Food- and drug-safety problems in China are serious incidents when they occur, although Chinese authorities are finding themselves under fire from netizens who question the fairness of some of the punishments.
When a public hospital in Shandong Province that sold fake medicine recently was fined a slight amount, many Chinese netizens expressed anger over the lenient sanction for selling fake drugs. Dazhong Net, a state-run news site, reported on Aug. 11 that the Qingdao City Chengyang District People’s Hospital was hit with a 692.5 yuan (about $100) fine for selling phony dried citrus peel, a type of traditional Chinese medicine commonly used to alleviate coughing and phlegm.
