China's former drug and food safety watchdog chief was executed on Tuesday 
after being found guilty of corruption and dereliction of duty, Xinhua news 
agency said. 
 
 
   Zheng Xiaoyu (centre), head of China's State Food and 
 Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005, reacts to his 
 death sentence at the Supreme People's Court in Beijing. 
 
   | 
The Supreme People's Court approved the death sentence against Zheng Xiaoyu, 
62, who was convicted of taking bribes worth some 6.5 million yuan ($850,000) 
from eight companies. 
Zheng, head of the State Food and Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005, was 
sentenced on May 29 and his appeal was heard last month. 
Zheng's execution marks the first time China has imposed a death sentence on 
an official of his rank since 2000. 
The harsh sentence reflected Beijing's resolve to wipe 
out corruption and to ensure consumer safety. 
"Zheng Xiaoyu's grave irresponsibility in pharmaceutical safety inspection 
and failure to conscientiously carry out his duties seriously damaged the 
interests of the state and people," Xinhua cited the high court as stating. 
"The social impact has been utterly malign," the court said, adding that 
Zheng's confession and handing over of bribes were not enough to justify mercy. 
Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman for the State Food and Drug Administration, 
said the case had bought only shame to the watchdog. "This kind of serious case 
of law breaking by a small minority of corrupt elements, as far as the entire 
system is concerned, really made us feel ashamed," she said. 
"But these 
cases revealed several problems, and I think we need to seriously reflect on 
what lessons we can draw." 
"We should seriously reflect 
and learn lessons from these cases. We should step up our efforts to ensure food 
and drug safety, which is what we are doing now and what we will do in the 
future," Yan said about Zheng and a separate case involving Cao Wenzhuang, the 
administration's former pharmaceutical registration department director. 
Yan said the food and drug administration was working to tighten its safety 
procedures and create a more transparent operating environment. But the 
administration acknowledged that its supervision of food and drug safety is 
unsatisfactory and that it has been slow to tackle the problem, but vowed to 
improve. 
"As a developing country, China's current food and drug safety situation is 
not very satisfactory because supervision of food and drug safety started late. 
Its foundation is weak so the supervision of food and drug safety is not easy," 
it said in a statement at the start of the news conference. 
China has been under pressure domestically and internationally to improve its 
quality controls after a series of health scares attributed to substandard 
Chinese products, including exported tainted food and fake drugs.
Zheng was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve an 
antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths and other substandard medicines. Cao 
was given a death sentence last month with a two-year reprieve for accepting 
bribes and dereliction of duty. 
Such suspended death sentences usually are commuted to life in prison if the 
convict is deemed to have reformed. 
Zheng's death sentence was unusually heavy even for China, and likely 
indicates the leadership's determination to confront the country's dire product 
safety record. 
Under 
rules introduced at the start of this year, the supreme court also reviews and 
can quash death sentences, a power previously in the hands of provincial-level 
high courts. This time the supreme court spent little time endorsing the 
execution. 
The unusually harsh sentence and its prompt enforcement 
reflect the resolve of Beijing to fight against corruption and 
ensure consumer.
 
Investigators found Zheng and his 
subordinates abused new rules in renewing drug production licences to squeeze 
kickbacks from companies. 
His misdeeds led to approval of many medicines 
that should have been blocked or taken from the market, including six fake 
drugs," Xinhua cited the court as saying. 
Last week, a court handed down 
a suspended death sentence on one of Zheng's subordinates on the same charges. 
Another senior administration official was jailed for 15 years in November for 
taking bribes and illegal gun possession. 
"The nest of corruption in the 
SFDA has done incalculable harm to the state and people," the Procuratorial 
Daily said.