In recent times, a collective lead poisoning incident at a kindergarten in Tianshui City, Gansu Province has captured widespread attention and controversy. Despite official claims from the Chinese Communist Party that a few teachers added non-edible lead-containing pigments to the children’s food, there are continuous doubts in the public, suspecting hidden motives behind the scenes.
Former Guizhou Province judge Lin Xiaolong, in an interview, criticized the authorities for concocting “fake news,” stating that the kindergarten teachers were merely scapegoats forced to take responsibility under government pressure.
According to official reports, several teachers at the Haishi Peixin Kindergarten in Maiji District of Tianshui City illegally added inedible colored pigments to the food, resulting in lead levels in the food exceeding the standard by 2,000 times. Out of 251 children, 233 had abnormal blood lead levels, with some exceeding 5 times the limit. However, some parents do not believe the official explanation, taking their children to medical institutions in other areas for examination, only to find that the blood lead levels were several times higher, even up to 20 times than what the authorities claimed.
Lin Xiaolong, in an interview in Los Angeles with Epoch Times, also expressed skepticism towards the official explanation. “To believe in an event, it must first make logical sense,” he stated. Given his understanding of the conditions in mainland China’s school cafeterias, he questioned, “If this kind of thing was done by illiterates, some might believe it; but teachers, who are supposed to be educated, how could they possibly add colored pigments to the food?”
“Is it to make the food look better? When you cook today, would you add pigments to it? If you did, would you eat it? Impossible. This is not how normal people think!” Lin Xiaolong believes that the official narrative aims to shift blame onto the teachers to deceive the public.
Towards the end of June, before the collective lead poisoning incident in the kindergarten, students at Huaying Experimental School in Fushun County, Zigong City, Sichuan Province complained of stomachaches. Later, parents discovered that the meat supplied by the school’s cafeteria vendor was rancid. Despite paying five to six hundred yuan per month, the students were fed poor-quality spoiled food.
During his tenure as a grassroots court judge in Guizhou Province, Lin Xiaolong handled a case where a restaurant in his county imported beef from India to China to cut costs. The beef, though cheaper, was stored frozen for a long time, posing severe quality issues. In an attempt to reduce his sentence, the restaurant owner revealed that almost all primary and secondary schools in the county served students this “zombie meat.”
When the news spread, parents protested at the schools, but the local government forcefully suppressed the issue, prohibiting journalists from reporting on it and preventing online exposure, leading to the matter being swept under the rug.
“Basically, those awarded contracts to manage school cafeterias are relatives of local leaders,” Lin Xiaolong remarked. He described school cafeterias as a source of easy profit, with education funds being syphoned off at multiple levels, leaving only a small amount to purchase inferior quality ingredients.
In contrast, the food quality requirements at Chinese government canteens are much higher. In Lin Xiaolong’s court, each meal only costs 2 yuan. “Buffet-style, with over a dozen or more dishes, including overtime meals,” he said. “Overtime and dinner are free.”
He revealed that the food in government canteens is procured by professionals, selecting the best and most environmentally friendly ingredients, never resorting to “zombie meat.” However, there is corruption within this system since the procurement points often involve operations run by relatives of leaders.
It has been nearly twenty years since the collective lead poisoning incident in Maiji District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province. In the same area in 2006, another lead poisoning incident occurred involving villagers: in 2003, Tianshui Hexin Industry and Trade Company, a lead smelting factory, was established in Zhaquan Town attracting investments, producing 20,000 tons of crude lead annually. The company discharged wastewater into the local river. After the poisoning incident in 2006, 53 children in a village all tested positive for elevated lead levels.
Many people question why similar incidents, years apart, occur in the same area.
Nevertheless, Lin Xiaolong also observed that many Chinese people believe in the official explanations. “The despicable aspect of the Communist Party is that it not only brainwashes you but also deceives and treats you like a fool, spinning a lie to deceive you,” Lin Xiaolong believes that there must be larger and more sinister motives behind the lies of the CCP authorities.