安全无底线:中国警方破获鼠肉冒充羊肉案

European consumers concerned about horsemeat in their sausages should spare a thought for their Chinese counterparts who now have to worry about swallowing rat meat dressed up as mutton.

担心自己吃的腊肠含有马肉的欧洲消费者，应当想一想中国消费者的处境，后者现在要担心咽下冒充羊肉的老鼠肉。

Chinese police have busted a criminal ring selling meat from rats, foxes and mink by passing it off as mutton, the public security ministry said.

中国公安部宣布，中国警方破获一个用老鼠、狐狸和水貂肉制售假羊肉的犯罪团伙。

In a raid involving more than 200 officers, police in Shanghai and Jiangsu province arrested 63 people from a gang that allegedly sold more than $1.6m worth of fake mutton over a three-year period.

在最近的一次突击行动中，警方出动200余名警力，在上海和江苏省抓获上述犯罪团伙的63人，该团伙被指在3年期间销售1000余万元人民币（逾160万美元）的假羊肉。

The latest food scandal to hit China comes as citizens grapple with a looming bird flu epidemic and a steady stream of food and safety scandals that the Chinese authorities seem unable to curtail.

这起最新的食品丑闻曝光之际，中国公民正在艰难应对一场扑面而来的禽流感疫情，以及一连串当局似乎无法遏制的食品和安全丑闻。

“China has many laws [related to food safety] but the problem is in enforcement,” said Zheng Fengtian, a professor at the school of agricultural economics and rural development at Renmin University in Beijing. “If nobody is checking, then there are no consequences for people who break the law.”

“中国有很多（涉及食品安全的）法律，但问题在于执法。”中国人民大学农业与农村发展学院教授郑风田表示，“如果没有人检查，那么违法的人就不用面对后果。”

Continuous food safety scandals and chronic environmental pollution have become hot topics in China and officials have begun to worry that these issues are undermining Communist party legitimacy.

不断发生的食品安全丑闻和旷日持久的环境污染已成为中国的热门话题。官员们开始担心，这些问题正在削弱中共的合法性。

In just the latest example, demonstrators in the city of Chengdu in western China plan to march through the city to protest against a proposed chemical plant near the city, according to online organisers.

仅举一个最新的例子，据网上组织者表示，成都市的示威者计划在该市游行，抗议该市附近一个拟建的化工厂项目。

In an apparent response to rising discontent over food safety, China’s public security ministry has issued several statements in recent days lauding the results of a police crackdown on fake meat vendors and suppliers.

中国公安部近日发布多份声明，称赞警方在打击制售假劣肉制品行动中取得的成果。此举显然意在回应民众在食品安全问题上日益升温的不满。

The ministry said 904 suspects had been arrested since the end of January for selling and producing fake or tainted meat products, which in some cases caused sickness or even killed people who ate them.

公安部称，自1月底以来已抓获犯罪嫌疑人904名，这些人涉嫌制售假劣或有毒有害的肉制品，在某些情况下导致食用者患病、甚至死亡。

Police have also confiscated more than 20,000 tonnes of fake or adulterated meat products during the nationwide campaign.

在这场全国范围的行动中，警方还现场查扣各类假劣肉制品2万余吨。

The rat meat ring in Jiangsu and Shanghai used gelatin, food colouring and industrial chemicals to make rat, fox and mink meat look and taste more like mutton, police said.

警方称，在江苏和上海活动的鼠肉犯罪团伙用明胶、色素（胭脂红）和工业用化学品（硝盐）使老鼠肉、狐狸肉和水貂肉在外观和味道上更像羊肉。

The list of food products that Chinese consumers have to avoid seems to be growing by the week.

中国消费者要避开的食品的清单似乎越来越长。

Many restaurants have taken poultry off their menus after the H7N9 bird flu virus was found in humans for the first time in late March and poultry sales have fallen 80 per cent in some parts.

自3月下旬首例人感染H7N9禽流感病毒得到确诊以来，许多餐馆已停止供应禽类菜肴，禽类销售在某些地区暴跌80%。

According to the latest official figures, nearly 130 cases of the new disease have been identified and 26 people have died from it.

根据最新的官方数据，迄今已确诊近130例人感染H7N9病毒，其中26人已死亡。

In March, more than 16,000 rotten pig carcases were found floating down the main river that flows through the commercial metropolis of Shanghai.

3月份，流经上海市区的主要河流——黄浦江上发现逾1.6万头腐烂的死猪。

“After pigs were found in the Huangpu river we don’t dare to eat pork, because of bird flu we don’t dare to eat chickens or ducks and now we can’t eat beef or mutton [because it might be rat meat],” wrote one person on the Twitter-like Weibo service. “The vegetarian diet plan will definitely be a massive hit across all of China.”

有人在新浪微博(Weibo)上写道，黄浦江上发现死猪后，我们不敢吃猪肉，禽流感使我们不敢吃鸡鸭，现在我们不能吃牛羊肉（因为它们可能是老鼠肉），素食主义肯定会在全国盛行起来。