Tian Wenhua is the former chairwoman of Sanlu, the Chinese company implicated in the 2008 milk scandal plead guilty to selling substandard product recently.  Six children died and over 300,000 became ill after drinking the company’s milk which had been diluted then spiked with melamine, a chemical which gave the diluted milk a “normal” protein count.  Ms. Tian and others knew about the compromised product beginning in May and did not report it to the government until August 2.

Since December 26, 17 people associated with the milk scandal have stood trial.  According to sources , sentencing here will probably be stiff – most expect Tian to serve a life sentence.  However, an execution for this type of crime is not impossible.  Last year, the Chinese executed Zheng Xiaoyu , the former head of the Food and Drug Administration for accepting bribes.

View the BBC timeline for the Chinese milk scandal here .

Source: BBC News