Officials Responsible for Fraud & Contamination

Tian Wenhua, who had led the Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group, as a deputy to the Hebei Provincial People's Congress

Ji Chuntang was removed from his post as vice secretary of the Shijiazhuang Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). He will also be dismissed as Shijiazhuang mayor according to legal procedures

Four city officials were fired. They included Zhang Fawang, vice mayor in charge of agricultural production; Sun Renhu, the Animal Husbandry and Fishery Bureau director of Shijiazhuang; Zhang Yi, Food and Drug Administration director; and Li Zhiguo, director of the Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision.

Li Changjiang, 64, director of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine resigned. Li had held the post since April 2001. He was replaced by Wang Yong, 53, who left his post of deputy secretary-general of the State Council.

Wu Xianguo, 52, was dismissed as secretary of the Shijiazhuang Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei in north China, is where the Sanlu Dairy Group based and the tainted milk scandal erupted.

To date, 18 suspects in Shijiazhuang have been formally arrested. Six were charged with selling melamine, while 12 others were dealers suspected of selling contaminated milk to Sanlu.

Two villagers were charged with selling the chemical melamine and adding it to milk sold to Sanlu, local police spokesman Shi Guizhong told reporters on Wednesday. The two men arrested were identified as a 52-year-old resident surnamed Hu from Yangjiazhai Village, Beizheng Township in Shijiazhuang's Yuanshi County, and a 58-year-old surnamed Bian from Chengdongqiaoxi Village, Dahe Township in Shijiazhuang's Luquan City, Shi said. Hu, who owns a dairy farm in his village, confessed he sold 80 kg of melamine to a manager surnamed Zhao at a cattle company in Dahe Township in April. Both had sold milk to Sanlu, therefore, they got to know each other, Shi said, adding Zhao had been arrested. Bian, a veterinarian and a deputy factory director of Zhao's company, confessed Zhao told him to add the chemical to milk sold to Sanlu. Police also arrested a 41-year-old surnamed Su, an owner of a private food additive shop in Luancheng County in Shijiazhuang, accusing him of selling melamine to Hu and other milk dealers, Shi said. Among the arrested, two others were brothers surnamed Geng in Shijiazhuang's Zhengding County. They told police they had been selling 3 tons of contaminated milk daily since the end of last year.

The elder Geng said they added the chemical to the milk to make it appear to contain more protein. He added they had suffered losses after their milk had been rejected several times by Sanlu Group for failing to meet quality standards.

Fonterra may lose its Sanlu holding Fonterra's disastrous joint venture in China, Sanlu, may be sold from under it to a Chinese rival, Beijing Sanyuan Food Co, according to media reports in Beijing. Sanlu group may be forced into bankruptcy and taken over by Sanyuan. (Press Compay, New Zealand, 09/27/2008)