On the defective, sometimes dangerous, crap their country is producing:
“This is a special battle to protect the health and personal interests of the public and to protect the reputation of Chinese goods and the national image,” Wu said, according to the government Web site.
The world’s largest toymaker, Mattel, recalled more than 18 million Chinese-made toys in mid-August because of hazards from small magnets that can cause injury if swallowed, just two weeks after it recalled 1.5 million toys due to fears over lead paint.
Wal-Mart said it was asking suppliers to resubmit testing documentation for the toys it sells after Mattel’s move.
Other Chinese export scares have hit toothpaste, animal-food ingredients, tires, eels and seafood, and deadly chemicals that found their way into cough medicine, killing dozens of patients in Panama.
Shaken by the product scares, China has fought back with new rules, factory shutdowns, constant news conferences and now an old-style campaign to shake up local officials often more focused on economic-growth targets.
Wu blamed lax inspection and enforcement and failure of officials in rival agencies to cooperate. She vowed to whip them into line with a list of eight tasks and 20 specific goals.
New processes are being rolled out almost immediately. Starting in September you’ll want to look for the CIQ label on Chinese food products before munching:
According to China’s quality watchdog, all food exports that have passed inspection will carry the initials “CIQ” which stands for “China Inspection and Quarantine.” This is to guarantee buyers that food exports from China have been meticulously prepared.
Chinese officials will also increase record keeping, hoping to use the data to isolate potential problems in the future. Now, all packaging items will have vital information such as the producer’s name, producer’s address, batch number with production dates and expiration dates.
Of course, there’s probably not much the Chinese can do to keep unethical companies from faking it and sticking the label on anyway. They’re sort of known for that. However, the stakes are massive and the quality concerns are not restricted to exports:
The Chinese society has been on its toes long before the government’s recent conversion to consumer advocacy.
For the Chinese, a good restaurant is not just the one where the food tastes good but one for, example, that does not recycle the oil that the food was prepared. Defense? Put cigarette ashes in the serving dish. A good supermarket is where “stinky tofu”, a breakfast delicacy, is the result of natural fermentation; a bad one is where the tofu may have become stinky by being dipped in a sewer.
This may explain one blogger’s problems with the dish. I actually like tofu but I won’t be trying stinky tofu – ever.
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