"made in China" crisis

'Brand China' at risk after toy recall
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6948274.stm

“Made in China”

Recently, a furious “China-made recalling” storm was sweeping the world. Many companies in western countries like US and Canada recalled their China-made products such as toy, food and medicine. A severe “credit crisis” is threatening this huge “world factory”. Let’s see a series of product scandals:
{Pet food - tainted with chemical melamine
Toothpaste - tainted with chemical diethylene glycol and bacteria
Farmed fish - traces of banned drugs and pesticides found
Tyres - fault may cause blow-outs
Toys - contain lead or pose choking hazard
Children's jewellery - contains lead
Ceramic heaters - pose fire safety risk} (from bbc website)

As a Chinese, I’m very shamed of the existence of these scandals. From the above incidents, I saw a country which are not responsible to others rather than an ancient civilized country with thousands of years of splendid history.
As China’s economics rise rapidly, some Chinese always compare China to a lion that was just waken up or a dragon that is speeding across the sky. Too many Chinese are blinded by a sightless patriotism. As a result, lots of acute issues are hidden behind the rapidly increased economics.
However, in my opinion, currently, China is no more than an arrogant millionaire overnight. In recent decades, China has plumped up his wallet at the expanse of low-cost labor and severely damaged environment. However, the standard of product quality and the ethos of the society are obviously not in tandem with the economic increase. For example, in China, large amount of piratical VCD or DVD are flooding into the market every day; fake medicine, drugs and toys are threatening people’s health without being noticed. “Made in China” has already been a pronoun of fake and low quality. It’s really a shame to China, which has thousands of years of gorgeous culture and history.
Now, China is at the crossroad of history. The government must take action, to save China on the verge of degeneration, to save the brand of “made in China” and develop it to “made by China”.

In my opinions, three main steps should be taken to solve this crisis: First, the government should reinforce the supervision of the product quality and establish a complete set of product supervision system. Secondly, the government should communicate with the Western government and come out with an eligible quality standard which adapts to both countries. Thirdly, enhance the ability of revolution of technologies, so as to transform the economic mode from MADE IN CHINA to MADE BY CHINA.
Above is my opinion, however, I think it’s not easy to achieve it in a short time since the situation of China is quite different from those western countries. In China, most of the consumers are peasants and workers. Therefore, if China’s food quality standard is the same as US’s, most of the Chinese consumers won’t afford it. This for sure will reduce the living level of people. Besides, due to the lack of financial income, the revolution of technologies will also be challenged. Therefore, it’s not easy for China to solve this issue.
As a Chinese, I sincerely hope that one day “Made in China” can get rid of its stains and is welcomed all over the world. I believe that day will come soon, with the efforts of all the Chinese people.

Life vs money

Miners' families angry at disaster
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6959844.stm

Life vs money?

Recently, one of the worst mining disaster happened in eastern Shandong Province. 181 miners have been trapped underground since last Friday.

These miners were working at two mine shafts when the torrential rain caused a river to burst the banks, sending water flooding in.

Although the rescue workers were trying to save the miners out by pumping the underground water out, their hope for survival faded as the time ran out.

The response from the mine officials arise the fury among the relatives of those trapped miners. They told the reports indignantly that they could not get information about their relatives on time from the officials. When they went to find the officials in charge, they either told them to wait or disappeared. The mine officials only care about the output of the mine in spite the lives of their relatives.

This accident was one of the worst mining disasters in China. It reflects one of the acutest conflicts existing in China society. In China, especially Shandong and Shanxi Province, a deluge of private small collieries were producing mines due to the huge demand of mines in China. In order to maximize the profits, nearly all the private small collieries have no security facility. The mine officials exploit their miners atrociously to fill their pockets. However, those government officials, who are supposed to supervise the management and security of the collieries, colluded with the mine officials so that they could gain a big share of the profits. As a result, those miners who live in an abyss of suffering became the biggest victim of this scam. However, they had no choice, this was their fate.

In my opinion, the mine issues revealed two severe conflicts existing in China society. First, the gap between the rich and the poor: in Southeast of China, people's living conditions are being ameliorated a great deal while in the rest of China, large amount of people are still suffering from hunger. In order to scrape a living, those people are forced to accept the unfair and rigor treatment from the rich. In the mine officials' mind, those peasants are the same as the slave labor. They have no welfare, no medical insurance, more importantly, no dignity. In order to feed their families, they have to abide the insult and abuse from the miner officials. We can say, that was not merely the misfortune of those miners, but also the shame of our society and race.


The second conflict is the conflict between the central government and the local government. In 2007, in order to meliorate the security conditions of China’s mine industry, the central government had promulgated several documents which order the local government to shut down those collieries that don’t have eligible security facilities. However, due to the huge profit of mine industry and the financial income of the local government, the local governments didn’t carry out the order form the central government. What they did was a symbolistic check after informing the mining officials. This certainly makes no sense.

All in all, mine issues is one of the acutest problems that hinder the stable economic development of China. Without solving these severe problems, China's peaceful grow-up will be merely a castle in the air; without solving it, China's society will never be peaceful.