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September 27, 2007
Who Will Apologize Next?
The American Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued another set of product recalls involving leaded toys and jewelry from China. (Golly gee willickers, but don't they look so cute!)
In Bejing, Commerce Ministry spokesman Wang Xinpei on Thursday said: "Our attitude toward the toy problem has always been the same, that the problem is one in a thousand."
With several million products already recalled and many more likely to follow, that ratio may be somewhat erroneous.
The $64,000 Asia Business Intelligence question: which of the American companies involved in the recalls will be the next to suddenly appear with Chinese officials, apologizing deeply, humbly and profusely to the government, exporters, manufacturers, factory workers, transport carriers, freight forwarders, longshoremen and God knows who else in China?
Posted by Richard at 8:08 PM | Comments (0)September 25, 2007
Announcement: IP Rights in China Roundtable
Event: ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN CHINA
Date: October 23-24, 2007
October 23: Evening Reception
October 24: IPR Roundtable
Place: Grand Hyatt Beijing
From the event website:
Ambassador Clark T. Randt will host the Sixth Annual Roundtable Discussion on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in China on October 23-24, 2007 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Beijing, China. This is a unique opportunity for United States companies to spend the day with the Ambassador, and hear from industry and trade association representatives with in-depth knowledge and experience speak on IPR protection and enforcement issues in China. The Roundtable discussion will also facilitate direct engagement between United States companies and senior United States officials from both Washington, DC and the United States Mission in China.
Register here.
Posted by Richard at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)September 21, 2007
Mattel Apologizes to China!
A shameful kow-tow.
"Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls," Thomas Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president of worldwide operations, told China's quality watchdog chief, Li Changjiang, in the Chinese capital.
Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys."
"But it's important for everyone to understand that the vast majority of those products that we recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in Chinese manufacturers."
As of 1300 UTC on the date of this posting, the Mattel website does not display any such statement.
Beware, all ye who dare to accuse.
UPDATE (2100 UTC):
Even the Wall Street Journal, that supposed bastion of the free market ideal, and its interviewees miss the point entirely:
it also would also seem logical for Mattel officials to take a respectful stance toward Chinese officials, as 65% of its products are built there. Drew Thompson, the director of China Studies at the Washington-based think thank, the Nixon Center, says maintaining good government relations is crucial for companies that want to build a lasting corporate presence in the country. "It's incredibly important," Mr. Thompson said. "It's everything." Bates Gill, who has worked as a China specialist at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, agrees, noting that while it's important to maintain good governmental relations in most countries, it might be more so in a country like China. "The government has a lot of control over the full range of factors of production in China," Mr. Gill said. "From land usage, regulatory questions, licensing, labor, all of these inputs for profitable production in China are, you know, controlled and can be manipulated by state authorities. So you have to be cautious and make sure that those relationships are positive."
Why is it that, when discussing China, shameful bootlicking subservience under threat, a requisite of behavior before the ancient Imperial court, is tolerated by the most modern of businessmen and academics? Why is it blithely explained away, simply as an act of necessity, even of survival? Lord Macartney refused to bow to Qian Long:
In Peking Macartney refused to kow-tow, or make the nine prostrations, unless a magistrate of equal rank would kneel, and bow nine times before a portrait of George III. Both sides declined to yield. Finally, not in the palace, but in a garden, informally, the British minister obtained audience of the emperor, but in reality he was received and treated as tribute-bearer from a vassal state. Trade was opened at Canton, but the British foreigners agreed to obey the local magistrates. In a word, there was no "extra-territoriality" as yet. The foreigners' place of business was called a "factory."
[Note: If enough readers ask for it, I will find the incident in Macartney's journal of the trip, published ca. 1793.]
Bravo for that Brit! Who has the spine now?
Mattel's apology should be publicly and vociferously deplored, not simply for the craven act itself, then for its assuredly lasting after-effects upon other foreign firms, who will now find themselves pressured to act similarly, at pain of who knows what sanction.
I regret to say I can not commiserate with Mattel executives on their decision to cave. Instead, this is a lesson to all those who would foolishly place most of their eggs in one basket. I've been saying it for years, boys, China is a tough town. They play for keeps. Diversify or suffer. Or they're going to have you by the short and curlies. If they don't already.
Posted by Richard at 1:55 PM | Comments (0)September 17, 2007
Flying The Communist Skies: Air Koryo To North Korea
[Editor's Note: I've never traveled to North Korea, but dearly wish to do so. As an American, the likelihood is slim, alas. I envy PRC Chinese who, following the footsteps of the presumably still incarcerated Yang Bin -- the ex-flower magnate, embezzler and bankrupt of Shenyang who had planned to corner the cross border trade -- flit over to Shinuiju to gamble on the crap tables installed by Stanley Ho of Macao casino fame and fortune.
I long, redheaded, white-skinned Chinese speaker that I am, to turn the heads and fix the eyes of those North Koreans who've never seen a Westerner, as I did with PRC Chinese in the early 1980s. In essence, to turn back the calendar by thirty years and re-visit ancient Asian "communism," still on display in its only remnant, the death defying holdout. I wonder how I would apprehend it this time around. Most likely with the same desperate sadness I did then, but who knows?
I find any first-hand account of North Korea stimulating enough simply to glean any tit-bit of interest, regardless of the quality of the writing. But I discovered the article below on the website of author, Paul Karl Lukacs. Mr. Lukacs writes of his contact with North Korea so vividly and with a finer turn of expression than I have seen in most travelogues these past 50 years. He has kindly agreed to post on Asia Business Intelligence for which I thank him most heartily.
Paul Karl Lukacs is a Hollywood entertainment attorney who recently took a year off to travel and blog through Asia. His blog, Knife Tricks, may be viewed here. He may be reached at this address.]
Flying The Communist Skies: Air Koryo To North Korea
by Paul Karl Lukacs
A flight attendant announced that beverage service would commence thanks to “our Dear Leader Kim Jong-il.”
Air Koryo flight JS152 from Beijing, China, to Pyongyang, North Korea, had been in the air about 20 minutes and had flown about 150 miles. But the entire Air Koryo experience, including the return four days later on Flight JS221, was like flying 30 years back in time. (For plane spotters and North Korea obsessives, I flew tail number P-885 to Pyongyang and P-881 back.)
The plane to Pyongyang was an Ilyushin 62-M, built by the Soviet Union in 1979 and kitted like a set from The Spy Who Loved Me. No cool corporate off-white here. The surprisingly comfortable economy seats were covered in puke green cloth upholstery with an indistinct pink pattern. The cabin’s interior shell was cast in a shade of beige which belonged in a Southern California ranch house from the era of earth tones. The plastic window shades were not opaque but a dark translucent brown.
The tray table was larger than on a contemporary plane, but the netting in the seat-back pouch was strung so tight that a bottle of water could not fit. The flight to Pyongyang had no overhead bins, only racks on which carry-on luggage was placed; the return flight had small bins molded from bile yellow plastic. I wondered where the Soviet designers found their color charts.
* * * * *
The weirdness started at the gate in Beijing’s airport, where I noticed the North Koreans, who are easy to distinguish from other Koreans. North Koreans are the ones wearing red lacquer pins of their late leader General Kim Il-sung (who is still President despite his death in 1994) on their left lapels, over their hearts.
All North Koreans are required to wear a Kim Il-sung pin when outside their homes. There are two principal designs, a large pin with Kim Il-sung’s face on a flag-shaped red background and a second design with the Great Leader’s face set in a small red circle. My North Korean guides later informed me that pins are distributed once a year at work and that there is no significance to the various designs; they are distributed as available.
About one-third of the waiting crowd were North Koreans. Another third were Korean-Americans, South Koreans and Chinese, and the final third were Caucasians. The plane was perhaps two-third full on the inbound journey, and packed on the return.
Three North Korean security officers, in blue uniforms, were standing on the tarmac supervising the loading of luggage onto the plane. I had never before seen that level of official attention given to the loading of luggage.
A plainclothes security officer, in the black pants and black shirt that is the de facto national dress of North Korea, stood at the end of the jetway, immediately outside the aircraft’s door. He scrutinized each passenger as we embarked, but he may also have stood the post to prevent cabin crew from defecting.
The Ilyushin had a strange three-compartment configuration. A small Business Class (in a country without private enterprise) was followed by an Economy section of perhaps ten rows. Next was the galley -- which completely divided the aircraft -- followed by the bulk of the Economy seats. The general seating order seemed to be: North Koreans in front, then Chinese and then other Koreans, with the white Americans at the back of the bus.
Most of the flight attendants looked like cast members from a Korean remake of Blade Runner. The one flight attendant in Business Class was wearing a bright red hanbok, a traditional Korean cloak. The other flight attendants, all women, were dressed in bright red jackets with padded shoulders and a red-and-white candy cane cravat. Each wore white gloves with an embroidered rose on the back of the hand, and each had her hair pulled tightly with a brooch and a small snood over a bun. As is often the case in Asian societies, these women had powdered their faces to look as white as possible, which accentuated their red lipstick and heavy black mascara and eyeliner. Of course, each wore a Kim Il-sung pin over her heart.
Patriotic music was playing as we found our seats. After we settled in, the flight attendants offered a choice of in-flight propaganda. I chose the English-language edition of The Pyongyang Times. The off-lead story – headlined “Books and writings extol Korean leader” – began with the sentence: “The world people in the five continents are highly praising President Kim Il-sung with immense reverence for him.” Great, I quipped to myself, the mathematical computations needed to keep this plane aloft are being made by people who do not know the correct number of continents.
I was placing my life in the hands of a 28-year-old machine built by a country that no longer existed and operated by a country that could not generate enough electricity to power its capital. I had to laugh.
* * * * *
Sitting near the back of an Ilyushin, you feel the thrust. All four engines are bolted to the tail, and you literally feel the airplane being pushed down the runway. The high-pitched whine of the engines is reassuring. Many modern airplanes are so baffled and muffled that you wonder how they reach take-off speed. With an Ilyushin, you know there’s enough power to launch that bird into the sky.
Lunch was served in a hinged plastic tray, with a black bottom and a transparent top. The menu was standard Asian airline grub: smoked meat wedges, cucumber salad with spicy cold chicken, a dinner roll, and rice with gravy and vegetables. The meal was nothing memorable, but it was being served gratis on a 90-minute flight, while American carriers charge for food on flights of up to six hours.
There were a lot of Nos. No video screens. No headsets. No frequent flyer program. No web site. No in-flight magazine (unless you counted copies of Pictorial KOREA; articles included “Ever-victorious Korean People’s Army” and “Japanese Reactionaries Run Amuck To Oppress Chongryon”).
But there were a lot of Yeses. Yes, the cabin looked clean and well-maintained. Yes, the plane departed and landed on time. Yes, the flight attendants were obviously selected for their beauty, common on Asian carriers.
When we crossed the Yalu River, a flight attendant announced that we had entered North Korean airspace. "Sixty-two years ago, our President, Kim Il-sung, came across the river with great ambition for his country and to liberate his country from Japanese imperialism," she said. Of course, by the time of the Yalu River crossing in September 1945, Japan had already surrendered, but I doubt that detail would have made a difference to the pale flight attendant.
* * * * *
I previously noted that Air Koryo received one star from the Skytrax rating service, a score which denotes “very poor standards of product across all travel categories.” After flying these two segments, I think the rating is unfair and beside the point.
Air Koryo should not be judged by the same criteria as Malaysia Airlines or LAN Chile. Air Koryo is its own animal, as unique as a moon lander or a vehicle you would take to the center of the earth.
Air Koryo is a flying circus featuring strangely coifed, vampiric flight attendants who work in a cabin straight out of a 1970s’ airport movie while travelers read palpably insane propaganda as they jet to an isolated dictatorship which is officially governed by a dead man. It’s not a drama; it’s a comedy of the absurd. Embrace the situation, and Air Koryo becomes enjoyable.
Posted by Richard at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)September 6, 2007
Chinese-Made Condoms Fail to Stimulate Confidence
A reference in passing to the origin of these condoms suffices to make this another "Uh-oh, Made in China" story. Check your wallets, boys. [Thanks once again to the eagle-eyed Miss Johnson From London for the onpass.]
The usual noises are heard, this time in Canada:
China's ambassador to Canada said importers share some responsibility for the recent recalls of Chinese-made toys found to contain excessive levels of lead paint. It is unfair to blame Chinese companies alone for this week's recall of 700,000 Chinese-made toys by Mattel Inc. (NYSE:MAT), Lu Shumin said Wednesday.
The Chinese toy manufacturers, most of them, are doing business with these foreign importers,' Lu said. 'They make toys according to the foreign importers' requests, according to their standard. So I think it is a mutual responsibility.'
In what has been termed an international public relations campaign, Chinese officials have disastrously turned, as is habit, to a longstanding tactic that will sink the dwindling reputation of Chinese products even further -- blaming the victim. Watch for increasing attacks of this sort -- including direct blame of the consumer himself. After all, the consumer was responsible for buying the product in the first place!
I wouldn't be surprised to see a decrease in the rate of growth in Chinese imports over the next year, simply due to this issue.
UPDATE (Sept. 11, 2007): Poll: American consumers overwhelmingly blame Chinese manufacturers, the Chinese government and, to a lesser extent, American companies.
UPDATE (Sept. 12, 2007): Bloomberg --
Mattel Inc., the world's largest toymaker, withdrew more lead-tainted products from China last week, bringing the value of recalled toxic and dangerous Chinese goods to $430 million since June 6, from $152 million a year earlier, according to figures compiled from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission data. The value of goods withdrawn from American shelves this year totals $1.08 billion.
UPDATE (Sept. 12, 2007): Why is this considered copying and this is not? Are they that dissimilar? How so?
