Chinese officials announce mass arrests over food safety scandals

China’s Food Safety Commission said that it has arrested over 2,000 people and closed 5,000 businesses during a four-month long campaign to combat the country’s recent food contamination problems, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing state media. Officials claim to have inspected some six million businesses in the food production industry since April. The recent investigations have been prompted by a series of food-safety incidents, including the arrest last month of a man who allegedly facilitated the spread of the chemical clenbuterol in pork. Chinese authorities occasionally use mass arrests as a means to publicly intimidate violators, but analysts say that the fragmentation of the country’s food industry, lack of consistent enforcement and pressure on margins caused by inflation all continue to encourage producers to cut corners on safety.