Everyone Can Pitch In

Companies with foreign investment in China should shoulder the responsibility of ensuring and improving product quality, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Friday at the Summer Davos meeting in Dalian.

Sixty percent of China's exported products are made in foreign- funded companies, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister of the NDRC. These companies should have an eye to their product quality in terms of designing, setting up standards and making requirements for raw materials.

To a large degree I agree with this statement. Having said that, Chinese manufacturers and the Chinese government have roles to play.

Chinese manufacturers are notorious for substituting raw materials to save money. It does not matter if a product falls apart on the way to the truck, or if they include a substance that will kill people. Westerners marvel at how manufacturers will throw away a life time of steady business to make an extra $10,000 on an order. They are short term thinkers in the extreme.

The Chinese government needs to clean up its court system so that when a manufacturer screws over a foreign funded company, the company has some recourse.