, since communism is based philosophically on dialectical materialism

which is no more anti-God than capitalism is

Can you be a true capitalist without being an atheist?

/Bevin

[John317]

Quote:

John3:17--- but there is no way a true communist can be anything but a militant atheist, since communism is based philosophically on dialectical materialism

Quote:

which is no more anti-God than capitalism is

Can you be a true capitalist without being an atheist?

/Bevin

Of course, he can.

Capitalism is an economic system which does not make any necessary philosophic assumptions beyond economic ones. One can be a capitalist and have all kinds of beliefs. It is like democracy or republicanism in that way. On the other hand, classical communism, or Marxism-Leninism, etc., are philosphical systems that have a particular view of religions and of God. They are based philosophically on dialetical materialism. That is why Leon Trotsky could say, "I am a dialectical materialist and therefore an atheist."

If you don't believe this, write to a communist or leftist newspaper, such as The Militant, and ask the editors if one can be a dialectical materialist or a communist and believe in the God of the Bible or in a creator God of the universe.

This has something to do with the reason that communist parties are never very friendly toward believers in God. It also is one reason you should hope that the communist party, or Socialist Workers Party (Trotskiest), never takes over here in the United States.

As a member of the Young Socialist Alliance, I was at a debate in 1972 between pro-lifers and "pro-choicers." The presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party was there, and I asked her what she would do in regards to religious freedom in this country if she were to win the election. She told me that at first they would take no action at all, but eventually they would work toward the suppression and elimination of religious freedom.

Was I shocked? Of course not. There could be no other answer consistent with their philosophy. (Leon Trostky himself founded the party in the United States.)

Study Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao on religion. There's kind of a pattern here, Bevin. You might also check out the countries that are communist: China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam. See a lot of religious freedom there? Also remember the USSR and East Germany, Romania, etc. Does anyone think it is just coincidence that these communist or hard-line socialist countries oppose Christianity?

On the other hand, read things written by those who advocate capitalism. You don't find them talking against religion or even against atheism or atheists. What you believe in terms of religion as a capitalist is really irrelevent.

Capitalism allows for more freedom because of its very nature. That is one of the main reason the West is interested in seeing China adopt more and more capitalism. Free enterprise= more freedom of thought and expression and religion. Free enterprise is friendly toward the individual. Communism prefers the power go to the state and cannot really allow anyone to gain its rights from any power above or superior to the state. Why? Because it does not recognize God's existence nor that the rights of people come from God. The communist state believes that it gives you the rights and therefore it can take those rights away. It does not believe that power belongs to the people or the individual. Power is everything and it belongs to the party.

[bevin]

You need to distinquish between

(a) communism, and the actual forms of government that it worked out as in the USSR etc.

( these government's attitudes towards organized religion and their attitudes towards personal belief.

Organized Christianity in these Russia, was a tool of the Czars and used to control and oppress the peasants. It actively opposed rather than supported the government, not because it left a lot of room for improvement (it did) but because the Church wanted the power back that it had under the Czars

Why on Earth would the Chinese want to let that money-grubber, the Western European Pope, have control over a church in China?

/Bevin

[John317]

You need to distinquish between

(a) communism, and the actual forms of government that it worked out as in the USSR etc.

The theory of communism and the actual form it took in the USSR was in complete harmony with each other as far as its view and treatment of religion is concerned. In other words, what the governments of USSR and eastern Europe did in relationship to religious faith proceeded out of an underlying and necessary philosophy of Marxism vis-a-vis religion. Its hatred of religious faith and its persecution of religious people did not arise out of the blue or because of a particular situation but its origin lies in the very nature of communist doctrine and theory. That theory is explained in the writings and speeches of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Tito, Mao, Gramsci, Che Guavera, Fidel Castro, etc.

Quote:

( these government's attitudes towards organized religion and their attitudes towards personal belief.

What shows this to be wrong is that those governments had the same attitudes towards all religious faith, unorganized as well as organized. If you went out on the street to preach any religious faith at all, whether it was connected with an organized religion or not, you could anticipate being arrested or otherwise harrassed and persecuted. If you were a member of any religious faith at all-- or if you simply declared that you believed in God or in the Bible-- you would be persecuted. You could have your children taken from you, you could lose your job or be demoted, and you most certainly would not be given the opportunities of education or work that others, who made no claim to believe in God, could count on.

In the USSR, it was often manditory to attend classes that indoctinated people in communist theory, and, interestingly, this typically included classes on atheism. This has been the case also in Cuba. Under capitalism, people are not forced to attend classes where they are taught to believe in God. If you are a member of a church and in a school belonging to that church, you may find it manditory to attend classes where the existence of God is taught, but I think you will agree that is totally different from a government or political party requiring it of all the people. It is another piece of evidence showing the relationship that exists between communist theory and atheism.

Again, it is important to realize why the governments under the USSR sphere of influence had this attitude towards religious faith. It was not because of something the religious people were doing wrong. It was due to the very nature of communism. As I said earlier: "Classical communism, or Marxism-Leninism, etc., are philosphical systems that have a particular view of religions and of God. They are based philosophically on dialetical materialism..." The dialectic explains everything on the basis of physical and socio-economic laws. It leaves no room for God or for rights that come from God. Therefore only rights it can acknowledge and accept are those that come from the communist state or the party. It will allow religious faith to exist and function only so far as it is deemed by the party to be beneficial or at least not harmful to the state. Communism cannot really allow anyone to gain his rights from any power above or superior to the state. Why? Because it does not recognize God's existence nor that the rights of people come from God. The communist state believes that it gives you the rights and therefore it can take those rights away. It does not believe that power belongs to the people or the individual. All real power belongs only to the party.

Quote:

Organized Christianity in these Russia, was a tool of the Czars and used to control and oppress the peasants. It actively opposed rather than supported the government, not because it left a lot of room for improvement (it did) but because the Church wanted the power back that it had under the Czars

I agree that the Russian Orthodox was used by the Czar to control and oppress. But you will notice that when the communists came to power in Russia, they were not only oppposed to the Russina Orthodox Church but eventually against all religious faiths, including SDAs. Stalin changed this for a while during WW II in order to use the churches in his war against Hitler, but as soon as the war was over, Stalin went back to persecuting the all the churches.

The reason it persecuted all religious faiths, private as well as organized, Russian Orthodox as well as Baptist, SDA, and Jehovah's Witness, is due, as I said before, to the very nature of communist doctrine and theory. If you study these doctrines and theories in depth you will see what I mean. It is no coincidence that wherever communism has ruled, you have hostility and persecution against religious faith of all kinds. It is still happening in China, Vietnam, and North Korea. Why? Is it unrelated to the fact that these are countries with "communist" governments?

In the USSR, the constitution guaranteed religious freedom, but that was only on paper. The constitution allowed freedom of thought, but the reality was that the moment anyone expressed it or tried to convince others to believe, they were persecuted. What good is religious freedom if you are prohibited from practicing it as your conscience tells you?

Quote:

Why on Earth would the Chinese want to let that money-grubber, the Western European Pope, have control over a church in China?/Bevin

I don't believe the Chinese communist party has a right to dictate who is going to be the leaders of the churches in China. And the fact that it does not like the Pope does not give it a right to keep the Pope from "controlling" the Catholic church in China. After all, if the Chinese government can keep the Pope from "controlling" the Catholic churches, it can also prevent the SDA church from "controlling" the SDA churches in China. In fact, that is exactly what the Chinese communist party does do. Therefore, it is clear that the attitute of the Chinese communist party and government's attitude toward religious faith is not due to the so-called evils of organized religion but is due to its desire to control all religions. And this, as I said before, is because of the very nature of communist belief and theory. It is militantly atheistic, and is atheistic everywhere it rules.

I don't know of a single communist leader or spokeman or theorist who who was/is not an atheist. I certainly don't know any who were/practicing Christians. The reason for this is that there is a direct correlation or relationship between communism and atheism.

Capitalists, by contrast, are both atheists and religious. This is evidence that no direct correlation exists between one's religious or non-religious belief and one's practice of capitalism.

[bevin]

Quote:

it can also prevent the SDA church from "controlling" the SDA churches in China.

Unlike the RC organisation, the SDA church's official organization is one where the power flows UP from the congregation instead of DOWN from the GC.

The GC does NOT control the local SDA churches. The SDA church makes no attempt to control its churches in China, hence there is nothing for the Chinese to prevent.

/Bevin

[John317]

Quote:

it can also prevent the SDA church from "controlling" the SDA churches in China.

Unlike the RC organisation, the SDA church's official organization is one where the power flows UP from the congregation instead of DOWN from the GC.

The GC does NOT control the local SDA churches. The SDA church makes no attempt to control its churches in China, hence there is nothing for the Chinese to prevent.

/Bevin

I agree that there is nothing the SDAs in China are trying to do that the Chinese communists have a good reason to prevent. Yet they do attempt to control all religions and all Christian churches, including the SDA church.

For instance, SDAs in China are not free to study the Bible with, and evangelize, whomever and wherever they want. The SDA church leadership is still under the control of the communist state. They are accepted as leaders in the church only after being Ok'd by the communist party.

Do you know if American leaders are free to travel there and preach to the various Chinese SDAs and collect tithes for the other SDA churches and projects throughout the world?

There are SDAs in Vietnamese prisons for no other reason than the fact that they are SDAs. One SDA just recently died in prison there. SDAs in Cuba are not free to preach and evangelize whenever and wherever they want, either, and neither are they free to do these things in North Korea.