China has confiscated more than 89 million poor-quality masks, a government official said yesterday, as Beijing faces a slew of complaints about faulty protective gear exported worldwide.
Demand for protective equipment has soared as nations across the globe battle COVID-19, which has infected more than 2.9 million people.
However, a number of countries have complained about faulty masks and other products exported by China, mostly for use by medical workers and vulnerable groups.
Photo: AP
As of Friday, China’s market regulators had inspected nearly 16 million businesses and seized more than 89 million masks and 418,000 pieces of protective gear, Chinese State Administration of Market Regulation Deputy Director Gan Lin (甘霖) told a news conference.
Regulators had also seized ineffective disinfectants worth more than 7.6 million yuan (US$1.07 million), she said.
It is unclear how much of the confiscated goods were destined for markets abroad.
In an effort to eliminate poor-quality products, China on Saturday released new rules saying even non-medical masks must meet national and international quality standards.
Exporters must file a written declaration that their medical products meet the safety requirements of the destination country, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
The tighter rules come after several countries, including Spain, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Turkey, were forced to recall hundreds of thousands of shoddy masks and pieces of protective gear imported from China.
The Canadian government last week said that about 1 million masks purchased from China failed to meet proper standards for healthcare professionals.
Dutch health officials last month recalled more than 500,000 Chinese masks — which had already been sent to hospitals — after complaints that they did not close over the face properly, or had defective filters.
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