“The few corrupt officials of the SFDA are the shame of the whole system and their scandals have revealed some very serious problems,” said Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman for the state food regulator.

Zheng Xiaoyu accepted nearly half a million pounds in bribes from pharmaceutical companies to ensure that their defective products gained approval.

His punishment is seen as severe, even for a country as keen on the death penalty as China.

It is believed that the country executes more people than all other countries' practising capital punishment combined.

"Corrupt elements will be thoroughly investigated no matter who they are, how high their post, or how deep they hide, and there can be no appeasement or softness," according to the People's Daily, mouthpiece of the Chinese administration.

Zheng may have been sacrificed in order to appease criticism of China's safety record in food and medicine production.

A series of scandals have seen Chinese foodstuffs recalled due to toxic contamination, such as poisoned wheat gluten used in US pet food that resulted in deaths.

In one notorious incident, a batch of contaminated medicine exported to Panama caused several fatalities.

“We should seriously reflect and learn lessons from these cases. We should step up our efforts to ensure food and drug safety, which is what we are doing now and what we will do in the future,” said Yan.