China Defends Safety Of Its Exports

Officials Criticize Bans On Nation's Products, As Report Says U.S. Has Found More Tainted Toothpaste

(CBS/AP)  In the U.S., safety officials ordered a New Jersey tire importer to recall as many as 450,000 tires that it bought from a Chinese manufacturer and sold to U.S. distributors. Foreign Tire Sales Inc., of Union, New Jersey, said an unknown number of the light truck radials it imported since 2002 from Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. could suffer tread separation, a problem that led to the largest tire recall in the U.S. in 2000.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent Foreign Tire Sales Inc. a letter stating that it is legally responsible for the recall and faces fines of up to $6,000 per violation if it fails to properly remedy the situation, with a maximum of nearly $16.4 million for any series of related violations.

The government, which has given the company until July 2 to respond to the letter sent Tuesday, said the company's argument "that it is not in a position to conduct a recall is not acceptable."

An attorney for FTS said Thursday that the company can afford only about 10 percent of the roughly $80 million in expenses associated with a full recall.

Hangzhou Zhongce said in a statement Wednesday that its tires met U.S. safety standards and FTS's specifications, accusing the U.S. company of making the claim to gain an advantage in a commercial dispute.

China appears to have gone on the offensive recently, prominently announcing rejects of foods imported from the U.S. such as orange pulp and dried apricots containing high levels of bacteria and preservatives, as well as health supplements and raisins that China said did not meet its safety standards.

"With regard to food which does not meet imported food safety standards, the Chinese side should take corresponding measures according to regulations," Wang said.

Yet, there were more reports underscoring the chaotic food safety situation in China, where manufacturers and distributors often use additives that have not been approved, falsify expiration dates, or find other ways to cut corners to eke out small profits.

On Thursday, state media said Beijing police raided a village where live pigs were force-fed wastewater to boost their weight before slaughter. Plastic pipes had been forced down the pigs' throats and villagers had pumped each 220-pound pig with 44 pounds of wastewater, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

Paperwork showed the pigs were headed for one of Beijing's main slaughterhouses and stamps on their ears indicated that they had already been through quarantine and inspection, the paper said. Suspects escaped during Wednesday's raid and no arrests were made, it said.

Earlier this week, inspectors announced they had closed 180 food factories nationwide in the first half of this year and seized tons of candy, pickles, crackers and seafood tainted with formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax.

"These are not isolated cases," Han Yi, an official with Wei's quality administration, was quoted as saying in Wednesday's state-run China Daily newspaper.

Han's admission was significant because the agency has said in the past that safety violations were the work of a few rogue operators — a claim aimed at protecting China's billions of dollars of food exports.

Wei Chuanzhong, deputy director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said local governments "should be fully aware of the importance and improve responsibility for imported and exported food safety."

His remarks, made during an inspection tour of the port city of Tianjin, were posted Thursday on the administration's Web site.

The Associated Press' Anita Chang in Beijing contributed to this report.

[unsuppressed]

erasmus6,

Well well, lets see here, we Americans "may not":

Force feed pigs with wastewater,
Distribute bad baby formula,
Place hog slop, sewage, pesticides and recycled industrial oil in lard for human consumption,

No Americans "may not" do these things, which are not good by any means, BUT, BUT, BUT,

Americans are mass murderers! i.e.

WW1-Lusitania 5-7-1915(1200 dead)323,000 total dead,

WW2-Pearl Harbor 12-7-1941(2400 dead)450,000 total dead,

Vietnam-The Gulf of Tonkin 8-2-1964(0 dead complete lie) 58,000 total dead,

Iraq-World Trade Center(2,976 dead)

These are just the big public named wars, try imagining ALL the years in between the dates I posted, there has never been a stop on killing in between!

I can go on:
The illegal Federal Reserve
The illegal taxation
The corrupt FDA
The education system(sewer)
ETC...........

So yeah you can say that the Chinese are "SICK" people, but if they are "SICK" THEN WHAT DO YOU CALL AMERICANS????

[donteplays]

I agree with erasmus6 on this issue. you can compare china's policing of its product standards to how the US has handled piracy. Here in the great ol' US of A the Federal government has emplimented some laws that have tried to stop people from bootlegging movies and such, and have even threatened with jail time, but as we all know one can still find that DVD you oh so wanted from Dave the bootlegger for half the price. What I'm trying to say is the Chinese government can say they're taking a stance all they want, but in all reality they could care less, because in the end these exports are benefiting the Chinese economy.

[erasmus6]

Spectrum108

Also these are people that are shoving pipes down pigs throats and force feeding them 44 pounds of wastewater to boost their weight before they are slaughtered.

These are people who caused the deaths of at least a dozen babies and 200 more were made sick because they drank infant formula that was made of sugar and starch with few nutrients.

These are people who put hog slop, sewage, pesticides and recycled industrial oil in lard for human consumption.

Do you think that we do those kind of things here? Do you think that people that do these kinds of things are actually capable of changing their ways? These are SICK people.

[erasmus6]

"Remember how the Chinese handled that pet food contamination? Death Penalties. Do you still think they're not serious about product control?" posted by Spectrum108

NO, I do not think they are serious about product control.

I would say it is you that doesn't know what you are talking about. The person that they sentenced to death was a person that had been fired from that job a number of years ago. Why would he have anything to do with what is happening now? Why wouldn't it have been the person who is in charge now? Also it wasn't that long ago that the guy that was sentenced to death was trying to make some deal or something. So obviously he ain't dead yet and probably never will be.

The contamination is massive. It probably involves everything we get from them. All food and non-food. I bet there is lead in just about everything. There is no way they will be able to get it under control. They obviously do not THINK the same way we do or there wouldn't be these kind of problems. Do we have some contamination, yes of course we do, but nothing like they do. Their contamination is way out of control. Their contamination is deliberate. They are actually deliberately putting this stuff in our food. It ain't no accident.

[jsilver2th]

"It can be said that the quality of China's exports all are guaranteed." Wang Xinpei, spokesman for China's Commerce Ministry

What a joke! Wal-Mart buzz off- Americans need to boycott all this junk- it's the next mass movement.

[chinesespy]

no let chinese fud in amrica

[erasmus6]

Actually when we go to buy our groceries, we should start hounding them to know whether a product has ingredients from China in it or not. If they can't tell us then we tell them we won't buy it then. If everyone was to do this they would start losing money and it wouldn't be long until they made it THEIR business to know what is in the food.

[erasmus6]

"I'm gonna go home and make sure my daughter's tooth paste is made in America." posted by proudmama1

Good luck on that one! It doesn't matter whether it says it is made in China or not. It can say it was made in the U.S.A. but that doesn't mean that some of the ingredients didn't come from China.

[rushlimpdrug]

I say we build a time machine a bring back FDR and reinstate him . . . . .
Posted by donteplays
- ok but can we build it in China 'cause it would be a lot cheaper to build it there and ship it in.

[donteplays]

I say we build a time machine a bring back FDR and reinstate him as President and then maybe, and this is a huge maybe, this country will return to the prominence and mistique it once had. A guy can dream right?

[gangesdak]

It is the greed of the American companies that is driving this Chinese business. First order of business is to expose those American businesses who have established those Chinese factories that do not have to pay any attention to safety and welfare of the consumers.

[hamishdad]

Anybody want to buy Chinese condoms? They're guaranteed.

[gkc99]

"Mao Tse Tung said "Americans will sell you the bullet with which to shoot them." "

I think the actual quote is from Lenin, who said "The capitalists will sell you the rope with which you will hang them."

In the case of the USA, the greedy 1000 who own the USA have not just sold the rope, but the rope factory, to the Chinese and other Asians.

[proudmama1]

WHY ARE WE STILL DEALING WITH THESE PEOPLE???????
I'm gonna go home and make sure my daughter's tooth paste is made in America. I never in my life imagined we could be so careless when dealing with our food safety. This country has gone to hell in a handbasket!!!!

[jetauma]

Thsi is easy to prevent. Buy American, bring back manufacturing jobs, undo tax benefits to greey companies that move to these sources, give braeks to those who stay...isn't really that simple? Bush, congress, big companies: are you listening?
Everyone, please (I know it's hard)do your best to stop buying Chinese and other foreign goods that cut our own throats. Wal-Mart: Mao Tse Tung said "Americans will sell you the bullet with which to shoot them." Hmmm.

[erasmus6]

"...raided a village where live pigs were force-fed wastewater to boost their weight before slaughter. Plastic pipes had been forced down the pigs' throats and villagers had pumped each 220 pound pig with 44 pounds of waste water."

Okay, these people are savages. They are being cruel to these animals. Someone needs to put a stop to this.

Why are we still dealing with these people? This b-u-l-l-sh-t is never going to end!
They are either too stupid to figure it out or they just don't want to figure it out. Either way something needs to be done about it. NOW
The fact that we still keep dealing with them shows that we are even more stupid than they are!

[rushlimpdrug]

I waiting for them to defend their pirating market. . . . . .

[nskduke]

Saftey my a$$. This is what happens when you buy cheap goods from another country. China you ***!