| 
Trouble Brewing in China
China’s Tainted Food Imports Point to Decades of Flawed Policy
By Michael Whitcraft
The recent discovery of the toxic chemical melamine in pet food imported from China is the tip of an iceberg of tainted products. All manner of toxins, bacteria, illegal pesticides, outlawed antibiotics and carcinogens are commonly found in Chinese food imports.
This should hardly be surprising. China’s practices of forced labor and mandatory abortion sufficiently illustrate its disregard for human rights and dignity. The real question is why the United States grants such a nation most favored trade status, while fully conscious that China’s growth is harmful to American domestic and international interests.
Sickening Food Standards
The FDA’s 2007 Import Refusal Reports show China as the number one regulation violator in three of the first four months of this year.1 The report gives a description of each item that was rejected and a tag name designating why. Browsing the document, descriptive tag names such as “Salmonella”, “unsafe col” and “filthy” recur time and again.
As bad as this latter tag may sound, it represents something worse than a state of uncleanliness. It designates an item that “appears to consist in whole or in part of a filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance or be otherwise unfit for food.”2
While the shipments the FDA is able to stop offer some consolation, only about 2% of Chinese food imports are ever inspected. Thus, the vast majority of unsafe food ends up on the shelves of America’s grocery stores. Some shocking examples include:
– In March shipments of pet food, laced with the toxic industrial chemical melamine were sold to thousands of pet owners and resulted in the deaths of many dogs and cats. The chemical was also found in livestock feed given to American chickens and pigs. Melamine is used to make plastics and tan leather.
– A full ten percent of American tea is imported from China, even though at least one tea factory was caught laying tea leaves on the ground and driving trucks over them. The vehicles’ exhaust was being used to accelerate the drying process. To make matters worse, China uses leaded gasoline.
– Imported catfish were found that contained unsafe antifungal and antibiotic medications, used to keep the fish alive in spite of being raised in putrid waters.
– The FDA has insisted on inspecting all shipments of Chinese toothpaste, after some were found to contain diethylene glycol, a chemical used in engine coolants and brake fluid. Cough syrup imported from China laced with the same substance killed more than 50 people in Panama last year.
– On May 24, the FDA issued a press release that warned consumers to discard any fish coming from China labeled “monkfish,” and thoroughly wash their hands after touching it, because at least 22 cases of Chinese pufferfish containing the deadly toxin Tetrodotoxin and mislabeled as “monkfish” had been imported to California and elsewhere in the US.
– At the beginning of this year, shipments of Chinese vitamin A arrived in Europe, containing Enterobacter sakazakii, a substance that causes death in infants. The vast majority of the world’s vitamins are currently produced in China.
The list of horror stories concerning Chinese goods could continue ad infinitum. This is particularly concerning since half the garlic, 45% of the apple juice, 20% of the honey and 16% of all seafood imported into the United States originates in China.
Furthermore, China is currently trying to muscle its way into America’s poultry market. Thankfully, some government officials are fighting to stop this, since Chinese farmers commonly flood their crops with illegal pesticides and fertilize them with human feces. The livestock they raise is then shot full of banned antibiotics and antifungal agents to keep them alive.3
A Moral Question?
Very little analysis is required to reveal that this issue has a moral dimension. Is it ethical to purchase Chinese foodstuffs? On the other hand, is it possible to avoid doing so?
The first question’s answer seems clear-cut. Purchasing Chinese food contributes to its continued import, and therefore supports the spread of substandard and often harmful or deadly food.
Also, the conditions of workers where these products are produced are beneath human standards. Worse yet, some Chinese food imports are produced in forced labor camps. Though importing anything made in this manner is illegal, the Chinese are adept at getting around the law.
Heide Malhotra, writing for The Epoch Times, explained:
…products are sometimes sold by front companies that use either parts or complete products made in China's notorious slave labor camps, also called "laogai," or re-education through labor camps. Detainees are forced to work without pay, under unhygienic conditions and are abused and tortured if they miss the assigned quota.4
The moral argument against buying these goods is strengthened by the fact that some analysts feel that America would suffer little if all Chinese food imports ceased. They argue that demand for American food produced by China could be filled by increased imports from other countries and stepped-up American production.
Representatives of large Chinese import companies agree, as reported in a May 24 article:
…producers and representatives of four of the biggest Chinese import categories—rice, shrimp, tea, and feeds and fodders—said the U.S. could still meet the nation’s demand for such products should the flow from China cease, most without a huge burden on American consumers.5
Persuaded that importation of Chinese food is wrong and even dangerous, Mission Foods Corporation and Tyson Foods Inc., two of the largest US food manufacturers, have banned all ingredients coming from China6 and Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana have banned all shipments of Chinese-raised catfish.7
Nevertheless, enforcing an all out ban on food produced in the communist country is not as simple as it may appear. China is notorious for mislabeling goods and even “trans-shipping” products via other countries to avoid tariffs and regulations.
In Europe, the problem has reached enormous proportions. Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that: “Last year, EU officials discovered 43 operations trans-shipping garlic from China, more than half the food cases involving the Asian giant…The EU estimates trans-shipment of garlic alone has cost $80 million in lost tariff fees in the past five years.”8
Furthermore, China persistently attempts to import the same goods that have already been refused entry. Rick Weiss, reporting for The Washington Post stated: “for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught - many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.”9
Also, it is often difficult or impossible to find needed foods that are not produced by the Communist giant. Thus, one could legitimately ask: “Is it even possible to avoid purchasing food from China?”
A Symptom of a Greater Problem
This question is difficult to answer. However, that such a question can be asked demonstrates a desperate situation that is the result of years of flawed policies with China, beginning with Richard Nixon’s normalization of American-Chinese relations in 1972.
Since then, years of appeasement and selfish business practices allowed the Communist dragon to grow and increase its appetite. Now, America is paying the price.
Time and again America has seen the devastating effects of its flawed policies including multiple Chinese threats of nuclear attacks against the American mainland, the 2001 downing and capture of an American EP-3 surveillance plane and now a steady import of tainted and even poisonous food that threatens American citizens.
Nevertheless, American policy has remained one of increasing support. Even today, it is reported that agricultural, fish and forestry imports from China have increased from $2.9 billion in 2002, to $7 billion in 2006. Furthermore, agricultural imports have swelled another 30% in the first quarter of 2007.10
Meanwhile, China continues to grow in might and aggressiveness.
A first step to dealing with this problem is to recognize that there is one. America must stop treating China like an economic ally and see that it is a serious threat. It must stop policies of appeasement and take a firm stand.
American consumers must start reading labels and make a firm resolution, whenever possible, to stop adding coins to China’s coffers, which are inevitably used to finance its systematic human rights abuses and military build up against the United States and its interests.
_____________________
|
