Article

2007-06-27 China-Japan-Koreas

It begins: China shuts 180 food factories for tainted product

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Posted by trailing wife 2007-06-27 13:31|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 Any bets that equipment from those "closed" factories doesn't suddenly show up for installation at other plants that just happen to be owned by high ranking politburo political aparatchiks? One of the tainted wheat gluten production facilities approached by international inspectors was found stripped right down to the anchor bolts in its concrete floor.

The lack of transparency in China renders nearly everything they do meaningless. It is impossible to divine the actual reason behind anything they do unless it is of a blatant nature. One of the few measures we will have is whether rejected shipments continue to show up for reentry a second or third time. Especially if those rejected shipments are from the factories owned by the politburo brass.

Han said most of the offending manufacturers were small, unlicensed food plants with fewer than 10 employees, and all had been shut down. China Daily said 75 percent of China's estimated 1 million food processing plants are small and privately owned.

This is not reassuring. Such small 10 person outfits are most likely not the ones who are shipping thousands of containers full of tainted product to the West. Sounds like more of the usual ~~window dressing~~ Chinese opera. Let me know when they start closing some of the really big factories.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-06-27 14:21|| 2007-06-27 14:21|| Front Page Top

#2 A really scary next step is that we have been and are expanding our outsourcing of commercial aircraft parts to China. while not making light of folks getting sick from this sh!t being imported, or injuries or deaths due to crappy tires, imaging the magnitude of disaster when an wide body comes apart at altitude due to this slop.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2007-06-27 14:38|| 2007-06-27 14:38|| Front Page Top

#3 A really scary next step is that we have been and are expanding our outsourcing of commercial aircraft parts to China.

The utter folly of this goes beyong all sanity. Counterfeit Grade 5 and 8 high-strength boltsthe kind used in aircraft and high reliability applicationshas been an issue for over ten years. In 1995 these fakes began flooding the American market. Of "Asian" origin, one can only speculate at how many of them were knocked off in China.

An excerpt from an article dealing with this published by the New Zealand Department of Building and Housing:

In 1999 the US government enacted the Fastener Quality Act after defective and counterfeit fasteners caused the death of nearly 400 US citizens over 15 years.

While all of these fasteners cannot be attributed solely to China, when combined with their theft of intellectual property, violation of copyrights, counterfeiting of consumer goods and incessant predation upon our corporate and military infrastructure, Beijing costs America untold BILLIONS per year.

Few peopleincluding our politiciansseem to understand how this is a hidden cost that makes inexpensive Chinese goods far more costly than they appear to be. This unseen markup is kept from public notice by manufacturers and politicians alike who continue to profit handsomely while victims within the ranks of consumers and industry take it in the shorts.

China has yet to pay the piper for this institutionalized criminal theft. It is long past tea for them to be called on the carpet. How many more HUNDREDS of American will need to die at their hands before something is done?

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-06-27 15:32|| 2007-06-27 15:32|| Front Page Top

#4 As long as there's a buck to be made, people will keep dying. See the big article today on U-Haul. The difference is, in America, you can take the bastards to court. In China? Forget it.

Posted by gromky 2007-06-27 15:52|| 2007-06-27 15:52|| Front Page Top

#5 Globalization is a bad idea! Fat cats riding in limo's and flying in Gulfstreams while we pay the price. These are the greedy idiots that own our elected representatives as well. Hmmm. Gives me an idea.

Posted by Natural Law 2007-06-27 17:23|| 2007-06-27 17:23|| Front Page Top

#6 Zen: an outgrowth of the fastener debacle was a program called the Unapproved Parts Program; started by the only FAA Adminstrator in recent history to have any balls, Mary Schiavo (sic?) She riled too many fiefdoms and was canned; the program was renamed The Suspected Unapproved Parts Program. www.faa.gov will get you to the SUPP page.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2007-06-27 17:31|| 2007-06-27 17:31|| Front Page Top

#7 180 out of 750,000. The problem's under control.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2007-06-27 17:33|| 2007-06-27 17:33|| Front Page Top

#8 I got news for you guys, Mexico, and prolly a host of other countries are every bit as bad. Some may even be worse. Corruption is endimic, the value of human life has been reduced below profits.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2007-06-27 18:06|| 2007-06-27 18:06|| Front Page Top

#9 Just start destroying any shipments that come in and don't pass inspection. Or mark them in a way that's indelible, and if they show up a second time, then destroy them.

Posted by Rob Crawford">Rob Crawford 2007-06-27 20:39|| 2007-06-27 20:39|| Front Page Top

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