Someone (SB) says that China's milk standards are lower than those in Europe and the US because "Chinese people have a different constitution" and a higher proportion of lactose intolerance, so there is no need to implement the same high standards as in Europe and the US. This explanation is popular because it borrows a real fact to explain a completely different set of issues.

Lactose intolerance refers to the body's insufficient ability to break down lactose. It affects how much milk a person drinks and what form of milk they drink, such as low-lactose milk, yogurt, or reduced intake. But the discussion about milk standards has never been about "whether to drink milk" but about "what quality of milk".
China's milk standards involve multiple dimensions such as protein content, somatic cell count, total bacterial count, aflatoxin limit, lead content, veterinary drug residues, and processing additives. The standards system in Europe and the US is also built around these indicators. In other words, lactose intolerance can at most explain consumption habits, but it cannot explain why the protein standards differ, why somatic cell count standards differ, why veterinary drug residue standards differ, and why food safety standards differ.
Protein content: determines nutritional value. Drinking the same glass of milk yields different amounts of protein.
Total bacterial count: reflects the hygiene level of production and cold chain. The higher the count, the higher the risk of spoilage and infection.
Somatic cell count: reflects the health status of dairy cows, such as mastitis. The higher the number, the worse the quality of raw milk.
Aflatoxin M1: a Group 1 carcinogen identified by the World Health Organization. Long-term intake increases the risk of liver cancer.
Lead content: a neurotoxic heavy metal that particularly affects children's intellectual development and nervous system.
Veterinary drug and antibiotic residues: long-term low-dose exposure may increase the risk of antibiotic resistance and affect the human microbial environment.
A problem about lactose metabolism is used to explain issues across the entire food industry system. With just a phrase "different constitution," one can skip discussions on industrial structure, regulatory systems, cost control, interest distribution, food safety, and the logic behind standard-setting. Then more ignorant people defend this viewpoint.
More importantly, this kind of logic is not limited to the dairy industry. We often see similar explanations: housing prices are high because Chinese people like buying houses; work is competitive because Chinese people are hardworking; standards are low because Chinese people have a different constitution; competition is fierce because Chinese people value education. They ultimately explain all complex systemic and structural problems as individual problems, cultural problems, and ethnic problems.
The real issue has never been whether Chinese people can drink milk, but rather how a society defines risk, cost, and safety. Their standards are not a scientific issue but an issue of order. How low a standard a society allows, how much risk it permits, and how much cost is shifted onto ordinary people essentially reflect how that society maintains its own operation and growth. Many times, we are not discussing milk, but rather what price a society is willing to pay for the safety and quality of ordinary people.