In their public statements, local authorities have stressed that Wal-Mart had a record of food-safety and other violations stretching back years. In an interview, Tang Chuan, director of law enforcement at the Bureau of Inspection and Enforcement in Chongqing, said the 21 violations since 2006 were minor, with infractions such as selling substandard lemon candy and expired sesame porridge.
Chongqing authorities fined Wal-Mart 300,000 yuan, or about $47,000, for selling expired duck meat in March. Other infractions include falsely advertised silk blankets, substandard shredded cabbage and substandard honey.
"Past issues were small, involving one or two stores, but this time the problem was different," Mr. Tang said. "It was widespread and highly deceptive."
Wal-Mart spokesman Anthony Rose declined to comment, saying only that the company is cooperating with local authorities.
All 13 of Wal-Mart's Chongqing stores have been closed, while two employees were arrested and 35 were detained at one point by local authorities. Officials alleged this month that the company fraudulently sold ordinary pork as more expensive organic pork. It also faces a 3.65 million yuan ($572,000) fine. The scrutiny has resulted in a big public-relations hit to the company in China.
On Monday, Wal-Mart said its China president and chief executive, Ed Chan, resigned for personal reasons.
The Chongqing municipal government has cited the infractions found by Mr. Tang's bureau as a reason it cracked down on the Bentonville, Ark., retailer, ordering an investigation and the detentions.
Wal-Mart's punishment is considered by many China watchers to be unprecedented, considering the alleged wrongdoings didn't result in the death or physical harm of consumers. It comes as China's consumers grow increasingly worried about food safety amid a spate of food scandals, including a 2008 tainted-milk scandal that led to the deaths of at least six children and caused illnesses in nearly 300,000 others.
[CWALMART]
Chongqing's Public Security Bureau, the equivalent of the local police, is leading continuing investigations. A spokesman for the bureau declined to comment.
Wal-Mart's oversight of store managers has led to problems, Mr. Tang said, noting that eight of the 21 infractions occurred at Wal-Mart's store in Chongqing's Jiulong area. The two employees arrested worked at that location, officials have said.
Mr. Tang said he suspects that Wal-Mart executives were aware of its alleged pork mislabeling before the bureau informed the retailer. "Wal-Mart has a very advanced data-collection system," Mr. Tang said. "There would have to have been a severely large loophole in its management."
BEIJING — A toddler who was run over by vans twice and then ignored by passersby on a busy market street died Friday — a week after the accident and after days of bitter soul-searching over declining morality in China.
Two-year-old Wang Yue died shortly after midnight of brain and organ failure, the Guangzhou Military District General Hospital said.
“Her injuries were too severe and the treatment had no effect,” intensive care unit director Su Lei told reporters.
The plight of the child, nicknamed Yueyue, came to symbolize what many Chinese see as a decay in public morals after heady decades of economic growth and rising prosperity.
Gruesome closed-circuit camera video of last Thursday’s accident, aired on television and posted on the Internet, showed Yueyue toddling along the hardware market street in the southern city of Foshan. A van strikes her, slows and then resumes driving, rolling its back right wheel over the child. As she lays with blood pooling, 18 people walk or cycle by and another van strikes her before a scrap picker scoops her up.
Yueyue’s death touched off another round of hand-wringing about society and personal responsibility. Many comments posted to social media sites said “we are all passersby.”
Li Xiangping, a professor of religion at Huadong University, said on a Twitter-like service that it is too easy to blame others.
“What after all prompted such a sad phenomenon? Officials? The rich? Or is it our own cold-heartedness?” Li said on Sina Corp.’s Weibo.
Police have detained the drivers of both vans on suspicion of causing a traffic accident but have not said what formal charges they would face — and if manslaughter could be the charge now that the girl has died.
The people who could be seen on the video passing by the injured Yueyue have recounted being harassed for ignoring her. The respected Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper quoted a man it identified only as Mr. Chen, a hardware merchant, saying that he had been receiving crank calls ever since someone picked him out as the 16th passerby. He said he hadn’t noticed the child.
Some experts said an unwillingness to help others is an outgrowth of urbanization as migrants pour into cities and create neighborhoods of strangers.
“Rapid urbanization not only affects China or Foshan, but anywhere in the world where you have a lot of high-rise buildings, where there is high population density, then the relationship with the neighbors, and with each other is affected,” said Yao Yue, a psychologist and director of telephone help-line for distressed people in Beijing.
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Chongqing authorities fined Wal-Mart 300,000 yuan, or about $47,000, for selling expired duck meat in March. Other infractions include falsely advertised silk blankets, substandard shredded cabbage and substandard honey.
"Past issues were small, involving one or two stores, but this time the problem was different," Mr. Tang said. "It was widespread and highly deceptive."
Wal-Mart spokesman Anthony Rose declined to comment, saying only that the company is cooperating with local authorities.
All 13 of Wal-Mart's Chongqing stores have been closed, while two employees were arrested and 35 were detained at one point by local authorities. Officials alleged this month that the company fraudulently sold ordinary pork as more expensive organic pork. It also faces a 3.65 million yuan ($572,000) fine. The scrutiny has resulted in a big public-relations hit to the company in China.
On Monday, Wal-Mart said its China president and chief executive, Ed Chan, resigned for personal reasons.
The Chongqing municipal government has cited the infractions found by Mr. Tang's bureau as a reason it cracked down on the Bentonville, Ark., retailer, ordering an investigation and the detentions.
Wal-Mart's punishment is considered by many China watchers to be unprecedented, considering the alleged wrongdoings didn't result in the death or physical harm of consumers. It comes as China's consumers grow increasingly worried about food safety amid a spate of food scandals, including a 2008 tainted-milk scandal that led to the deaths of at least six children and caused illnesses in nearly 300,000 others.
[CWALMART]
Chongqing's Public Security Bureau, the equivalent of the local police, is leading continuing investigations. A spokesman for the bureau declined to comment.
Wal-Mart's oversight of store managers has led to problems, Mr. Tang said, noting that eight of the 21 infractions occurred at Wal-Mart's store in Chongqing's Jiulong area. The two employees arrested worked at that location, officials have said.
Mr. Tang said he suspects that Wal-Mart executives were aware of its alleged pork mislabeling before the bureau informed the retailer. "Wal-Mart has a very advanced data-collection system," Mr. Tang said. "There would have to have been a severely large loophole in its management."
BEIJING — A toddler who was run over by vans twice and then ignored by passersby on a busy market street died Friday — a week after the accident and after days of bitter soul-searching over declining morality in China.
Two-year-old Wang Yue died shortly after midnight of brain and organ failure, the Guangzhou Military District General Hospital said.
“Her injuries were too severe and the treatment had no effect,” intensive care unit director Su Lei told reporters.
The plight of the child, nicknamed Yueyue, came to symbolize what many Chinese see as a decay in public morals after heady decades of economic growth and rising prosperity.
Gruesome closed-circuit camera video of last Thursday’s accident, aired on television and posted on the Internet, showed Yueyue toddling along the hardware market street in the southern city of Foshan. A van strikes her, slows and then resumes driving, rolling its back right wheel over the child. As she lays with blood pooling, 18 people walk or cycle by and another van strikes her before a scrap picker scoops her up.
Yueyue’s death touched off another round of hand-wringing about society and personal responsibility. Many comments posted to social media sites said “we are all passersby.”
Li Xiangping, a professor of religion at Huadong University, said on a Twitter-like service that it is too easy to blame others.
“What after all prompted such a sad phenomenon? Officials? The rich? Or is it our own cold-heartedness?” Li said on Sina Corp.’s Weibo.
Police have detained the drivers of both vans on suspicion of causing a traffic accident but have not said what formal charges they would face — and if manslaughter could be the charge now that the girl has died.
The people who could be seen on the video passing by the injured Yueyue have recounted being harassed for ignoring her. The respected Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper quoted a man it identified only as Mr. Chen, a hardware merchant, saying that he had been receiving crank calls ever since someone picked him out as the 16th passerby. He said he hadn’t noticed the child.
Some experts said an unwillingness to help others is an outgrowth of urbanization as migrants pour into cities and create neighborhoods of strangers.
“Rapid urbanization not only affects China or Foshan, but anywhere in the world where you have a lot of high-rise buildings, where there is high population density, then the relationship with the neighbors, and with each other is affected,” said Yao Yue, a psychologist and director of telephone help-line for distressed people in Beijing.
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