In the previous post Houston, We Have a Problem! the author asked two simple questions:
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Is the Foreign Ministry in Japan a foreign interest entity?
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What about the welfare of Japanese people?
First Poisonous Gyoza, then Leaky Nuke Sub. What next?
Here’s the answer:
China behind ‘gyoza’ cover-up
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN – August 9, 2008
At Beijing’s request, the Fukuda administration withheld public disclosure of a poisoning outbreak in China involving frozen “gyoza” dumplings, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said.
“There’s nothing wrong with what we did,” Komura declared Thursday in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun and other media.
China’s Foreign Ministry informed the Japanese Embassy in Beijing in early July that several Chinese people fell ill in June after eating pesticide-tainted gyoza made by Tianyang Food, according to Komura.
The products had been recalled after Japanese consumers became sick from eating imported Tianyang Food gyoza products last December and in January.
Japanese media only learned this week about the incident in China.
According to Komura, Beijing asked Tokyo not to disclose the matter on grounds an investigation was under way and that revealing the information would hinder it. Chinese officials promised to provide more details as the investigation progressed.
In Japan, the information was shared only among officials at the prime minister’s office, the National Police Agency and the Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told reporters Thursday that he was informed of the poisoning case in China around the time of the July 7-9 Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido.
Fukuda met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the G-8 summit, and Komura held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Singapore in late July.
Komura said the officials discussed, with the new information in mind, speeding up collaborative police investigation efforts.
Yukio Hatoyama, secretary-general of the main opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), criticized the government’s handling of the problem.
“Shouldn’t the government have insisted on disclosing the fact, even if China asked it to cover it up?” he asked at a news conference Thursday.
“The government is so weak-kneed, and from the way it has handled the situation, we can’t call it a government that shares the mind-set of consumers.” (IHT/Asahi: August 9,2008 )
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