Chinese exporters have been on the ropes in recent times, taking severe body blows from accusations of below-quality or dangerous products being exported to the United States.
At a press conference on August 27, Li Changjiang, Minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China's quality control watchdog, faced the music in a barrage of questions about tainted food products, dangerous toys and the absence of a product recall system.
"We will strictly scrutinize producers, and exporters who flout standards will be severely punished," Li said, adding that U.S. importers should also be blamed for the "defective" toys due to different national standards and inaccurate data on tests they provided.
Mattel, a major U.S. toy maker, recalled 20.2 million China-made toys recently, because of the twin dangers of small magnets and paint containing lead. "Of all the recalled products, 85 percent were manufactured in line with U.S. specifications and the requirements of U.S. importers," Li argued.
The 15 percent left were found to contain excessive levels of lead according to a standard newly released by the American Society for Testing & Materials in May, according to Li.
The quality chief stressed that since early 2004, Chinese producers have been under close surveillance to provide quality products and safe food to both domestic and overseas consumers.
In a move to crack down on problematic products, the State Council, China's cabinet, has recently set up a taskforce to enhance product quality and food safety, which is headed by Vice Premier Wu Yi. The taskforce is devising a mechanism to monitor entire production processes-from the purchase of raw materials and production, to after-sales service.
The Chinese Government is also planning to launch its first recall system for unsafe products, Li told the August 27 news conference. He pledged that recalled products, particularly food, will be destroyed to prevent them from returning to circulation.
"Above 99 percent of China's exported products meet safety standards. I think the attacks against Chinese products are a new form of protectionism."
Li Changjiang, reassuring the quality of
the "Made-in-China" label and questioning the timing of a series of recalls of defective products, since China has been a large world exporter for many years
"A design fault was mostly to blame for Mattel's recall of millions of products, as a result of its negligence in quality control over the products provided by overseas suppliers."
A Canadian engineer, in a letter to Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
"They seem to be hiding nothing in our discussions with them."
U.S. Representative Ike Skelton, D-Mo., Chairman of
the House Armed Services Committee, after heading a group of seven U.S. lawmakers to tour a naval destroyer in China and visit the country's strategic missile command in August
"We are at a stage to reach decisions."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly tackled the core issues that have tormented Mideast peacemakers for decades-Palestinian refugees, final borders and
the fate of Jerusalem-during their meeting in Jerusalem on August 28
"We, with the help of regional friends and the Iraqi nation, are ready to fill this void."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announcing in an August 28 news conference in Tehran that the Islamic Republic is ready to fill a vacuum in Iraq caused by the collapsing power of the United States
"Some U.S. legislative proposals seem to be based on a presumption that trade retaliation is an effective strategy; however, economic history suggests otherwise."
St. Louis Fed President William Poole, warning that barriers to commerce can backfire and hurt the economy when attending a meeting of Fed chiefs from Dallas, St. Louis and Atlanta in Biloxi, Mississippi, on August 25
"A few foreign investors in China simply focus on cutting costs and neglect requirements on product security, environmental protection and the security of staff."
Vice Minister of Commerce Wei Jianguo, urging foreign investors in China to pay more attention to environmental protection and energy conservation at a forum on the social responsibility of foreign-funded enterprises in Beijing on August 27
"We oppose the notion of that kind of a referendum because we see that as a step toward the declaration of ‘independence of Taiwan,' an alteration of the status quo."
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, opposing Taiwan authorities' attempt to push for a plan of referendum on the island's entry into the United Nations in the name of Taiwan, in an interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV on August 27 | 
