Xinhua recently reported on a widely spreading story about the corruption scandal related to some village elementary school students’ "nutritious" lunches. The story first broke on China’s twitter-like microblogging sites, where college volunteers posted messages online exposing the fact that many elementary school students are receiving problematic government-funded “nutritious lunch” packages. There lunches are only worth about RMB 3 yuan (around $0.51). One package contained one small piece of bread and one small carton of cold milk. Its actual cost was widely estimated to be below RMB 1 yuan (around $0.17). Similar problems occurred in many provinces. Remembering such incidents as expired milk, Chinese public opinion quickly turned into an active discussion of widespread corruption. Even the government controlled media are questioning the bidding process for those who supply lunches and are calling for a full scale investigation.
Sources:
Xinhua, November 26, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/comments/2012-11/26/c_113798179.htm
People’s Daily, November 26, 2012
http://edu.people.com.cn/n/2012/1126/c1053-19694237.html