BEIJING - China’s former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Tuesday for taking bribes to approve untested medicines, as the country’s main quality control agency announced its first recall system targeting unsafe food products.
The developments are among the most dramatic steps Beijing has publicly taken to address domestic and international alarm over shoddy and unsafe Chinese goods — from pet food ingredients and toothpaste mixed with industrial chemicals to tainted antibiotics.
The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court convicted Zheng Xiaoyu for taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than $832,000 when he was director of the State Food and Drug Administration, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The court then issued the death penalty, the report said. 
I’ll confess that I’m against the death penalty here in the USA. Not squeamish, just cheap – I find prosecuting cases with capital punishment much too expensive here in the USA, and I’d be concerned about the fairness aspect if corners were cut to make it less expensive. The appeals process then adds even more expense. Life in prison at $40k/year isn’t cheap, but millions for capital trials is even more costly.
Perhaps the economics work differently in China, or the death penalty may be symbolic.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with friends about renting an auto in India. They cautioned my that the roads are, mostly, in terrible condition, and then they brought out one other tidbit:
If you’re driving a car and hit someone, more likely than not, an outraged crowd will appear, and beat you senseless. Might not happen if the guy you hit happened to have carelessly walked right in front of your vehicle, but it might. And will happen more often than not if you were at fault.
Which takes me to another thought.
I understand that at one time, a temporary solution to double parking in downtown Singapore was extreme: a police officer was able to stick a large brightly colored tag with the vehicle ID on the four sides of the offending vehicle. The tag gave ~anyone~ the legal right to take any part of the car or it’s contents, or to take the entire vehicle – drive or tow.
In some ways, it’s sad that “having the punishment fit the crime” is now clearly in the province of romantic idealism. Feeding the ex-minister a diet of petfood tainted with melamine seems barbaric, I know; but there’s a part of me that celebrates that idea, despite “knowing better.”
except that there are lots of greyer cases where legitimate medications do cause significant harm and, given how a future public might reinterpret the line between legitimate lobbying and bribery, the consequence would likely be a stifling clampdown on anything vaguely novel or experimental, particularly if the target were a non mainstream condition…
(taking your point semi-seriously 
emulate the Chinese…?? in what? thier legal system or thier human rights?
im not sure of the purpose of this post, your advocating of the death penalty or that justice was served, chinese style.
I was being facetious…