Li Quoted in Science Magazine Article About Chinese Tainted Milk Scandal

Shaomin Li, professor of international business and management at Old Dominion University, was quoted in a recent Science Magazine article examining the tainted baby formula scandal in China.

The article discusses how the Chinese government has responded to the poisoning of thousands of infants from formula tainted with the chemical melamine. It also details the groundbreaking partnership between China and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to study the contamination and develop measures to prevent another crisis.

Li noted that given the size and population of China, it might prove difficult to police every infant formula manufacturer and that some unscrupulous companies might still dilute formula with melamine to increase profits.

"When millions of people experiment with new ways to make money without moral self-constraint, the chance of new products that can evade existing testing methods is pretty high," he says. "Unless the people who put melamine into milk lose sleep, the product-safety problem in China will go on," said Li.

Read the full article in Science Magazine online at:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;322/5906/1310

Li has written and edited nine books on political economy and management, and has published more than 30 academic articles. As a leading scholar in international business studies, his articles have appeared in the Journal of International Business Studies, Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Journal of Comparative Economics and Journal of Mathematical Sociology, among others. His commentaries on China's development have been published in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

He joined the management department in ODU's College of Business and Public Administration in 2002. He teaches international business, a subject that not only integrates a wide range of social and administrative theories, but also requires extensive practical experience. His rich business background enables him to shed light on how international trade and investment are actually conducted. He served as a director at AT&T in charge of developing the East Asian market, founding CEO of an Internet firm in Hong Kong with two subsidiaries in China, and adviser to a number of multinational firms.

Li graduated from Peking University, obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.