The tainted milk scandal grows

When I first wrote about how the Chinese tainted milk scandal seemed to be growing, I had no reason to suspect it would expand to brands and products I’ve been known to eat from time to time. But there it is, in this morning’s WSJ:

Hong Kong authorities also said they found tainted Pocky Men’s* coffee-cream-coated biscuit sticks made by Ezaki Glico Co. of Japan . . .

To paraphrase Deng Xiaoping, black cat, white cat, who cares if it’s got kidney stones?

But there’s more to this scandal than the ubiquitousness of inadequately regulated Chinese products on global store shelves. The Journal piece actually leads with a story about the parents of a sick one-year-old, who are filing a lawsuit against one of the manufacturers. This is seen as a de facto challenge to state policy, which has sought to keep cases like these out of the courts (where the deck is often stacked against plaintiffs and in favor of business interests anyway).

Now, I’m about the furthest thing from a China expert one could find, but I get the sense that the powers-that-be in China understand the contradiction this presents to running a “harmonious society.” Several months ago, a group of students from one of Beijing’s elite international relations universities kind of shocked me by volunteering the opinion that the legal system is in need of substantial reform. In fact, they expressed admiration for Taiwan’s legal system—a system in which the highest elected officials in the land can face serious scrutiny, and possibly jail time, for wrongdoing.

Whether they can manage this kind of reform without upsetting either their sky-high growth rates or the current social equilibrium is anyone’s guess. It will make the decades ahead much more interesting, at any rate.

*If you’re wondering what it is, exactly, that makes it a “Men’s” Pocky, it’s apparently because the Japanese manufacturers consider dark chocolate to be too bitter for women’s delicate taste buds.