Feb 28, 2008
TOKYO - JAPAN'S top police official on Thursday cast doubt on China's assurances that dumplings in a scare were not contaminated in the country, urging Beijing to provide data to back their position.
Chinese investigators suggested that criminals deliberately laced the frozen dumplings with pesticides.
At least 10 Japanese people suffered poisoning, causing a backlash against imported Chinese food.
'We want them to produce scientific data to back their claims,' Mr Hiroto Yoshimura, head of the National Police Agency, told reporters in Tokyo.
He also voiced alarm that some officials in China felt that Japan was not forthcoming with information.
'Their statement to the press had some alarming parts. We gave them data that should be useful for investigations. We don't understand the Chinese claim that they regretted Japan's refusal to provide evidence,' Mr Yoshimura said.
Japan has previously said the contamination did not occur on its own soil.
Chinese investigators said earlier in the day that the contamination was not due to unsanitary production practice.
'We believe the Japan 'poison dumpling incident' is not a food safety problem caused by pesticide residues but is an isolated deliberate crime,' said Mr Wei Chuanzhong, deputy director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
Tainted dumplings not contaminated in China: Chinese officialsEarlier in Beijing, Chinese authorities said on Thursday that their investigation shows there is little chance that dumplings tainted with pesticides and blamed for sickening at least 10 people in Japan were contaminated in China.
There have been suggestions in both countries that the poisonings were deliberate and that the contamination happened in the other country. But Chinese authorities said 55 people involved in the packaging and storage of the dumplings were checked and nothing unusual was found.
Traces of methamidophos, an insecticide banned in Japan, were found in the dumplings, on the packaging and in the vomit of the people who were sickened in December and January after eating two separate brands of dumplings made at the Tianyang Food Processing Ltd factory.
Japanese police have said that the pesticide was found inside bags of dumplings that were packaged and sealed in China with no punctures or signs of that chemicals seeped in from the outside.
The scare led food distributors and importers to recall Chinese-made products. Thousands of Japanese people complained about feeling ill.
'We believe that there is little chance of putting methamidophos into dumplings in China,' Mr Yu Xinmin, a top criminal investigator at the Ministry of Public Security, said Thursday. He noted that police believed the case was 'caused by manmade factors' and did not stem from tainted raw materials.
Checks have turned up nothing unusual at the factory in northern China's Hebei province, Mr Yu said.
'Our investigation has proven that the Tianyang food plant ... has strict management of its production,' Mr Yu said. No problems were found during investigations into raw materials, production procedures and transportation methods.
He would not say if he thought that the poison was added in Japan.
'Japanese police say they believe it is highly unlikely,' Mr Yu said. 'We have convincing evidence supporting our conclusion and so do Japanese police. The problem now is whose evidence is more scientific, objective and reliable?'
For a decade, Beijing has been trying to restrict the use of methamidophos, and in 2004 banned its use on fruit and vegetable crops. The pesticide is known to be so deadly that farmers drink it to commit suicide.
The case touched off a food-safety scare in Japan, a key export market for China, and set back Beijing's efforts to shore up foreign consumer confidence in its exports after a series of food and product safety scandals last year.
Mr Yu complained on Thursday that his agency did not get full cooperation from their Japanese counterparts.
'We regret that the police authorities of Japan not only refused our request to inspect the scene and the relevant material evidence and re-examine the identification reports, but also gave no comprehensive introduction on how they collected and examined the material evidence,' Mr Yu said. It was not clear what scene or what evidence Yu was referring to.
Also on Thursday, Mr Wei Chuanzhong, deputy head of China's product safety watchdog, called for a food safety monitoring system between Japan and China similar to those in place between China and other major trading partners like the European Union and the United States. -- AP, AFP
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