China’s efforts against shoddy, unsafe products make progress

BEIJING – Last August, the Chinese government unleashed its most extensive campaign since the 2002-03 outbreak of SARS, the mysterious killer disease. The goal: to shore up China’s battered reputation as a manufacturer of quality goods.\nAs the four-month initiative – part crackdown, part public relations drive – ended in December, experts say China has taken significant steps toward addressing product quality and safety problems. But they also note the risk of backsliding in a country with a convoluted bureaucracy and a well-documented history of local leaders ignoring edicts from the top.\n“The events of the past six or so months do represent a watershed,” said Robert Kapp, a business consultant who headed the U.S. China Business Council from 1994 to 2004. “But watersheds are not always forever.”\n“The problem may be very systematic by now, and I don’t know if the Chinese will overcome it,” he added.\nWhile the high-profile campaign is over, the government is continuing work on several fronts, including developing China’s first-ever food safety law.\nThe country’s reputation as an export power took a beating last year. In March, dog and cat deaths in North America were linked to a Chinese-made pet food ingredient. Then came reports of potentially dangerous frozen fish, juice, tires and toothpaste. Millions of toys were recalled in several countries because of lead paint and other fears.\nThe crisis put China’s position as the world’s factory at risk, threatening the underpinning of its economic success and the jobs that are lifting millions of Chinese out of poverty.\nThe furor also brought China’s long-running domestic food safety problems to light, just as Beijing prepares to host hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors at the Summer Olympics in August.\nThe seriousness with which the government took the issue was underscored by the appointment of its top problem solver, Vice Premier Wu Yi, to head a Cabinet-level panel overseeing \nthe campaign.\nWu, a stern-looking 69-year-old known as the “Iron Lady,” shepherded China’s difficult entry into the World Trade Organization, took over as health minister during the SARS epidemic and has been tasked with handling the vociferous U.S. complaints about China’s exchange rate policy.\nOne month into the product safety campaign, Wu herself set out to randomly inspect shops and restaurants in the eastern province of Zhejiang.\nA senior official who accompanied Wu described the trip to foreign reporters in October as part of the public relations effort.\n“If China’s leaders pay this much attention to the quality of products ... we can achieve the goals we are trying to reach by the end of the year,” told the journalists.\nWu declared the campaign a “special war to uphold the health, life and interests of the people and uphold the reputation of Chinese products and its national image.”\nThousands of unlicensed manufacturers were shut down. Teams of inspectors were dispatched, and labels showing that the quality of export food products had been checked became mandatory.