Chinese Food Safety and the Political Class

James Fallows notes that China may face some real muckraking reform, or maybe not:

- From China Geeks, which translates material from the Chinese press and blogosphere, an English version of a very important story from Southern Weekend,  南方周末, as fearless a reform publication as you will find in China, about a true "let them eat cake" saga underway there now.

At a time when tainted-food scandals are erupting all over the country, the story describes a special farm and food-supply system for government bigshots, to spare them exposure to the heavy-metal laden, adulterated, and otherwise contaminated food the rest of the population ingests. People often compare early 21st century China to early 20th century America, when industrial abuses gave way to the Muckraking and Progressive era. We'll see whether reformers can get similar traction there. If you want an idea of what makes ordinary people in China angry, check out this story.

Wow, that has tremendous potential to bring about massive reform, or it may bring a government crackdown on such media outlets.  Heavy-metal laden, adulterated and otherwise contaminated food.  That is a disturbing situation in a country with 16% or so of the world's population.