Genetically modified food dispute: Guo Chenglin sentenced to one year for commenting on genetically modified food

Guo Chenglin may be the first person in China to be convicted of commenting on genetically modified foods. On July 14 this year, the people's Court of Nanshan District of Shenzhen sentenced Guo Chenglin to one year in prison for the crime of damaging the reputation of commodities. Two months later, the Shenzhen Intermediate people's Court tried the case for the second time.

If there is no accident, on October 22, Guo Chenglin will walk out of the detention center in Nanshan District of Shenzhen City and regain his freedom. However, it is unavoidable that the giant of genetically modified food has entered China and will increasingly intervene and affect the daily life of the Chinese people. The debate and wrestling over genetically modified foods will not end with Guo Chenglin's freedom.

Guo Chenglin, a white-collar worker in Beijing, may be the first person in China to be convicted of commenting on genetically modified foods.

On September 15, 2010, Guo Chenglin, then the project strategy director of Beijing Zamber Marketing Management Consulting Company, published the article "Golden Dragon Fish, a crocodile that brought calamity to the country and the people" on his office computer. It claimed that "70% of the base oil of goldfish blending oil is genetically modified chemical extract oil", "eating it makes you unable to have offspring, it can make our offspring lost."

Such words angered the producer of Jinlongyu, Nanhai Oil Industry (Chiwan) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nanhai Oil Company"), which reported to the Shenzhen police that its reputation had been damaged and caused huge economic losses.

On July 14, 2011, the people's Court of Nanshan District of Shenzhen City issued a judgment of first instance, finding that Guo Chenglin's actions had constituted a crime of damaging the reputation of commodities and sentenced to one year's imprisonment (from October 23, 2010 to October 22, 2011). And a fine of 10,000 yuan.

Even in prison, Guo Chenglin insisted that his post was "a personal act of social welfare, based entirely on facts" and appealed after the verdict of the first instance. On September 19, the Shenzhen Intermediate people's Court heard the case in public. As of time Weekly reporter's press time, the court had not yet made a judgment of second instance.

Communication, traps?

Guo Chenglin, 32, graduated from Beijing University of Chemical Technology in 2002 and has since worked for a number of marketing planning companies.

In August 2010, Beijing Zanbo Marketing Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zamber Company"), Shandong Luhua Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Luhua Group"), which Guo Chenglin worked for, signed a 1.8 million yuan "Marketing Strategy Consulting Agreement".

Luhua Group, headquartered in Laiyang City, Yantai, Shandong Province, has an annual production capacity of 900000 tons of peanut oil and is currently the largest professional peanut oil production company in China. According to Yu Ziyu, its general manager, the purpose of Lu Hua's signing the contract with Zamber is to "bring our company's nut blending oil to the market, and then better bring our company's peanut oil to the market."

In August of that year, Yu Ziyu led the sales director and marketing minister of Luhua Group to Zamber for preliminary exchanges. According to a number of parties, in the exchange on that day, Yu Ziyu made an analysis of the industry situation to Zamber, as well as an introduction to his competitor Jinlongyu.

According to Luhua Group, Jinlongyu blending oil is extracted from genetically modified soybeans by chemical leaching, and the oil contains carcinogens, while Luhua Group, which used to be mainly peanut oil, now wants to make nut blending oil, allowing Zamber to enhance the selling point of nut blending oil.

"China is a country with a large population, and solving the problem of feeding 1.3 billion people is always a top priority." In response to a reporter's question in March last year, the head of the Agricultural genetically modified organisms Safety Management Office of the Ministry of Agriculture said: "promoting the research and application of genetically modified technology is a major development strategy focusing on international competition and industrial division of labor in the future. it is an inevitable requirement and an important way to ensure national food security."

At present, in China's food market, the most common genetically modified food is genetically modified soybean oil. After genetically modified soybeans entered China, most of them flowed into foreign-funded edible oil processing enterprises. Compared with Chinese local edible oil processing enterprises which are used to using non-genetically modified soybeans as raw materials, foreign-funded enterprises quickly occupy most of the market share with the advantages of low price and high oil production rate of genetically modified soybeans.

As the producer of golden arowana brand, Nanhai Oil Company has a deep background. The company invested in China by its parent company, Yihai Kerry Singapore Fengyi International Co., Ltd., is controlled by the family of Kuok Hock Nien, a Malaysian tycoon of Chinese nationality. After nearly 20 years of deep ploughing, Yihai Kerry has domestic well-known brands such as "Golden Dragon Fish", "Koufu" and "Hu Jihua". Among them, "Golden Dragon Fish" has won two honors this year as "exclusive supplier of edible oil for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games" and "exclusive supplier of grain and oil for Shenzhen Universiade".