{"id":1094795,"date":"2023-06-20T01:03:17","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T01:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/rat-duck-probe-06192023210302.html"},"modified":"2023-06-20T01:03:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T01:03:17","slug":"chinese-investigators-admit-to-smelling-a-rat-in-college-canteen-food-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/06\/20\/chinese-investigators-admit-to-smelling-a-rat-in-college-canteen-food-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese investigators admit to smelling a rat in college canteen food scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Officials in eastern China have revoked the license of a Nanchang university canteen after admitting that a sodden, toothed and bewhiskered lump found in a student's food was a rat's head after all, following an earlier claim by the school that it was part of a duck.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A provincial level inquiry into the grisly object found by a student at the Jiangxi Industry Polytechnic College in the provincial capital upturned the school's claim, which it had backed up with a written \u201cstatement\" from the student involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Food quality has long been a bone of contention for students at Chinese vocational colleges, with the viral video clip of the incident prompting <\/span>widespread public disgust and ridicule<\/span><\/a> on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The task force reviewed the video clip, interviewed staff and looked at a list of supplies recently ordered by the canteen, the English-language <\/span>China Daily<\/span><\/i> newspaper reported, citing a June 17 statement from investigators.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It found that the college and local market supervision officials \"did not conduct an investigation carefully,\" and had reached the wrong conclusion, the paper said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The college canteen's food license has been revoked and the company that operates the canteen has been given the maximum penalty under food safety laws and regulations, it said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It will also be handing down \"strict punishments\" to college management and officials at the local Changdong market supervision bureau, the report said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Duck or Rat?<\/b><\/p>\n

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Changdong market supervision officials had earlier said that the sodden lump \u2013 which appears in the video to have eyes and rodent-like teeth \u2013 was in fact part of a \"duck's neck\" \u2013 a common ingredient in soups.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nanchang market supervision bureau official Jiang Xiexue told state-run Jiangxi Radio and TV that \"local law enforcement officials had arrived at the scene and confirmed the strange item as a duck neck after repeated comparison.\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ENG_CHN_DuckratProbe_06192023.2.jpeg\"\n
Beijing-based current affairs commentator Ji Feng says investigations such as the one into the canteen focus on finding scapegoats among lower-ranking officials. Credit: @jhf8964 Twitter<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

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Beijing-based current affairs commentator Ji Feng said the move was clearly a bid to calm public anger over the incident.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"This is similar to what I predicted -- but they are still evading the issue, claiming that the [ruling Chinese Communist Party] is great, and glorious and correct,\" Ji said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"The credibility of the government just keeps on getting worse,\" he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ji said it is typical of investigations like this one to focus on finding scapegoats among lower-ranking officials, rather than systemic issues that allow such scandals to emerge in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"The thing people really care about is the vested interests that are shared by the school leadership and the local industrial and commercial bureau,\" he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"When someone makes a big mistake, the authorities always punish a bunch of low-ranking officials,\" Ji said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Food safety deteriorating?<\/b><\/p>\n

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Current affairs commentator Wang Zheng said there are systemic issues in the outsourcing of canteen contracts to big companies, in which local industrial affairs officials often hold a stake.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"This phenomenon has had a huge impact on food safety in China,\" Wang said. \"If anything, food safety has gotten worse over the past few years, not better.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, reports emerged in Chinese media that two rats were found at a canteen on the Pingdingshan Expressway, which has been shut down pending \"rectification.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

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And investigators in Jiangxi's Jiujiang city found that a kindergarten staff member had washed up childrens' lunchboxes in a urinal, after a tipoff from a parent.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Local officials have now launched a \"food safety awareness\" campaign, the <\/span>Global Times<\/span><\/i> said, while <\/span>The Paper<\/span><\/i> reported on a food safety awareness event at the Jiangxi University of Engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Translated by Luisetta Mudie<\/b>. Edited by Malcolm Foster.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n \n \n


\r\nThis content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia<\/a> and was authored by By Gu Ting for RFA Mandarin.
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This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A provincial-level probe shuts down canteen, vows to punish college, local officials for ‘wrong conclusion’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27730,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42628,2242,63096,43029,4872,401,42620,43680,785,27149,41241,4042,63097,27150],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27730"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094796,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094795\/revisions\/1094796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}