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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 The value of goods withdrawn from American shelves this year totals $1.08 billion.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?
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