Cardboard Dumpling Scandal Shocks State Media

BEIJING --- In recent months, a number of scary stories about defective Chinese goods causing trouble in China and overseas has encouraged many western news broadcasters to question whether the symbol of China's modern development, the "Made in China" label, can survive the fallout.

As reported last month in the CMM, new regulations about the reporting of disasters may have inched the media towards taking some responsibility on behalf of its viewers, but when it comes to exposing illegal business practices at home, it remains a very careful balancing act for channel operators.

In late July, viewers in Beijing were shocked to see a report on the popular Beijing TV show Transparency that alleged to have uncovered unscrupulous vendors making steamed dumplings out of cardboard and selling them to unsuspecting customers. Not surprisingly, the story was devoured by other Chinese news organizations. In turn, the story was picked up in Hong Kong and from there the world.

Sensing that it needed to make arrests or at least show a strong response, the authorities in Beijing dispatched police to the stall in question and hundreds of health inspectors to every single food outlet in the whole city. However, the next day the BTV Evening News made what many believe to be its first ever full public apology – the news piece was wrong – there were no cardboard dumplings in the first place.

While the public retraction was scant on details, insiders say that on arriving at the scene, the implicated vendors claimed to the police that Beijing TV's journalist had paid them to prepare cardboard dumplings in front of his camera. Further, the journalist had even brought his own pastry, mince and cardboard. According to sources, the offending journalist has been arrested.

Part of the problem undoubtedly lies with internal censorship controls. Such a story should not have been cleared for broadcast without confirmation from the relevant authorities and BTV chiefs are now hunting for scapegoats to fall on their swords. However, part of the problem may also lie with incentive schemes that pay bonuses to reporters only when they supply 'lead' stories.

Given the recent international bad press about shoddy goods from China, it is hard to imagine a worse political crime than making up such a story. There are, after all, plenty of authentic examples of poor sanitation and inferior foodstuffs in street markets around the city.

Look out for draconian new regulations on news gathering and broadcasts in the near future.