Chinese toymakers wow quality drive
China’s toy factories have been affected by a succession of product recalls involving toys, prompting the country to reassure western consumers by opening up a toy-testing lab to foreign journalists yesterday. Some of the officials have described the scandal surrounding Chinese-made goodsc as politically motivated and unfair. Others have guaranteed they would improve standards.
China is facing pressure to clean up its manufacturing after scandals involving products ranging from poisonous pet food ingredients to low-quality toys and adulterated toothpaste. It has promised to punish manufacturers who do not meet standards but said designers and importers should also take responsibility. Li Changjiang, head of China’s quality control agency, had blamed differing national standards, misleading statistics and lack of communication for some safety scares.
Lin Zhongjian, general manager of Ball Star Toys, says the industry has been treated unfairly. “With every kind of product, we cannot be 100% certain it will pass the grade, even with stricter and stricter quality controls”, he said. “We try our best to make it 100%, but even with luxury cars, they could not make it perfect and had some recalls”.
Internet: <www.guardian.co.uk> (adapted).
