HONG KONG - It’s being dubbed the “dark weekend” as China's government reverts back to its incompetent, corrupt, and deadly ways following the successful Olympics.  Monday’s South China Morning Post ran an editorial page comic showing a guy on a barstool telling his friend that post-Olympics, China’s visa situation is back to normal.  His friend says, and I paraphrase as I don’t remember the exact wording:  “So is the poor food quality and coal mine safety.”

Before we dissect China’s latest problems, let’s get the caveats out of the way:  China is a developing country, it still deals with rampant corruption, and lacks an independent judiciary.  But none of those are adequate excuses for the loss of life over the melamine milk scandal, Shanxi coal mine disaster (four in China in the last two weeks), or nightclub fire in Shenzhen.

In fact, it’s not an excuse for the years and years of these kinds of deaths.

Li Changjiang has (rightfully) resigned as head of China’s food safety watchdog, and the nightclub owner and five officials in Shenzhen have been detained. Shanxi’s Governor Meng Xuenong resigned Sunday along with a “string” of other party members after the fatal mine explosion and mudslide. As Wen Jiabao himself put it:  “If there are fresh problems, they must be even more sternly punished under the law."

That’s a bit of red meat to toss to the perhaps millions of angry parents who have been unknowingly poisoning their children with tainted milk for the past few months.  Or to the families of the coal miners who died in Shanxi, or to Mr. Choi and his wife, who lost their son and three of his friends in Shenzhen’s nightclub fire.  Choi Wai-Tat was making his first trip outside of Hong Kong to celebrate his 18th birthday.  But let’s be honest:  corruption, industrial accidents, lax law enforcement, illegal clubs, poor food quality… these have been persistent issues for years, and even decades, in China.  And a long list of officials, governors, municipal leaders, company heads, and more have been fired, arrested, or resigned, yet these problems keep happening.  In the four years I’ve lived here, we’ve gone through the Songhua River chemical spill, tainted toothpaste, pet food, tires, toys, and too many coal mine disasters to count. If this list of disasters occurred in a democratic country, the government in power would’ve been tossed a long time ago for sheer incompetence.

After the SARS scandal was blown wide open, China’s leaders promised to do better in releasing important health information to the public.  Yet we find that Chinese authorities knew about the melamine in Sanlu milk products weeks before the public was told. We also find out that the Wangwu nightclub in Longgang district of Shenzhen was operating for over a year without a license or single inspection.  With such poor enforcement and regulatory oversight, how can one conclude that the Chinese government genuinely cares for the health and safety of the Chinese people?  

When disaster strikes, however, leaders jump into action.  They promise to do better.  But are they?  It’s debatable depending on your point of view.

One thing that isn’t arguable is that people are still dying because of China’s poor regulatory system and rampant corruption.  For the first time, Premier Wen’s apology and the government’s quick action seem shallow.  They are doing this out of desperation to stem the tide, calm the people, and prevent the reputation of made-in-China goods from falling deeper into the gutter.  But if China’s leaders care about these kinds of outbreaks as much as they say they do, they will work harder to prevent them – not act concerned after the fact (and I do believe the leaders are genuinely concerned – but it’s too little, too late). Apologies are great, but when the problems keep happening people tend to not believe them anymore. 

When China can go a full year, or preferably five, without a major product scare or mine disaster rooted in corruption I’ll be convinced the leaders take this seriously.  Until then, these are hollow displays of sympathy.  And while punishment may make people feel like someone has paid for their pain, it won’t do a thing to prevent another disaster on a similar scale. 

China likes to force high-level ministers to take the fall for scandals that kill Chinese people.  One wonders how long it will be before the people ask Mr. Hu to do the same.