Chinese MOC (Ministry of Commerce), in a recent circular, urgently called a nation-wide alert on the quality problems as the surging waves of off-quality product recalls seem to overwhelmingly drown Chinese shipments.

Foreign news coverage reports FDA rejected over a thousand (1077) shipments of food from China in the first six months this year, moreover, last month FDA banned “5 certain species of fish from China because of a persistent pattern of contamination.” What is really worried by Chinese textile producers is the recent occurrence of unsafe textile products that were brought into light just recently.

1. Textile Safety

Apart from quality issues with food, textile is once again a target for the alleged cases of hazardous off-quality products. New Zealand, an important wool supplier for Chinese market, also announced that Chinese-made blankets containing high levels of formaldehyde have been recalled across Oceanic Continent, amid rising global concern over the safety of products from China.
The safety problems shadowing “good and cheap” fame of Chinese goods ran rampant from toys to textiles recently as New Zealand said it would look into allegations that imported kids-wear contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde. An immediate probe was conducted by a group of local scientists to discover formaldehyde in the imported Chinese clothes at levels higher than normally regarded as safe. This textile chemical is sometimes applied by manufacturers to apparels to prevent mildew or for durable press effect. But overdue application can cause skin rashes and allergic reactions, irritating throat and eyes.

In anther case, the Warehouse, a New Zealand retailer, issued a recall also recently for children’s evening dressing gowns made in China after two children were burned when their flannelette pyjamas caught fire.

A range of Chinese exports — from pet food to toothpaste — have come under international scrutiny in recent months.  Chinese products safety is not a news as global concerns have already been raised over a series of made-in-China products, including toys, food and toothpaste, but what strikes Chinese textile manufacturers most is that the New Zealand probe is the first time that safety of Chinese textile has been called into question, amid its many other already-raised queries like Yuan’s undervalue, laborer issues, government subsidies etc.. .

The voluntary recall by Australia-based Charles Parsons came two days after New Zealand launched a probe of Chinese-made clothing after scientists found dangerous levels of formaldehyde in woolen and cotton garments. Charles Parsons declined to release the total number of blankets involved in the recall, "Tests had shown the formaldehyde level in the "Superlux" label blankets was "above the European and U.S. standards. There are no standards in Australia and New Zealand so it's a voluntary recall," spokesman Bilton said.

 2. Chinese Reactions

China reacted as quickly as it did the food cases. The Textile & Apparel Division of Foreign Trade Management Department inside Ministry of Commerce called for an urgent discussion on Aug.21st with textile organizations that were asked to push their member companies to be aware of quality consequences.

The latest concerns came as Li Changjiang, head of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China’s safety watchdog, claimed the product safety scares were “a new trend of trade protectionism”, and accused some governments of “demonizing China’s products”.

His comments mirrored Beijing’s anxiety over growing fears of Chinese exports in its long-time strategic markets of USA and Europe, especially as regards its textile export, for the simply reason that its textile trade agreement with EU under Safeguards in effect will be terminated at the end of this year. But the clouds of worries were dismissed by Peter Mandelson, the European Union trade commissioner. “As trade commissioner, I will not accept claims of toxicity being used as a pretext for protectionism.’’

Chinese officials have said the world should have faith in the "made-in-China" label and that a spate of product recalls has been unfair, biased and politically motivated.

3. A Retaliation on China?

 A recent recalls of “made-in-China” products have come not as a unilateral effect as one would tend to link this , naturally if not outrageously, with the previous action that China has returned 272 heart pacemakers imported from the United States after they failed quality inspections. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said the heart pacemakers, valued at about 240,000 U.S. dollars in total, were detained by Shanghai Entry-Exit inspection and Quarantine Bureau at the end of April. The administration said the pulse strength of the devices, made by St. Jude Medical Inc, was not in line with its indicated technical specifications.
Not much time had gone by after China took this action, FDA banned “5 certain species of fish from China because of a persistent pattern of contamination.” which added up to FDA’s over a thousand (1077) shipments of food from China, as rejected in the first six months.

4. Sara Bongeorni’s “Boycott” Made-in-China Experiment

There’s no place where you can find out things that are not made in China, nowadays. Sounds exaggerated? There’s no need, anyway, to probe into its truth or false, but it mirrors the fact, to some extent, that China’s growing export is based on its own expanded production capacities as a consequence of the global relocation of production or outsourcing. The result we face today comes from the marketing strategy adopted by high-cost countries wise enough to make advantage of cheap production resources by preying on low-cost countries to minimize their production costs while maximizing profits. Moreover, it also proves China is an ideal country for investment in this outsourced production trend. Famous as it is for a name of what is often referred to as “the world centre of manufacturing”, China presumably does not like this nicked title because its produce is not destined for the world market if we see its textile export accounts for around 30% of its production, leaving majority of the produce to meet with its booming domestic market.

Even this smaller share turns out to be “just so huge” inside its destined market like USA where almost everything imported is labeled with “MADE-IN-CHINA”. What does it mean to local manufacturers? And to local consumers?

A recent Chinese TV headline reports to react to the global “made-in-China” quality issues gave a good length of coverage in perspectives. A name of “Sara Bongeorni” has swiftly become a household-renowned personality starring prime time of TV and headlines of newspaper. Her personal experience with a year without made-in-China goods is truly attractive and convincing. Her book entitled “ A Year without Made-in-China, One Family’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy” is also a global attention.

Sara’s true adventure comes from an impromptu idea that “just popped into my head” as she puts it. It was two days after Christmas at the end of 2004, a year regarded as very critical and sensitive because it would be only a few days away from the new year of 2005, and its beginning would mean a “terminator” to the over-40-year long history of global textile quota system. Without quota’s restrictive role, could there be more made-in-China textile products flooding into her country? What happened on that evening changed her life in the year to come. She was sitting in the living room with her husband, staring at holidays presents and toys just strewn across the floor. She counted and found out that most of their Christmas gifts came from China. Looking around the house, she burst out “Well Gosh! Most of the other stuff’s from China, too!”
An idea flashed into her mind that she wanted to see if it was possible for them to avoid buying anything made in China for a year, just trying this as a kind of experiment So, on January 1, 2005, they kicked off this year-long “boycott,” but she reaffirmed that “it’s not a political book; it’s not a China-bashing book or a protectionist book. It’s very much a personal story, an attempt to understand our family’s connections to the global economy.”

Life was not convenient, even difficult for her family during that experimental year. What she found was that “there’s just really no way to live what would be considered an ordinary consumer life without a heavy reliance on merchandise from China. It really upended our lives”, said she.
A lot of people tend to think that the made-in-China things are only shoddy and cheap, but Sara did not think it that way. There are a lot of increasingly high-end products coming from that country as she saw everything from Barbie-shaped chocolates to wedding dresses from China.

Sara realizes a painful issue for a lot of people with respect to U.S. manufacturing job losses. “But one of the things I also got to understand in a personal way was the benefit of access to often good-quality, low-cost goods.” She mentions that her son outgrew his tennis shoes, and she set out to buy new tennis shoes for her son. As all tennis shoes are made in China especially around the point where she lives, she had difficulty in finding out a shop where tennis shoes on sale are not made in China, but she finally located these tennis shoes made in Italy for $68. While she knows clearly she you can buy these things made in China for $15 in a place like Payless shoe stores. “For someone on a moderate or low income, to be able to buy your 4-year-old kid perfectly good shoes for $15 is a real economic benefit.”, as quoted from her interview with Business Weekly.

At the end of her book, she stresses there was no way to function as an “ordinary consumer” without being willing to buy some Chinese products. The idea of living permanently like this would be exhausting and expensive. It was not a way that a lot of people would want to live permanently.

5. China’s Reactions

China has learned to use both domestic and international standards and rules to protect its own interest while quality problems from foreign in-coming shipments are found. Besides, the government has decided to establish its first database on the inspection and quarantine of imports and exports to keep producers updated of the latest safety requirements.

Commodities in the database will fall into 154 categories under 14 major catalogs, including animals and related products, plants and related products, food and food packaging, cosmetics, textiles, and chemical and mineral products, as released  from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) .

The administration went on to stress that the database will include all the necessary technical and safety requirements available for specific types of goods just for Chinese producers to have access to the latest information about safety standards.

Moreover, China has set up a cabinet-level panel on food safety and product quality to ensure “Made-in-China” should be going safe and sound. While the government launched a series of crackdowns on unsafe production facilities for food safety, the textile production is put into a special regulation on better quality supervision, which is a very important step at the time when wind blows hard, threatening to rain. 

china textile                  By James H. Zhao