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According to the AP, China has vowed to make toys safe for Christmas.

The Chinese-made toys children receive for Christmas this year will be safe, the head of China’s product safety agency said Wednesday, pledging that problems over the use of dangerous lead paint will be resolved in time for holiday exports.

China also had this to say:

Li reiterated the government’s stance that part of the recalls were due to changes in U.S. safety standards and were not the fault of the Chinese manufacturers. Still, he said, the issue “needs the common cooperation of the two countries to unify the standards.”

I see China has become a big political player within the pass the buck crowd. But hey, I suppose we do have to share some of the blame for not checking every toy, cosmetic, tube of toothpaste, tire, clothing, bag of wheat gluten, etc… that comes through our borders from a country that is known to be one of the biggest human rights violators. But this is who we are as Americans, we are all too trusting. Our lives have been good for so long that we take for granted that these kinds of problems can actually occur.

What I find quite interesting about this new Chinese stance is back in August China vehemently defended itself stating that:

Although there are a few problems with some made-in-China toys, generally the safety quality is worthy of being trusted.

snip

The Chinese government and producers pay a great deal of attention to toy safety and quality, and have adopted tough certification standards to guarantee safety

Why the contradiction? If the toys were “worthy of being trusted” and “producers” paid “a great deal of attention to toy safety and quality” in August, why are they making the current statement regarding toy safety by Christmas? If the toys were safe in August shouldn’t they be safe now?

In my August article I eluded to the fact that Chinese toy exports are a big part of their money base and that:

If I had to wager, I would say that China is less worried about the safety and is more worried about keeping its exports at the current numbers.

I’ll stand by that statement now more than ever. With all of the recalls I am sure that toy distributors are seriously questioning whether or not dealing with China was such a good idea after all. Especially if children start to suffer ill effects from Chinese imports…..can you spell lawsuit?

It is no surprise that China is scrambling to save one of their biggest financial bases; what would be a surprise is if the Americans do not wake up from their slumber, take China’s word, and continue to by crap that could seriously wreak havoc on our children’s health.

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