Curious about China? Let me tell you what you want to know.

[gtalum]

I want to hear about the lead in the paint on childrens toys?

Why have the Chinese done that to our children?

Some Chinese companies use substandard materials for the same reasons that some of America's corporations (and many corporations everywhere in the world) do the same: to improve the bottom line. To pretend that this is a problem only with Chinese goods, or even foreign goods, is both silly and prejudicial.

[TexasStooge]

All I know is that I LOVE CHINESE FOOD!!!!!!!! spring rolls, wonton soup, moo goo gai pan, chinese veggies........shrimp lo mein.....pork fried rice......sweet n sour pork....and the list goes on and on and on.......

Don't forget to mention Curry Chicken! MMMM-MMM!!!

[Chacor]

Curry chicken is NOT Chinese. In fact curry isn't Chinese at all...

[Coredesat]

All I know is that I LOVE CHINESE FOOD!!!!!!!! spring rolls, wonton soup, moo goo gai pan, chinese veggies........shrimp lo mein.....pork fried rice......sweet n sour pork....and the list goes on and on and on.......

Don't forget to mention Curry Chicken! MMMM-MMM!!!

As Chacor just said, curry isn't Chinese, which sort of validates my earlier remark about "Chinese food" in the US (a lot of which isn't even real Chinese food or even East Asian in origin). It's mostly due to the fact that Americans tend not to prefer overly exotic foods, and have pretty much accepted the Americanized version as if it were the real thing - if you got curry chicken at a Chinese restaurant, there you go. I have once found pizza in such a restaurant, but I would hope most people know better than that.

Compare:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_cuisine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Chinese_cuisine

Actual Chinese food is quite good, although I'm honor-bound to be partial to Korean food.

[gtalum]

We are good friends with the owner of a local Chinese restaurant. She tells us everything on the menu is fake Chinese food, and always prepares us a feast of real Chinese dishes which aren't on the menu. It's all very very good, far better than American fake Chinese food.

I don't get why real ethnic food won't sell in the US, so nearly every ethnicity's food is bastardized to fit the American palate.

[wyq614]

I want to hear about the lead in the paint on childrens toys?

Why have the Chinese done that to our children?

Well, add lead in the paint may decrease the cost of the product so that the factory could gain more profit on each product. Chinese people are kind, but some bosses in the involved factories are not..

Remember to buy toys that are made in the big cities of China, e.g. Beijing, Shanghai, etc. There the quality of products are much higher.

[wyq614]

中国“金盾工程”对大多数人有很大的影响吗？
对你来说呢？比如，你没办法进入美国联合台风警报中心的网站？

Does China's "Golden Shield Project" (aka Great Firewall of China) have a big impact? Also, for you personally, as a weather tracker, for example you've said before, the JTWC is blocked?

Also, much more importantly...
Are there any risks you're taking by coming here or starting this thread?

Chinese Golden Shield Project is dull, we can now use a proxy to solve the problem. I don't know why must JTWC be blocked.

It does have a big impact to me, for example, not only JTWC is blocked, but also some famous website such as 4shared and wikipedia.

ps: I don't see any risk starting this thread. The reason:
- Only few Chinese know that forum, and almost all of them are just weather tracker like us.
- Remember, China is more democratic than a lot of other countries in the world, China is not North Korea, where any anti-leader discuss can result death without a trial.
China is not Saudi Arabia, where you can be arrested for celebrating Valentine's Day; China is not Myanmar. So, don't worry here.

[Dionne]

I want to hear about the lead in the paint on childrens toys?

Why have the Chinese done that to our children?

Some Chinese companies use substandard materials for the same reasons that some of America's corporations (and many corporations everywhere in the world) do the same: to improve the bottom line. To pretend that this is a problem only with Chinese goods, or even foreign goods, is both silly and prejudicial.

"silly and prejudicial".....? Knowingly using lead in childrens toys.....?
Come on man. Don't you think criminal would be a more appropriate definition than "silly and prejudicial"?

[HURAKAN]

Don't blame the Chinese government, blame the companies that are moving to China to produce as much as they can and to pay as little as they can.

Moreover, I don't think they would intentionally use lead to poison the children or anyone that uses the product.

[gtalum]

"silly and prejudicial".....? Knowingly using lead in childrens toys.....?
Come on man. Don't you think criminal would be a more appropriate definition than "silly and prejudicial"?

The "silly and prejudicial" part is in pretending that dangerous products only come from China. Many US corporations knowingly put our health and lives in danger every day. Why aren't you asking the same questions of them?

As I noted, some Chinese companies, like some companies from every country in the world, will take unscrupulous steps to improve the bottom line. the prejudice comes in implying that this only occurs in Chinese products.

[Dionne]

Check out Mattel. They do business in 43 countries. More than 30,000 employees. Go to the recall icon on the Mattel website.

Here is just one of many items in the "lead" recall. 675,000 Barbie accessories sold in the U.S. and manufactured in China.

Mattel trades on the NYSE. Closed today at a 52 week low.

Does anyone really think Mattel knew the outsourced products to China were being painted with tainted lead paints?

Darn right I'm prejudiced about products manufactured in China. Especially since I viewed the Mattel site. It's ridiculous.

[Coredesat]

Check out Mattel. They do business in 43 countries. More than 30,000 employees. Go to the recall icon on the Mattel website.

Here is just one of many items in the "lead" recall. 675,000 Barbie accessories sold in the U.S. and manufactured in China.

Mattel trades on the NYSE. Closed today at a 52 week low.

Does anyone really think Mattel knew the outsourced products to China were being painted with tainted lead paints?

Darn right I'm prejudiced about products manufactured in China. Especially since I viewed the Mattel site. It's ridiculous.

Well, then you're shallow, because in your view, bad products come only from China. Mattel (and other corporations) are probably aware of the lead paints but refuse to do anything about them, because outsourcing to poorer countries (or poor parts of countries) is a source of cheap labor they would much rather not lose.

As Sandy said, you have to blame the corporation and the various bosses themselves, not the workers or the country (for all we know, the workers were probably unaware the paints were tainted!). It's the companies' outsourcing policies that have led to this problem, not something the Chinese government or Chinese companies have deliberately caused.

[artist]

core - you don't know much about the stock market do you?
If you did you would realize that Mattel would not knowingly buy products with lead in them.

[wyq614]

Well, as for the toy problem, I'd like to add two points:

- Chinese factories are willing to improve their quality of export products.

- Not every Chinese products are bad and dangerous, not every bad products comes from China.

- Chinese government is taking measures to improve the quality of export products.

- ALWAYS REMEMBER WHEN YOU BUY CHINESE FOOD: Unlike in the western countries, in China, the date printed on the pack is the date of PRODUCTION, not the date of expiration.

Still, more questions are welcomed.

[gtalum]

Darn right I'm prejudiced about products manufactured in China. Especially since I viewed the Mattel site. It's ridiculous.

That's because your prejudices are driven by popular media.

Do you have the same disdain for American manufacturing? If not, why not? Remember just a few years ago when Firestone was knowingly manufacturing tires in the US that would blow out for no reason and lead to fatal accidents? That's just one example of many.

Corporations everywhere cut corners to improve the bottom line, often with our lives and health at stake. It's not just or even primarily a China problem. They're just getting the attention at the moment, likely because of the emphasis against globalism in the current election cycle.

[wyq614]

Darn right I'm prejudiced about products manufactured in China. Especially since I viewed the Mattel site. It's ridiculous.

That's because your prejudices are driven by popular media.

Do you have the same disdain for American manufacturing? If not, why not? Remember just a few years ago when Firestone was knowingly manufacturing tires in the US that would blow out for no reason and lead to fatal accidents? That's just one example of many.

Corporations everywhere cut corners to improve the bottom line, often with our lives and health at stake. It's not just or even primarily a China problem. They're just getting the attention at the moment, likely because of the emphasis against globalism in the current election cycle.

De acuerdo.

[Dionne]

Check out Mattel. They do business in 43 countries. More than 30,000 employees. Go to the recall icon on the Mattel website.

Here is just one of many items in the "lead" recall. 675,000 Barbie accessories sold in the U.S. and manufactured in China.

Mattel trades on the NYSE. Closed today at a 52 week low.

Does anyone really think Mattel knew the outsourced products to China were being painted with tainted lead paints?

Darn right I'm prejudiced about products manufactured in China. Especially since I viewed the Mattel site. It's ridiculous.

Well, then you're shallow, because in your view, bad products come only from China. Mattel (and other corporations) are probably aware of the lead paints but refuse to do anything about them, because outsourcing to poorer countries (or poor parts of countries) is a source of cheap labor they would much rather not lose.

As Sandy said, you have to blame the corporation and the various bosses themselves, not the workers or the country (for all we know, the workers were probably unaware the paints were tainted!). It's the companies' outsourcing policies that have led to this problem, not something the Chinese government or Chinese companies have deliberately caused.

If being upset that thousands of toys manufactured in China tainted with lead and played with by children makes me shallow......then I am definitely shallow!!!

And as far as Mattel knowing about the lead and intentionally distributing these toys....I find that rather unlikely.

Somebody in the manufacturing process in China knew about the lead. You cannot convince me otherwise.

[Coredesat]

Somebody in the manufacturing process in China knew about the lead. You cannot convince me otherwise.

You don't actually see the toys being manufactured or any of the decisions made in that process by any of the involved agencies, so you can't possibly be convinced of that, either (unless you know something the rest of us don't).

Your argument has various fallacies - it assumes that the U.S. company didn't know, yet the Chinese employment agencies they hired to manufacture the toys did. You still fail to realize that most U.S. companies these days have an emphasis on getting as many products on the market at as low a cost as possible (that is the point of mass manufacturing/assembly lines). If there weren't such an emphasis, outsourcing wouldn't be very prevalent.

Your argument blinds you to the idea that authorizing the Chinese manufacturing staff to use cheaper raw materials (that just so happened to be hazardous - there is the chance no one knew there was lead in the paint) may well have been a decision made by the U.S. company out of a need to keep costs down. The argument assumes that we, as Americans, are immune to any possibility of liability. In short, it's always their fault; "we didn't know".

[Dionne]

I'm not with you on this one. It's just a gut instinct....but I really don't think Mattel knowingly distributed toys with lead paint. I suspect they were duped. Anyone can have something tested. We use Western Analytical in California. It's affordable and fast.

[Coredesat]

I'm not with you on this one. It's just a gut instinct....but I really don't think Mattel knowingly distributed toys with lead paint. I suspect they were duped. Anyone can have something tested. We use Western Analytical in California. It's affordable and fast.

I retracted some of the more stinging parts of my argument. Yeah, you can have something tested, but until then, there's no way for anyone to know (after all, someone has to manufacture the paint, too).