China - Melamine Flashpoint

The mood among Chinese parents whose children were made seriously ill or "murdered" by milk contaminated with melamine has been one of sustained outrage.  If that feeling continues, the tainted infant-formula crisis could be the flash-point in how China regulates industries and addresses personal injury when business drops the ball on product safety.  The question is: Will China adopt policies and a legal system close to those of developed countries?  That could improve the image of its badly damaged Made-in-China brand.  It could also prevent a domestic uprising.

In THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Loretta Chao reports, "Families of children sickened or killed in China's tainted-milk scandal reacted angrily to state media reports that a former top dairy-company executive admitted in court she knew of the problem months before alerting authorities."

As a result, children were exposed to ongoing and unnecessary harm as well as suffering.  For example, because the source of the contamination was not known, one family was still giving that tainted product to its child who was already hospitalized from effects of the melamine.  That scenario would be a horror for any parent but it takes on added significance in a one-child-per-family nation.