koala's march cookies in hong kong and macau because of contamination, and promised to "look deeply into all the details of the manufacturing process" to preserve customer confidence. the range was also ordered off dutch and slovakian shelves. other products were seized when samples tested positive in malta. on 29 september, british confectionery group cadbury recalled all chocolate products made in its chinese factories due to concerns about melamine contamination, affecting products intended for markets in china, taiwan, hong kong, japan, korea and australia. tests in hong kong found amounts of melamine in china-made dairy milk products which exceeded safety regulations. on 30 september, unilever recalled its lipton milk tea powder after the company's internal checks found traces of melamine in the chinese powdered milk used as an ingredient. heinz recalled cases of baby cereal in hong kong after discovering they contained melamine. nestlé's factory in heilongjiang was also implicated: the taiwanese department of health forced the delisting of six neslac and klim products on 2 october for containing minute traces of melamine, although the minister said they did not pose a significant health risk. since the milk crisis broke, nestlé says it has sent 20 specialists from switzerland to five of its chinese plants to strengthen chemical testing. on 31 october, it announced the opening of a $10.2 million beijing research and development centre, to "serve as the base and the reference in food safety for nestlé in greater china". nestlé chief technology officer said the centre was equipped with "highly sophisticated analytical tools for detecting trace amounts of residues and undesirable compounds like melamine or veterinary drugs or natural toxins". olympics there were concerns dairy products consumed during the 2008 summer olympics may have been contaminated. li changjiang, the then director of aqsiq reassured the international community that all the food, including dairy products, was indeed safe. "we took special quality management measures aimed at food supply for the games." outside mainland china prc customs said exports of dairy products and eggs in 2007 were valued at us$359 million, a year-on-year increase of 90 percent. since the news of the melamine contamination began to circulate, at least 25 countries stopped importing chinese dairy products. a number of countries had imposed blanket bans on chinese milk products or its derivatives—among which were bangladesh, bhutan, brunei, burundi, cameroon, chile, colombia, dominican republic, gabon, india, côte d'ivoire, maldives, mali, mexico, nepal, papua new guinea, paraguay, south korea, suriname, tanzania, togo, and the united arab emirates —joining indonesia, taiwan, japan, singapore and malaysia which had also imposed specific bans on chinese dairy products which tested positive for melamine. hong kong the scandal led to an erosion of trust in locally produced infant formula and from then on, many shenzhen residents and parallel traders travelled across the border to purchase powdered milk from hong kong shops. lower confidence in chinese production, combined with the relaxation of visa requirements for mainland citizens, had resulted in shortages of infant formula in hong kong for an extended time. because of a great public outcry, the import and export (general) (amendment) regulation 2013 was passed in hong kong, prohibiting the unlicensed export of powdered formula, including milk and soya milk powder for infants and children under 36 months. according to the hk government, the regulation is not applicable to "powdered formula that is exported in the accompanied personal baggage of a person aged 16 or above leaving hong kong if the person did not leave hong kong in the last 24 hours and the formula does not exceed 1.8 kg in total net weight". although the hong kong government imposed a strict 2-can limit on the export of infant formula in march 2013, spurred price differentials caused by sales tax on the mainland and lax customs, trafficking activity including for powdered milk has continued, exacerbating the hong kong-mainland conflict. the catchment area for traffickers spread from fan ling and sheung shui southward to yuen long and tuen mun, causing localist groups such as civic passion and hong kong indigenous to take to the streets in direct action in 2015. european union on 25 september 2008, the eu announced a ban on imports of baby food containing chinese milk. the european commission also called for tighter checks on other chinese food imports; isolated contaminated products were found in the netherlands, and the french authorities ordered all chinese dairy products off the shelves; tesco removed white rabbit sweets as a precaution from its stores in the united kingdom. united states food and drug administration in the united states of america, which was otherwise unaffected by the scares, the us distributor of white rabbit candies recalled the product when samples found in hartford showed traces of melamine. the candy's maker and subsidiary of bright foods, guan sheng yuan, issued a recall to the 50 countries to which it exported. the u.s. food and drug administration said while food containing melamine below 2.5 parts per million generally did not raise concerns, its scientists were "currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns". on 12 november 2008, the fda issued a general alert against all finished food products from china, saying that information received from government sources in a number of countries indicates a wide range and variety of products from a variety of producers have been manufactured using melamine-contaminated milk was a recurring problem. in late november, after fda found traces of melamine in one nestle and one mead johnson infant product, the fda concluded melamine or cyanuric acid alone, "at or below 1 part per million in infant formula do not raise public health concerns" in babies. the united states food and drug administration opened its first overseas inspection offices in november 2008, with bureaus in shanghai, beijing and guangzhou. response international agencies the european food safety authority (efsa) warned that children who ate large amounts of confectionery and biscuits with high milk content could theoretically be consuming melamine at more than three times above prescribed eu safety limits (0.5 mg/kg of body weight). the efsa said children with a mean consumption of products such as milk toffee, biscuits and chocolate containing contaminated powdered milk would not be at risk, and adults would not be at risk even in the worst-case scenarios. the world health organization, which was only notified on 11 september, asked beijing why it took so many months for the scandal to become public, and to establish whether failure was deliberate or due to ignorance. who's representative in china, hans troedsson, said the issue of who knew what and when was critical, because knowledge would be the distinction between ignorance and neglect. who and unicef jointly decried the "deliberate contamination of foods intended for ... vulnerable infants and young children." following a spate of mass national bans, the who urged national food safety authorities on 25 september to test chinese dairy products for health risks before placing import bans or recalls. on 26 september, the who warned health officials to look out for tainted dairy products imported from china. international food safety authorities (infosan), a network organized by who and the food and agriculture organization, suggested that countries should focus on smuggled formula. who referred to the incident as one of the largest food safety events it has had to deal with, and stated it would be difficult to restore the confidence of chinese consumers in baby formula. it saw regulation failing to keep pace with the rapid development of the food and industrial production as opening the gates to all types of misbehaviour and malfeasance. the spokesman said the scale of the problem proved it was "clearly not an isolated accident, a large-scale intentional activity to deceive consumers for simple, basic, short-term profits". who director-general margaret chan reminded chinese mothers that breastfeeding was the best way to provide nutrition to infants while avoiding a risk of melamine exposure. she noted that the scandal showed "the impact and power of globalisation" in food distribution and highlighted "the importance of seamless cooperation from farm to consumer". chinese public weiquan lawyers background weiquan movement chinese legal reforms human rights in china protest and dissent in china barefoot lawyer new citizens' movement lawyers and legal scholars chen guangcheng gao zhisheng guo feixiong guo guoting hao jinsong he weifang jiang tianyong li boguang li heping li jianqiang li xiongbing mo shaoping ni yulan pu zhiqiang teng biao tang jingling xu zhiyong yu wensheng zhang xuezhong zhang xingshui zhang sizhi zheng enchong organizations committee for the protection of lawyers' lawful rights yitong law firm china human rights lawyers concern group china national anti-demolition home alliance chinese society of human rights lawyers for petitioners open constitution initiative cases and events shi tao's arrest sun zhigang deng yujiao incident linyi chinese milk scandal sichuan schools scandal anger at sanlu the case has brought anger and resentment towards milk producers and sowed uncertainty and confusion amongst the population. queues formed outside sanlu's offices for refunds. the sanlu website was hacked several times and its name as displayed in the header bar changed to 三聚氰胺集团 ("the melamine group") in a play of words on the character "三" (number 3), which is the first word of sanlu's chinese name: 三鹿 (three deer); "melamine" was also added as a product name by a hacker. as has been increasingly common practice, web users vented their anger on internet bulletin boards. prevalent food scares have increased the number of online parodies circulated by netizens. before the government began offering free medical treatment, some parents had reportedly spent small fortunes on medical care for their sick children. children who fell ill before the scandal broke on 12 september were not entitled to free medical care offered by the state. parents of two such victims, one from henan and one from guangdong, filed writs against sanlu despite government pressure. parents of the henan child had claimed ¥150,000 for medical, travel and other expenses incurred after their child developed kidney stones. on 20 october, the parents of one baby who died from contaminated milk appealed to new zealand for justice on tv one. a total of nine cases were filed against sanlu in shijiazhuang. following weeks of discussions, and in the absence of a compensation plan, a group of 15 lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 100 families against sanlu, seeking medical and other expenses as well as compensation for trauma and for death of an offspring. anger at political leaders resentment increased towards the country's leaders due to the perception that they were not troubled by the food security turmoil faced by ordinary citizens. in august 2008, zhu yonglan (祝詠蘭), director of the state council central government offices special food supply centre (cgosfsc), disclosed in a speech that her firm had been set up in 2004 to source high-quality, all-organic foodstuffs from farms working under the strictest guidelines, for supply to top political leaders, their families and retired cadres. the state council party and state organisations special food supply centre ... is supported by the state council logistics base, central security bureau farms, and supply bases spread over all 13 provinces, municipalities ... and autonomous regions. these bases supply the 94 ministries' and commissions' veteran cadres with high quality organic food products ... products accord with the highest standards. ... everyone knows that at present average production facilities use large quantities of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. antibiotics and hormones are used in the raising of animals. aquatic animal products are raised in polluted waters. all of these toxins end up in the final food products (all kinds of produce, meat, dairy products etc.). it goes without saying that these are harmful when consumed by humans. zhu yonglan, director of the cgosfsc, speech to shandong kr biomedical, 18 august 2008 premier wen jiabao apologised to the nation, saying he felt "extremely guilty" about the poisoned milk products, in the same way he had previously asked the people's pardon for the deaths of coal miners, polluted drinking water, and train passengers stranded by the authorities' inadequate response to the severe snowstorm during the new year. author qin geng (秦耕) said: "the big picture in this case was the interest of one-party rule above anything, not that they