China's Food Safety: From Fake Buns to Fake News

One of the hottest topics in China now is the cardboard buns hoax (see translated article on ESWN). Ever since this was exposed last week, the media's attention has been turning from food safety problem to media ethics. The question now is no longer simply about what businessmen are willing to do to make larger profits, but what journalists would do to come up with sensational stories.

Unethical journalists making up stories is nothing new. It happens not only in China. The most recent example I could remember is a New York Times reporter named Jayson Blair who made up over 30 inaccurate/fake stories for his publication.

What makes the fake buns story so shocking is that it was published at a time when China's food safety is becoming a global concern. Sad but true, those who've been in China long enough will not be surprised to find any imaginable/unimaginable kinds of fake Chinese food. I grew up hearing so much about wines and spirits made with industrial alcohol, fake ginseng, fake medicine and oiments, soy sauce with human hair, etc. You name it. So when the fake buns story was shown on TV, people were shocked, but not really.

And now that the Beijing government came out and announced that the story was fake, a lot of people were even more shocked: would this be a cover-up from the government? The logic is not difficult to understand. If the cardboard bun story is fake, then this revelation of the story being fake can possibly be fake, too.

And, that, my friend, is exactly the power of the media.

We've grown numb about poor quality food produced in China. Nothing surprises us any more. But the truth is all these many cases of toxic food comprise only a small percentage of food produced in China. We see China-manufactured food as low quality food because we have seen too many stories about it in the media. There's an article on New York Times recently that demonstrates this. Mexico and India export way more sub-standard food to the U.S. than China does.

Having said that, I'm not saying it's okay for China to continue to produce bad food. As a matter of fact, every time I hear about food safety problems in China, I feel really bad, ashamed a lot of times. I believe it is the media's responsibility to let the public know about these issues, so the government will pay more attention and try to fix these problems. On the other hand, it is equally important for the media to present news in an objective and unbiased manner, so we can see both sides of the problem.

Fake buns or not, I'll still buy Chinese food products at our local Chinese market. I just need to be more careful and buy only those by reputed manufacturers. Afterall, as the Chinese saying goes, you can't chop off your toes to avoid the worms, can you?