Right now, China might want to remember Cordelia Gummer.
In 1990 Britain was worried about infected beef and "mad cowdisease". The government insisted that no-one need panic - Britain'sbeef was fine.
In order to make the point in a dramatic way, Britain's Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Minister John Gummer decided to feed his four-year-old daughter Cordelia a beefburger in front of the cameras. It was a slightly curious, much criticised and derided tactic.
I wonder if the Communist Party's been thinking of anything similarin recent days. The food scare which began with tainted baby milkpowder last week has been getting worse and worse.
On Friday, everyone here woke up to find that more dairy products had been affected- including the normal milk that you or I would buy in the shops. Thegovernment insists that most milk is safe to drink - but that doesn'treassure very many people.
This afternoon, at the Tesco supermarket in Beijing, milk was stillon sale. But most shoppers avoided the dairy counter. Parents havecontinued to take their babies to hospitals to be checked for kidneystones. Perhaps China's Health Minister, Chen Zhu, may decide to invite themedia to his house to watch him and his family drink pints of milk andeat ice cream. But maybe not. It didn't really work when John Gummertried it.
