Beijing recently announced that a massive testing campaign has turned up no contamination in liquid milk made in China. That's a relief after milk powder tainted with an industrial chemical claimed the lives of at least four infants and sickened 54,000 in recent months. Just don't mistake this for a sign that Beijing has finally solved its food safety problem. It's not that Beijing has been standing idle in the face of the catastrophe. Nearly three dozen local officials and dairy-industry workers have been arrested. The head of the national quality watchdog agency, Li Changjiang, was fired. Beijing has dispatched 5,000 inspectors to carry on round-the-clock monitoring at dairies. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have promised to fix the problem. But authorities have taken similar steps in the past, without coming close to a lasting solution. Last year the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration was executed after his conviction on a bribery charge involving approving unsafe medicines. Last year, too, Beijing banned food exports containing melamine, the chemical additive in the milk contamination after the pet food scandal in the U.S. The government has beefed up its food inspections. Despite all that, consumers still must worry about the safety and quality of the China-made foods and drugs they buy. That's because Beijing is unwilling to take the additional steps that might make a real difference. Consider press freedom. A reporter at Southern Weekend magazine first blew the whistle on reports of babies possibly sickened by milk powder in late July. Or rather, he would have if he and his editor had beenal-lowed to publish an article on the case. Instead, the story fell victim to a directive from the Propaganda Department forbidding negative reporting on food safety ahead of the Olympics. This episode shows how China's media controls make it impossible for the press to serve as an effective watchdog. Since the milk scandal erupted, Beijing has grown more restrictive, not less. Publications have been instructed to hew to reports issued by Xinhua, the state news organ. Online forums have allowed somewhat more room for discussion of the issue, although online bulletin board posts expressing anger over the scandal are often deleted. Beijing has been similarly reluctant to develop another key component of mod