The lead paint poisoning scandal rocking China

Chinese officials are racing to address fallout from a new investigation into the thus far nonfatal lead poisoning of more than 200 schoolchildren in the western province of Gansu. In a report released Sunday, officials cited widespread lapses in safety protocols, as well as efforts by local figures to cover up the sprawling scandal — the latest in China's ongoing struggle with lead and food safety.

Not only are school officials at Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui city accused of adding lead-based industrial paint to the school's food to make it appear more visually appealing, but multiple provincial and hospital workers are also alleged to have tampered with blood tests and failed to issue requisite health alerts. In a country still haunted by past lead poisoning crises, this latest incident has captivated the Chinese public and galvanized the government into public action.

'All-too-familiar concerns'

The new report on the Tianshui poisonings is a "rare acknowledgment" from Chinese officials of a "high-level hush-up of a public scandal," said The New York Times. All told, more than a dozen people have been detained or arrested by Chinese authorities to date, including the school's principal, kitchen staff and an investor, with Chinese internet users giving "keen attention to the report," said the BBC. While some have commended the government's "transparent disclosure," others have demanded that the "perpetrators" be "held accountable."

The report showed "mistakes and mishandling" at almost "every level of the process and response," The Guardian said. Its release was "accompanied by reported protests by parents" outside the kindergarten. Footage taken by independent journalists on the ground claimed to show "clashes between police and a few hundred people."

The mass poisonings have "raised all-too-familiar concerns" in China about both food safety at large and the "levels of transparency with which such cases are handled," said CNN. It is the latest in a list of "dozens of high-profile scandals" reported across China since the "early 2000s." While lead poisoning in particular "used to be a more widespread issue," the Chinese central government in 2010 "allocated special funds for heavy metal pollution prevention" following a spate of lead-based illnesses the previous year.

'Serious mistake in governance'

Beyond the reignition of discrete food-based concerns and lead-poisoning mitigation efforts, the Tianshui poisonings have also raised questions about the relationships between the various tiers of China's national, regional, and local authorities. In "contrast" to its "chiding of provincial and city-level officials," the incident report hailed the central government's "quick response," said the BBC.

As China's "worst food safety scandal in almost two decades," the incident has "prompted fresh questions about the quality of local governance," said the South China Morning Post. These poisonings have highlighted the "chaos in food safety governance," said Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of Global Times newspaper, to the outlet. Implicated local authorities believed the public would "accept their monopoly on information," Hu said. "This is a serious mistake in governance."

Typically, Chinese authorities "tightly control the flow of information" in the immediate aftermath of a disaster or scandal, said the Times. While in the past, authorities have sporadically held individual companies and "low-level officials" accountable for their alleged criminality, "acknowledgment of active higher-level cover-ups is relatively rare."