TailSPIN

[bulldogg]

BEIJING, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Politically motivated, unfair, biased and poisoned by jealousy -- China's quality watchdog chief gave his verdict on Sunday on the storm surrounding the quality of Chinese goods, describing it as a "cold wind". Li Changjiang told a carefully choreographed talk show on state television that his department was doing everything possible to check quality and probe substandard goods, especially following the recent huge toy recall by Mattel. "I'm here to tell you: have faith in made-in-China," Li told a selected group of foreign and Chinese executives and journalists. "Children are our future. So their health and safety is very important," added Li, the man leading the counter-offensive to convince the world that Chinese goods are safe. "We have three million people working hard, making toys to make children around the world happy." The Mattel recall affected Big Bird, Elmo and millions of other toys with safety risks associated with magnets and lead paint. The show's host, Chen Weihong, held up a small plastic toy, which was part of the recall, and asked the audience to guess which part contained too much lead. Eyes? No. Tail? Not that either. Legs? Way out. The answer -- the eyebrows, only visible if you looked up close. "There is no danger. You can hold it with no problem," Li told Chen when he asked him if it was safe to hold. "The U.S. has told us that there have been no cases of children being harmed." "NEW KIND OF PROTECTIONISM" Next appeared a wooden toy train set, complete with engines and signals. In fact, the only part with too much lead in it -- the reason it was recalled -- was a small bright red stop sign. "Children won't eat this sign, or smell it every day. The effect is very limited," Li said. "It's exaggerated. In the first example it was the eyebrows which exceeded standards. And in this whole set, it's only the stop sign. It's not fair to say China's products are not up to scratch. Not fair at all," he added. "Why was the recall so large? Because they couldn't judge exactly which toys had too much lead in them," Li said. "There's no way to distinguish, so they all had to be recalled." "More than 99 percent of our goods meet standards," he added. "Demonising Chinese products, or talking of the Chinese product threat, I think is simply a new kind of trade protectionism." Li said that, curiously, it has only been in the last few months that the made-in-China stamp has attracted such suspicion. "Over the last few years, more than 90 percent of our exports have been up to standard. It was the same in 2004, in 2005, in 2006 and in the first half of this year. Why have the problems only come to light now? It's very worrying," he said. "It's not a severe winter, but there is a cold wind blowing," Li said. "This cold wind has been a big trial for the industry ... But I think most of our companies can endure this test. Why do I say this? Because our exports keep going up." But companies would have to face anti-China bias and even jealousy of the country's growing trade power in the form of increasing complaints about quality, he said. "As globalisation progresses, Chinese products have more and more of the world market, causing other countries to take note." "Some groups, such as certain officials, still have some prejudices. In the future, when they see up-to-standard Chinese goods in their homes, and that they are very convenient, and that their families are very happy, they'll change their opinions."

No comment. And you can quote me.
:crybaby:

 

[The Other Guy]

I think the reason the chinese product is inferior is because we give them crazy product demands, and they cut corners to make money.

Other than that I have nothing to say about this.

 

[senojekips]

It seems that the Chinese have a problem recognising that it is the whole product that must meet the specifications not parts of it or most of it. I am convinced that if these smaller infractions were overlooked, it would send the wrong message. In these cases the Chinese seem to have the approach that near enough is good enough.

Several years ago the Chinese based company that I worked for, purchased a reverse osmosis water plant in Shanghai. It was very competitively priced at about one third of the price of the equivalent Australian made unit and had twice the production capacity. It arrived onboard and it looked fantastic, nearly all made of stainless steel.

We installed it after some minor alterations to the ships pipework and it appeared to work quite well, although it did not ever reach the specified output. Within 12 months pin holes were appearing in the "stainless" steel components and most of it was showing signs of surface rusting. Within 18 months the whole unit was found to be completely beyond economic repair and had to be replaced with another unit similar to the original Australian made one which was five years old and still performing to specification.

This was typical of all the Chinese made products we bought for the ship with the exception of three "Haier" brand washing machines. Which when I left, were two years old, had worked about 16 hours a day every day and still going strong.

So obviously they can produce good products, but the answer seems to be that you must check their quality control standards all the time.

 

[Marinerhodes]

I was looking but I can not find it. Have any of you heard of the story and math laid out about delivering only 95% (I think that was the number) of newspapers? About what happens in other areas of our life if we only gave 95%?

I thought it was a good read myself.

 

[mmarsh]

I think corruption is a big problem as well, a government official can be cheaply bought to look the other way on quality control. I refer to the ex-chief of the Chinese FDA who was shot because he accepted bribes to approve a medicine (at least it was sold as medicine) that contained toxins, and that 11 people died as a result. (I am surprised the Chinese didn't shoot the CEO of the pharmaceutical company).

The Chinese have begun to realize that their entire new economy is at risk because countries such as the US and Europe (already angry at the trade imbalance) will happily take their business elsewhere (even if its more expensive) if the shoddy construction of Chinese imports continues.

 

[A Can of Man]

You just can't trust things out of China. Most of the time they'll stop working but sometimes you just don't know.
My wife's got a nice pair of shoes which are years old yet they still look great and don't show any signs of falling apart.
My computer's a year old and it's still working fine. Then again, being HP I guess they would have rather strict quality control measures.
I heard about that incident of the Chinese FDA chief as well. A reasonable turn in events for a story set in China.