The Best News, Probably

China’s official announcement today by its State Council had taken new measures to re-invigorate the country’s over all food an drug safety monitoring standards is probably one of the best news on globalization this time around. What started with the importation of tainted pet food into the US from China not long ago had gradually grown to assume enormous proportions when there emerged other cases of tainted toothpaste from China that was alleged to have killed at least 100 people in Panama.

The global frenzy for cheap manufactures literally made China the first stop for international monopoly concerns that find China’s huge appetite for economic growth so luring that no one seemed to have risen to the challenge of ensuring that safety wasn’t sacrificed for quick profits. It is all so good that the Chinese government seemed to have risen quickly to the challenge of restoring global confidence in its safety food and drug structures. That process which began with the death sentence handed last week to Mr. Zheng Xiaoyu, who used to be the head of China’s Food and Drug Administration for taking bribe and over-looking strict adherence to regulation standards, has been extended to the administration of tighter safety standards as well as enforcement procedures at all levels of China's food and drug safety establishment. The new standards include aspects that would prevent errors as well as those that will track and investigate errors if and when they are detected.

The issues involved here are not political at all. They knock at the heart of what drives the world economic system even as it shows signs of terminal crisis. There’s hardly any doubt at all that China is part of if not the heartbeat of the world economy. The other time what emerged as slight quakes in China's stock market sent global waves that almost crashed major stock markets in the major and even minor financial centers in the world. What is needed this time from everyone concerned is cooperation with and support for the Chinese as they proceed with the task of restoring global confidence in their country's food and drug safety regime. Anything else will translate to the most counter-productive outcome that will probably drive the world economy to the lowest low in what Immanuel Wallerstein calls its terminal crisis.