Poisonous prospects
Cadmium, another poison used by Chinese manufacturers to replace lead, has been found in children’s products and jewelry (“US probes China’s use of cadmium in jewelry for kids,” Jan. 12, page 1). No surprise; it is par for the course. But the story doesn’t end there.
An official at the Beijing office of Asian Metal, a market research and consultancy firm, was quoted as saying that products with cadmium are normally directed to the Chinese domestic market.
Huh?
This is a glaring example of what is wrong with the Chinese government. Apparently, according to this source, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) believes it is okay to poison the 1.3 billion people of China, but that it must be careful about poisoning the rest of the world — because it would be bad for business.
Some might think this is wise marketing. I think it’s a warning to the world.
Any regime that can glibly poison its own people because there is no recourse to justice cannot be trusted.
For those who hail this as China’s century, there is a warning: If this is the case, then we are in for a century of tyranny, poverty, lies, propaganda, unaccountability and repression. We are also in for a devaluation of the developed world, right down to the lowest common denominator — where GDP of US$7,000 will be the norm, unemployment at astonishing levels and wages a mere fraction of what they were because of direct competition from Chinese laborers willing to work for pennies.
That is what China offers us, thus killing all of the positive changes we have achieved over the past 100 years. Instead of bringing the world to China, as Sinophiles ogling the Chinese market have gone on about for so long, China has instead brought itself to us, together with the woe, poverty, toxic products and lowest of expectations that Beijing has managed to inspire over the past 60 years.
Only with the most stringent standards applied uniformly by all developed nations to China’s behavior and exports can we ensure that China will reform itself and adopt minimum acceptable standards, instead of vice versa. Only when China has learned to lead (as opposed to poison and crush) its own people will it begin to learn to be a world leader.
Otherwise China will remain a pariah among nations, a friend only to rogues and reprobates.
For now, most products manufactured in China are at risk. Who can trust anything that comes from such a place, where cheating, cutting corners and poisons are the norm?
LEE LONG-HWA
New York
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