How helpful would it be if we too were to execute medicine regulators who take money from the pharmaceutical companies?

China's toxic system - Telegraph

Extract:

"The execution of the former head of China's food and medicine regulator will perhaps be seen as the effective response of an all-powerful government to corruption. In fact, the sentence passed on Zheng Xiaoyu is a desperate response by a state that is incapable of rooting out graft. And that rottenness stems from the Communist Party's refusal to match economic reform with political liberalisation. Mr Zheng may have been executed for taking bribes from eight pharmaceutical companies, but, in a polity that lacks democratic accountability, his death will do little to stop the venal connivance between cadres and businessmen, particularly at local level.

The fate of Mr Zheng and the safety concerns over Chinese exports, from pet food to toys, tyres and toothpaste, illustrates the limits of the most extraordinary economic boom the world has ever seen. Deng Xiaoping unleashed the country's phenomenal productive potential with his "Four Modernisations", but Tiananmen Square put paid to what the dissident Wei Jingsheng called the fifth, the introduction of democracy. Nearly 20 years on, much of the country has been transformed out of recognition, but at a cost."

In my country people who similarly defend the drug companies rather than protect the safety of people's life and health do not get punished! - In fact, it appears that they are paid for it! - See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007/04/is-mhra-medicines-and-healthcare.html

Not much 'democratic accountability' in this 'democracy'...)o: