China’s mainland food safety remains worrisome, with the problem of tanker trucks mixing edible oil with toxic chemicals having existed for many years. After being exposed by the media last year, the State Council of the Chinese Communist Party claimed that no such problems had been found elsewhere. However, recently, a tanker truck transporting edible oil was found to be used for transporting chemicals in a region in Jiangsu.
On December 3, a netizen in Nantong, Jiangsu, filmed a tanker truck labeled with “edible oil” while saying, “Everyone, take a look, a truck carrying edible oil is actually transporting chemical substances.”
According to reports from mainland media, on December 3, a netizen posted claiming to have found a tanker truck labeled with edible oil at a factory in Rudong County, transporting paper additives instead. Questions were raised about the compliance of the tanker truck’s transportation. On December 5, staff from the Rudong County Market Supervision Administration stated that the matter is currently being handled. The incident occurred in Changsha Town, and the staff at the local sub-bureau are still dealing with it. As this is a recent event, the results of the feedback have not yet been released.
As of December 6, there has been no further official response, and there have been very few reports in mainland Chinese media about the incident.
Chinese netizens left comments such as, “It’s okay, if they find one, it’s just this one.” “You deceive me, I deceive you.” “Anyway, they don’t eat it, why bother banning it?”
Another netizen recalled an old joke, “There’s a blacksmith shop on the left and a coppersmith shop on the right, it’s too noisy, so they were asked to move. In the end, the blacksmith shop moved to the right, and the coppersmith shop moved to the left.”
“These things don’t require much thinking. It will continue like this in the future. We manage what’s put down and put down what’s managed, forever and ever.”
On July 2 last year, the “New Beijing News” exposed an incident involving coal-made oil tanker trucks transporting edible oil. In the two cases that were exposed, the tanker trucks transported coal-made oil from Ningxia to Hebei, unloaded it without cleaning the tank, and then directly transported bulk edible oil. A tanker truck driver revealed to reporters that the mixing and non-cleaning of liquid food and chemical transport were an open secret within the tanker transport industry.
The State Council Food Safety Office subsequently announced the establishment of a joint investigation team to investigate the incident. However, on August 25 last year, the official notification of the handling results only mentioned two involved tanker trucks with license plates JEE5476W and JEE6365Z. Penalties were imposed on seven companies, including China Grain Reserves Oil and Fat (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., with the highest fine reaching 2.86 million RMB. The official notification not only mentioned that some of the implicated oil products only flowed to a certain location in Inner Mongolia but also emphasized that in other regions of China, “no other similar problems have been found.”
At that time, internet users commented, “This is an open secret in the whole industry. Such a big event was investigated with just two trucks in over a month? These two trucks have only transported goods twice in so many years? Isn’t this a joke?”
The issue of mixed oil was first exposed by mainland media in 2005, and in 2013, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping declared that “failing to ensure food safety for a long time means governance is not up to standard,” sparking discussions. Overseas netizens have directly pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party should have stepped down long ago.