Hullabaloos

Another challenge confronts the Chinese authorities recently. Toxic melamine is found on infant milk. According to reports around 53,000 kids had gotten sick.

China has endured a series of scandals in recent years over unsafe products including food, drugs and toys. Many of these products were exported and thus put its manufacturing reputation at stake. Remember Mattel Inc., a leading toy company maker of Barbie, Elmo, Cookie Monsters, and other favorites which recalled million of toys manufactured in China allegedly coated with lead paints.

I was in China when SARS hit the southern province of Guangdong. It was just four years ago when Premier Wen issued an apology and promised greater transparency when official cover-ups aided the spread of SARS from China to the world. And last year after exported pet food, cough medicine, toothpaste and toys made with toxic products sickened and killed pets in North and South America, the government promised to overhaul safety inspection regimes.

The overall impression is of an authoritarian government struggling to enforce its writ on a rapidly developing country where officials and businesses often go their own way noted a foreign observer.

What’s next? We don’t know but we hope for the best.