Gansu is a poor province, naturally there will be more probability of corruption. Allegedly this was kicked off by cafeteria staff buying industrial paint to use as food colouring. This was signed off by the principal as a cost saving measure.Perhaps China is still dealing with these types of bozos that have firmly entrenched itself writ large in all of society that's difficult to be uprooted for Xi Jinping to remove within 10 years of his tenure. Hence him announcing and having to do away with the unspoken 10 year limit since he could have just been WAITED out by the very mongrels that causing the system to rot. I truly believe that if the U.S. had been patient and cerebral with its approach in dealing with China's CPC, they could have done a spectacular damage to the legitimacy and rule of the party due to it's own INCOMPETENCE AND CORRUPTION!!
Thank the heavens, that the PARTY ITSELF recognized its errors and hubris that it appointed Xi as their next leader tasked with the herculean effort to root out corruption that has permeated and embedded at all levels!!
Ideology does matter and so do character, and integrity. The CPC is simply lucky that the U.S. in it's haste to undermine China simply lost patience and thanks to its unequalled incompetence equalled by its arrogance that China has been spared the worst!!
I happen to agree (not all) from the observations made by @Captaincool made on his YouTube channel and texts posted on the subreddit: Whampoa military:
Captaincool07 (黃永熙): The Cultural Revolution really screwed us hard. Nearly every major modern social ill facing China today can be traced back to the unnecessary destruction unleashed during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and the domino effect afterwards.
So, why the need to colour the food so artificially in the first place? Is the budget sufficient or was this more corruption? Although the coverup cannot be forgiven, these are some questions that should also be asked.
If we remember the Michigan lead poisoning water from 10 or so years ago, basically it was also the town being poor and not wanting to buy water piped in from the Great Lakes.