China Has An Image Problem

Despite a strong attempt to be seen as a modern industrial contender, recent reports in the NY Times suggests that China is letting itself down with its serious quality control problem. This article looks at how every bad toy in the US was made in China:

China manufactured every one of the 24 kinds of toys recalled for safety reasons in the United States so far this year, including the enormously popular Thomas & Friends wooden train sets, a record that is causing alarm among consumer advocates, parents and regulators.

…Over all, the number of products made in China that are being recalled in the United States by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission has doubled in the last five years, driving the total number of recalls in the country to 467 last year, an annual record.

The problem doesn’t rest with the things that kids stuff in their own mouths, it also lies in what adults stick in their kids’ mouths too: China can’t keep it’s drugs or food clean either. This article looks at the Chinese authorities’ reaction to poisoned foods and drugs:

Beijing is moving to crack down on the sale of dangerous food and medicine and trying to calm fears that some of its exports pose health problems. The announcement follows a series of embarrassing episodes this year involving China’s export of tainted pet food ingredients and toothpaste. The shipments of pet food ingredients, contaminated by the chemical melamine, set off one of the largest pet food recalls in United States history.

In recent weeks, several countries, including the United States, Panama and Nicaragua, recalled or issued warnings about toothpaste made in China because it contained a toxic chemical called diethylene glycol.

Last month, The New York Times reported that at least 100 people had died in Panama after taking medicine containing diethylene glycol that had been produced in China and exported as the harmless syrup glycerine.

And a spokesman for the European Commission said on Wednesday that food safety officials there were investigating after Greece and Poland reported finding traces of melamine in corn gluten and rice protein imported from China, forcing the rejection of one shipment and the withdrawal of tainted feed from the market.

Some of the more modern images of China is that its a powerhouse, able to rise up and compete with any company in the world creating just as good products with vastly lower costs. However, something somewhere is going wrong this paragraph in the former article, suggests that no one really knows what, where:

At one of the RC2 factories in Dongguan, China, on Sunday, a pair of workers who were paid about $150 a month to spray paint on mostly metal toy trains six days a week said they did not know whether the paint they used contained lead. The factory produces metal toys as well as the wooden toys listed in the Thomas recall.