Society
China's Food-Safety Scandals and a Kindergarten Life Sentence
A kindergarten in Tianshui, Gansu, added inedible pigment to food to make it look vivid, and 247 children were found with abnormal blood-lead levels; the facility's operator was given a life sentence. Japanese coverage set the case alongside earlier food scandals — formalin-soaked cabbage, dyed lettuce, preservative-laden peaches — and commenters treated it less as a one-off than as evidence of distrust in food safety overall. Reactions ranged from noting China's heavy punishment to concrete warnings about the health effects of heavy-metal pigment. A self-critical strand said a case like this would have ended with no charges in Japan.