Posted on 06/11/2007 7:25:45 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
Despite much of the world's fascination with China, principally because of its fast-paced economic growth, things are not quite right based on reports emerging about the deepening rot across the board. In Australia, for instance, a regional grocery chain has removed Chinese-made toothpaste from its stores because of a toxic chemical normally used in hydraulic and brake fluids as a coolant and a solvent.
It is the same chemical reportedly used in a Chinese-made cough syrup, responsible for the deaths of 300 people in Panama.
At the same time, a well-known Australian textile importer has reportedly "quarantined eight container loads of blankets that arrived from China ... following reports that the Australian Wool Testing Authority had found levels of formaldehyde almost 10 times higher than safety limits in many other countries."
There are also reports of cats and dogs in the US and elsewhere in the world dying from Chinese pet foods spiked with toxic chemicals.
China's dramatic response to all this was to announce that a Beijing court had sentenced Zheng Xiaoyu (???), head of the State Food and Drug Administration from 1998 to 2005, to death -- as if it were all the fault of one individual.
This is typical of China's communist political culture where scapegoats are conveniently found at the "right" time to atone for the country's systemic failure.
It defies belief that an individual like Zheng, however high and mighty, could for seven years play havoc with China's domestic and international health without his political bosses knowing about his misdeeds.
Now that he has become a hot potato, he is being made the sacrificial lamb to save the skins of his political masters.
Which is not to suggest that he was not a terrible crook. The suggestion is that it is the system that fosters and promotes such characters where Zheng and his ilk are only the tip of the iceberg.
Indeed, there is even an attempt to shift the blame on to importers of Chinese products. Lu Yuanping, a senior boss at China's food imports and exports administration, has reportedly said that 56 percent of the substandard food products imported by the US from China in a given period were "illegal products" not approved by the Chinese authorities. In other words, it was not entirely China's fault.
Then we have the tragedy of fake milk powder leading to the death of 13 babies from severe malnutrition. According to a Washington Post investigative report, "The scandal unfolded three years ago after hundreds of babies fell ill in eastern China and became the symbol of a broad problem in China's economy."
The problem is that: "Quality control and product safety regulations are so poor in this country that people cannot trust the goods on store shelves."
The system is so skewed that even when an official report warns of impending disaster from climate change, it still finds that China cannot afford to slacken on economic development.
Listing a litany of serious consequences for China's future from climate change, like worsening droughts and floods, the report however concludes that: "If we prematurely assume responsibilities for mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reductions, the direct consequences will be to constrain China's current energy and manufacturing industries, and weaken the competitiveness of Chinese products in international and even domestic markets."
Similarly, a government survey has found that air and water pollution in the country, combined with widespread use of additives and pesticides, has made cancer the country's top killer.
As reported by Sydney Morning Herald China correspondent Mary-Anne Toy, "The survey of 30 cities and 78 counties, published by the Ministry of Health, said deaths from cancer had risen 19 percent in cities and 23 percent in rural areas" last year.
All those who see hope in these kind of official reports that highlight China's problems, as well as critical reporting in sections of the media on non-political matters, need to realize that without political liberalization the country's systemic constraints are too overpowering to achieve any substantive and sustainable progress.
Therefore, Will Hutton in his book, The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century, is on strong ground when he essentially says that a market economy without liberal politics and free debate is basically unsustainable.
Whether or not these are Western values is besides the point. The point is that without a transparent government accountable to the people the system will tend to collapse from within, as happened in the Soviet Union.
As Hutton has written, "Their lack in China is increasingly showing through a myriad of dysfunctions and internal contradictions that will have to be confronted. The current economic model is unsustainable."
James Mann, a US journalist who covered China for the Los Angeles Times, is similarly not enamored of China's economic juggernaut. In his book, The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression, he takes issue with those US policymakers who do not take kindly to any substantive criticism of China's repressive system for fear of making China into an enemy.
These policymakers and others who support them tend to dismiss any substantive criticism of China as biased and hence "anti-China," thus arrogating to them a sixth sense about knowing the "real" China.
While internal contradictions deepen and social unrest grows, the gyrations of the Chinese stock market are proving a dangerous challenge. Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics in New York, wrote: "There is a bubble and eventually it's going to collapse."
"The Chinese have lost control of monetary policy and now it has reached the stock market," Roubini wrote.
Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has also expressed concern about China's economy.
As one Australian analyst has commented: "Riots by villagers in the rural hinterland or the coastal factory zones can be isolated and suppressed. [But] widespread discontent in the big cities by investors losing their life savings could be much harder to handle."
"It could unravel the tacit bargain between the Communist Party and the urban populations, trading off political freedom for rising prosperity," he added.
If the Chi-coms crack down too hard on any of their ongoing problems it could throw millions more out of work, increase unrest -- already put at 70,000+ incidents a year -- and bring about revolution.
Do it, Comrades!
(I can't wait for all those American "free traders" who abhor government interference lining up around Washington asking for -- yes, government interference to cover their losses in Red China.)
....foreing importation of CHinese goods will start to dry up, especially as other smaller, less-industrialized nations start to ramp up their foreign export industries [i.e., Vietnam]
Elevator riders ought to wonder
if the car’s cables will break asunder.
Were they made here or over yonder
that is a point you ought’a ponder.
If you think Chicom products are cheap now, just wait, the prices will drop 50 percent even after the Yuan doubles against the dollar. 1929 redux.
China Protests U.S. Food and Drug Administration Warning
China has called a U.S. warning against using its toothpaste irresponsible. “The low levels of diethylene glycol (DEG) are not ‘extraordinarily harmful’ (the level required for recall under China’s regulations),” said Gwang Lai, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine Minister.
Concerns about the toothpaste follow reports from Panama that attribute over 100 deaths to Chinese cough syrup containing DEG.
Gwang insisted that adding anti-freeze to toothpaste and other products was a “feature” rather than evidence of contamination. “DEG sweetens the taste and helps guard against freeze damage during the cooler months of the year,” Gwang said. “So far we have not reported any deaths resulting from using the toothpaste. The American alarmism is a hostile act against the People’s Republic of China.”
read more...
http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens1.htm
I read an article from Pittsburgh Tribune Review that said a lab in Texas has now found acetaminophen (A trade name is Tylenol)in cat & dog food.Highly toxic!! This is in addition to the cyanuric acid & melamine et al. They stated five known contaminates to date. I do cat rescue & I am in a panic. With 70 % or more of our vitamins/nutritional supplements coming from China, how do we know they are not making us and pets sick?? Even the taurine I might use in making cat food at home comes from China. We are in stranglehold to our eniemies in ME for oil. We are importing workers from south of border and now our food is coming from a country that intentionally adulterates our foods/supplements/drugs. We are in Serious trouble.
The pencil pushers at WalMart will finally get their commupance for destroying the vision of Sam Walton who demanded American Made products.
Aww, I feew so bad for the po’ wittow chicoms...Maybe if they lose enough money, they’ll be forced to abandon their genocidal campaign of crimes against humanity to destroy Tibet’s pristine, ancient culture. Good riddance, I look forward to seeing mobs lined up to piss on Mao’s ignoble bones.
Sounds like Australia is taking these issues seriously.
I've dealt with Chinese companies directly in three completely different industries: video chips, flooring products, and car parts. Their method is always the same: 1) Deny that there is a problem. 2) Blame the customer for causing the problem. 3) If eventually forced to admit that it's their problem, say that there's nothing they can do about it.
Better than average reasearch done for this story...
The comments from other Freepers show we are all becoming very aware...but no solutions are on the horizon...?
Thanks for the ping mom.
I, for one, would be real concerned about the quality control at the Three Gorges Dam...
AMEN.
Playing footsie with the biggest criminal cabal in the world is bad policy. We are ennabling this gang of thugs to run roughshod over the world economy.
It is m,y understanding that the US ( taxpayers) guarantee foreign investments by businesses. So if they go under, we get to give them the amount of their losses. It is a win win for corporations
China didn’t want to enable the entire capitalism package, so of course they have internal rot. But they have feathered dinosaurs.
LOL making lemonade from lemons I see. Some one should tell them we have heat during the winter in the US.
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