Webloggin » China: Co-Owner of Lee Der Industrial Co. Kills Himself

The AP is reporting that Zhang Shuhong, co-owner of Lee Der Industrial Col Ltd committed suicide in one of the manufacturing warehouses over the weekend.

Recently, China has been under a lot of scrutiny over the safety of its exported products.

Zhang Shuhong, who co-owned Lee Der Industrial Co. Ltd., killed himself at a warehouse over the weekend, days after China announced it had temporarily banned exports by the company, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

Lee Der made 967,000 toys recalled earlier this month by Mattel Inc. because they were made with paint found to have excessive amounts of lead. The plastic preschool toys, sold under the Fisher-Price brand in the U.S., included the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters.

So, here is the question: Is it the Asian way to take one’s life when you have brought shame upon your family or did the Chinese government order him to take his life and he did so to protect his family?

Update: The BBC seems to think this may have a tint of suspicion as evidenced by their headline with kills himself in quotes: Chinese toy boss ‘kills himself’.

Of course we will never know if in fact the hanging was a suicide, arranged demise of actual murder. That is the China that U.S. business interests and their political allies have supplanted our economic infrastructure for.