Keep Telling Yourselves That

The world still trusts the quality of China's products despite a string of recalls in recent months, a senior Chinese official has said.

"During the first eight months of this year, China's exports grew by 23.3 percent, which shows that our exports have not been hit by these recalls," said Wei Chuanzhong, vice minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).

Speaking at a press conference in the Chinese embassy in Washington DC on Monday, he said: "Some Chinese manufacturers said they had received even more orders and their workers are busy trying to meet them."

During the first 8 months of the year exports increased. Keep in mind that it takes time for importers to find new sources and for those new sources to increase output.

I don't want to see China's manufacturing sector take a hit. Aside from the fact that it wouldn't help my business, the Chinese will benefit from more job creation and better quality of goods. And in fairness to the article, there is a recognition that improvements are in order.

But China can't afford to sit on its laurels assuming that manufacturers will continue to see increases in exports. It needs an aggressive safety campaign and a good public relations team.

I was speaking to the managing partner of our Beijing office about the public relations disaster that is China, and he agreed. He has handled some large natural resource transactions, and his first piece of advice to the Chinese companies is: Hire a good PR consultant. He said they inevitably refuse or for those times when they do follow his advice, they use the PR team defensively rather than proactively. As a result, you have crisises like UNOCAL and the general fear and mistrust of all things China among the average American. Members of Congress who can't even spell China are pushing anti-China legislation.