A commentary in People’s Daily on Sunday said the case exposed the failure of local cadres to face problems, their ignorance of the rule of law, and lack of awareness about the power of the internet.
“Failure to face up to problems will only trigger bigger problems … the more the truth is concealed, the greater the crisis of confidence will happen,” the commentary said.
“[This incident] shows some grass-roots cadres not only have a minimum awareness of the rule of law but also lack understanding [of the influence of] the internet and public opinion.”
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Student claims mouse head in canteen dish, but college said is duck neck
Student claims mouse head in canteen dish, but college said is duck neck
The reprimand came after a student at Jiangxi Industry Polytechnic College in Nanchang posted a video of “an object with teeth, eyes and nose” in his rice dish at a college cafeteria on June 1.
The college repeatedly denied the dish had vermin and posted a notice from the Gaoxin District Market Supervisory Bureau declaring the material to be “duck neck”.
Another video posted online showed a Nanchang inspector agreeing with the duck neck conclusion.
The issue reignited public concerns about food safety, with internet users calling for an investigation of the “cover-up”.
“Normal people can tell easily from the picture what it is,” one commenter said.
Another said: “An investigation has to be done to reveal who is behind it.”
Provincial inspectors then weighed in, concluding that the initial assessment of duck neck was “wrong”, People’s Daily reported.
“Based on the pictures and video footage taken by the student who found the ‘foreign object’, the country’s leading animal experts ruled it is the head of a rodent,” the report said.
The report said canteen staff had thrown away the suspicious object so the provincial inspectors’ conclusion was based on a field study, surveillance footage and interviews with witnesses, including canteen staff and students.
The food business licence of the canteen owner was revoked and the maximum penalty imposed, the report said without detailing the punishment.
The college has since removed the Gaoxin bureau’s assessment.
‘Treated like livestock’: school in China caught washing kids’ plates in urinal
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said the “rat-headed” saga may be “the tip of the iceberg” in terms of poor governance at the local level because local cadres could cover up scandals for each other.
Food safety is a regular source of public concern in China. In December, a woman in southwest China attracted attention on mainland social media after revealing that she washed her dishes in pigswill.
In March, a private foreign language school in Chengdu, in the southwest province of Sichuan, reportedly used suspected expired frozen pet food to cook student meals, according to video clips shared online by parents.
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