The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate
People’s Court carried out the death sentence against Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, the
former head of the State Food and
Drug Administration, shortly after the country’s Supreme Court rejected
his final appeal.
Mr. Zheng, who had appealed his
May 29 sentence on the grounds that it was too severe and that he had confessed
to the bribery charges against him, became the first ministerial-level official
put to death since 2000 and the fourth since China opened its doors to the
outside world nearly 30 years ago.
The official Xinhua news agency
announced the execution, but did not say how Mr. Zheng was killed. In most
cases, the court police execute prisoners by shooting them in the back of the
head, though recently the police have also used lethal injections.
China carries out more
court-ordered executions than the rest of the world combined, according to
human rights groups. But the sentence against Mr. Zheng was unusually harsh and
its execution uncommonly swift.
The country’s Supreme Court has
recently made a highly publicized effort to show that it carefully reviews all
death sentences and that it has restricted the power of local courts to impose
them.
But Mr. Zheng’s case appears to
have served a political purpose, allowing senior leaders to show that they have
begun confronting the country’s poor product-safety record. Shoddy or dangerous
goods, including drugs, pet food and car tires, have damaged its reputation
abroad, especially in the United States.
China is the world’s largest
exporter of consumer products, and tainted goods represent a small fraction of
the country’s more than $1 trillion in annual exports. But officials clearly
worry that protectionist forces in the United States could use the spate of
quality problems to restrict trade.