FDA Sets Up Office in China

An interesting event took place at the old American embassy in Beijing, located at the heart of the foreign sector – the opening of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Beijing office. The FDA will soon open offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou as well. This is the first time that the FDA has set up an office overseas.

The importance placed on this day’s event by the American government was underscored by the attendance of Andrew von Eschenbach, the Director of the FDA, and Mike Levitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services at the opening ceremony, along with Sao Mingli, the Director of the Chinese Food and Drug Inspection Bureau.

The U.S., which imports food and drugs from all over the word, relies on China for one-sixth of all food and drug imports. In order to prevent issues of food security from breaking out in China, on which the U.S. heavily depends, the U.S. has persistently called for – and succeeded in – establishing a FDA office in China. Along with setting up equipment, the FDA has decided to have eight veteran experts stay in China. These experts will hire local Chinese to engage in activities to promote food security.

They also plan to visit places where U.S.-bound foods and drugs are grown and processed and perform field investigations. The U.S. Secretary of Health pointed out that checking for safety through sampling imported goods is an insufficient and backward process. He also said that the FDA will systematically inspect all processes from the manufacturing to the importation stages of imported goods.

In other words, the plan is to preemptively block pollution upstream in order to prevent pollution downstream. The FDA revealed that separate from setting up the local office, it will continue to send agents regularly to China to inspect the safety of imported goods.

In contrast to the FDA, which is proactively working to secure food and drug safety for the health of its citizens, what is the South Korean government doing? South Korea relies even more on China than the U.S. does, as one-third of all imported agricultural goods come from China. Yet only a single food and drug agent sent to the embassy in Beijing covers the entirety of China.

The agricultural goods that South Korea imports from China are produced mainly in Shandong Province. Therefore, there has been a suggestion to send food security agents to at least Shandong Province ever since 2005, when the parasite eggs were discovered in kimchi. Due to the government’s complaints over the lack of personnel, however, there has been no progress in three years. The U.S. FDA Director said that borders should not be an obstacle for pursuing the safety of foods and drugs. This statement of an American bureaucrat sounds like a pointed criticism of the South Korean government, which cannot provide a sensible response even after going through hell due to the melamine crisis.