Chinese Government Imposes 500 Million Won Fine on Pharmacies for 10-Fold Mask Price Gouging

Reselling 2,000-won Masks for 20,000 Won

10,000-won Napa Cabbage Also Appears

Chinese Government Launches All-Out Effort to Calm Public Anger

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jaehee] As demand for masks rises due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (Wuhan pneumonia), Chinese authorities are making every effort to control the prices of sensitive items including masks.

Amid growing criticism of the government's inadequate initial response, this is interpreted as a preemptive measure to prevent public anger from spiraling out of control if prices of sensitive items skyrocket.

According to local Chinese media Xin Jing Bao on the 29th, Tianjin city market supervision authorities received a report that medical masks KN95 were being sold at 128 yuan (about 21,000 won) at a franchise pharmacy and launched an investigation.

The investigation revealed that the pharmacy purchased KN95 masks at 12 yuan (about 2,000 won) each and resold them at more than ten times the price.

Tianjin city judged this as profiteering by exploiting the emergency caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus and imposed an administrative fine of 3 million yuan (about 500 million won).

In Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, when a large supermarket sold a head of napa cabbage at a high price of 63.9 yuan (about 10,000 won), city authorities imposed a fine of 500,000 yuan (about 84 million won).

Local governments including Shanghai are controlling mask prices at cost level through strong administrative guidance.

Additionally, the Chinese government is continuously supplying groceries by train and other means to the locked-down Wuhan city, enabling about 5 million Wuhan citizens to maintain basic living conditions.

Most commercial facilities in Wuhan city have temporarily closed, but some large supermarkets like Carrefour are reported to be continuing operations.

However, these stores are said not to have as wide a variety of products as usual.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang recently visited a large supermarket in Wuhan and pledged to ensure the supply of essential goods such as groceries during the lockdown period.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.