A Chinese video on social media has escalated into a hot topic of debate not only among Chinese netizens but also in South Korea, causing considerable public outrage. Numerous South Korean consumers of a popular Chinese beer have vowed to never purchase it again.
On Oct. 19, a video surfaced on various Chinese social media platforms, including Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) and Weibo, showing an employee scaling a fence to gain unauthorized entry into a malt storage facility at Tsingtao Brewery’s third plant. Once inside, the individual proceeded to urinate in one of its tanks. This video rapidly gained traction, becoming one of the top trending topics on Weibo and earning the name “The Tsingtao Beer Urination Scandal” on various Chinese media outlets.
In response, Tsingtao Brewery Co. issued an official statement on Oct. 20, acknowledging the incident that was captured on video at their third production facility the preceding day. The company announced that the matter had been reported to public security authorities, who have since begun an investigation. Meanwhile, the malt batch affected in the video has been quarantined.
The incident has prompted widespread skepticism among Chinese consumers, with many questioning the integrity of Tsingtao Beer—a brand with a 120-year legacy and a leading position in China’s beer market. The third plant, implicated in this controversy, boasts an annual production capacity of 1.2 million kiloliters (about 317 million gallons) and is hailed as “Asia’s largest and most efficient world-class smart factory.”
The ripple effects of the incident have reached South Korea, a significant market for Tsingtao Beer. Despite reassurances from the South Korean import agent for Tsingtao that the beer meant for domestic and export markets is produced in separate facilities, consumer skepticism remains.
Seo Kyoung-duk, a South Korean social activist and professor at Sungshin Women’s University, said that this is not an isolated incident but a broader issue concerning food safety in China. He referred to past controversies, like the one involving a Chinese individual pickling cabbage in unhygienic conditions, which had ignited similar outrage in South Korea. The professor urged the South Korean government to heighten scrutiny of imported Chinese food products, citing public health concerns.
Ethical Lapses: A History of Startling Food Safety Incidents in China
This past June, China faced yet another food safety debacle that became infamous as the “Calling a Rat a Duck” scandal. A student at Nanchang’s Jiangxi Industry Vocational Technology College found what was suspected to be a rat’s head in their cafeteria meal. Despite the cafeteria’s insistent claims that the object was merely a duck neck, a subsequent provincial investigation confirmed it was, in fact, a rodent’s head. The incident led to the phrase “calling a rat a duck” trending across Chinese social media platforms.Earlier in March, employees at a particular Chinese food production facility were captured on camera trampling over pickled vegetables with their feet and even discarding cigarette butts into the food. Astonishingly, these products were not subjected to any form of sanitary inspection upon being acquired by associated Chinese companies.
The public’s trust in China in domestic food products has been continually eroded by a series of alarming incidents stretching back years. In 2008, infant formula laced with the toxic chemical melamine led to multiple infant deaths and caused 300,000 others to suffer from severe health issues such as enlarged heads and kidney stones. The scandal decimated consumer confidence in domestically-produced infant formula.
In 2007, chemically engineered fake eggs made of substances like sodium alginate, alum, and gelatin were introduced into the marketplace. Long-term consumption of these could lead to memory loss and dementia. Counterfeit and hazardous food items, including rice, soy sauce, ham, tofu, prawns, and green tea, have regularly infiltrated China’s consumer market.
Li Yuanhua, an expert in Chinese affairs and a former associate professor of History Education at China’s Capital Normal University, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 23 that the Tsingtao “urination incident” seems accidental but underscores the critical gaps in food safety measures within the production chain. “The argument that the scandal only involves products for domestic consumption is ludicrous. Are we to infer that such practices are deemed acceptable for the domestic market?” he questioned.
Mr. Li contends that the South Korean public’s strong reaction to the food scandal could very well serve as a tipping point, shaking their confidence not only in Chinese products but possibly also in the credibility of the Communist regime governing China.
