Director of China's food safety dies in suspected suicide

Aug 13, 2008, 10:11 GMT

Beijing - A director of food safety in China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine died mysteriously in what authorities suspect was a suicide, a magazine reported Wednesday.

Wu Jianping, director of the administration's food production inspection and management division, died on August 2, one day after he was visited by Beijing city prosecutors, a report on Caijing Magazine's website said.

The 42-year-old Wu served in his post since the division was set up in 2005 to cope with the numerous problems arising from China's then loosely monitored food industry.

Food poisoning is common in China and food safety was one of the concerns of athletes and others attending the 2008 Olympic Games currently being held in Beijing, although so far there have been no reported problems.

Prosecutors were investigating possible corruption involving Wu, who came under suspicion by owning several pieces of property in Beijing as well as having several million yuan (hundreds of thousands of dollars) in savings, the report said.

Wu had the authority to issue permits to food producers. The permits became increasingly important as China tried to strengthen management of the industry, especially after coming under criticism from other countries for the quality of its exports of food and other products.

Less than one-fourth of the 450,000 food producers in China have a permit to produce or process food, according to the report.

A spokeswoman at the administration refused to confirm whether the report is true.

The report cited knowledgeable sources saying Wu did not go home to sleep on the day he was questioned by investigators from the prosecutors' office and that he had jumped to his death.

It was unclear whether he was under surveillance by inspectors at the time, the report said.

The magazine quoted the administration's director, Li Changjiang, calling for more oversight in the process of issuing permits.

'One person definitely should not be allowed to decide everything,' he said.