More than 700 toy factories in booming southern China have been banned from exporting what they produce as part of a crackdown on shoddy products, the government said yesterday.
The four-month-long crackdown was triggered by widespread reports of dangerous or faulty Chinese exports, including toys tainted with lead, toothpaste laden with an antifreeze ingredient, and pet food fortified with an industrial chemical.
The Guangdong Provincial Government said the export bans followed inspections of 1,726 toy factories, almost 85 percent of the province's total.
Of those, 764 had their export licenses revoked or suspended "because of various quality problems," it said in a statement posted on its official Web site yesterday.
Another 690 were ordered to renovate their plants and improve product quality, it said.
Problems in China's toy industry came into focus earlier this year when US-based Mattel Inc recalled more than 21 million Chinese-made toys worldwide. Products including Barbie doll accessories and toy cars were pulled off shelves because of concerns about lead paint or tiny detachable magnets that could be swallowed.
Design flaws caused the vast majority of the recalls, but the problem has rebounded on producers in Guangdong, where 5,000 toy-making enterprises accounted for about 80 percent of China's toy exports last year.
About 1.5 million people are employed by the factories, which produced 121.9 billion yuan (US$16.1 billion) in toys last year.
On Monday, authorities said they had arrested 774 people in a crackdown on substandard goods. Quality controllers have also instituted a system of using barcodes to track catfish which is helping Chinese consumers to trace their food -- another measure that will improve quality.
The government says it has also sponsored quality control training for more than 1,000 people in the country's toy industry in an effort to ensure export safety.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on
RSS