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Buxom Wench
08-22-2007, 04:33 PM
This is just eewwwwww! :yuck:

Latest China Scare: Dirty Chopsticks
Beijing Factory Recycled Used Chopsticks, Sold Up to 100,000 Pairs a Day

http://abcnews.go.com/US/Consumer/wireStory?id=3509097

BEIJING

A Beijing factory recycled used chopsticks and sold up to 100,000 pairs a day without any form of disinfection, a newspaper said on Wednesday, the latest in a string of Chinese food and product safety scares.

Counterfeit, shoddy and dangerous products are widespread in China, whose exports have been rocked in recent months by a spate of safety scandals, ranging from pet food to medicine, tires, toothpaste and toys.

Officials raided the factory and seized about half a million pairs of recycled disposable bamboo chopsticks and a packaging machine, the Beijing News said.

The owner, identified only by his surname Wu, said he had sold the recycled chopsticks for 0.04 yuan a pair and made an average of about 1,000 yuan ($130) a day.

Wu, who had no license to sell the goods, said he had sold 100,000 pairs a day when business was good.

China, on track to overtake the United States this year as the world's second-largest exporter, lacks the manpower to enforce food and drug safety regulations at home or for export. Imports are generally carefully scrutinized.

A lack of business ethics and a spiritual vacuum after China embraced economic reforms in the late 1970s have been blamed for unscrupulous business practices and corruption.

In Guangzhou, capital of booming Guangdong province in south China, Mayor Zhang Guangning vowed to bankrupt serious violators of food and product safety.

The Hong Kong owner of a Guangdong manufacturer at the centre of a recall of millions of Chinese-made toys by U.S. giant Mattel had committed suicide, according to Hong Kong media.

China has said the world should have faith in the "made-in-China" label and that a spate of product recalls has been unfair, biased and politically motivated.

"No country can guarantee their food to be 100 percent safe, but if one in 100 or even in 1,000 of our products has quality problems, we will deal with it seriously," Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said on Tuesday when meeting former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

"China strongly opposes (some countries) extending individual economic and trade problems, and thus conducting trade protection," Bo said in a report on the ministry's Web site (www.mofcom.gov.cn).

In the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures, China has accused the United States of exporting substandard soybean shipments to China and requested "effective measures" be taken.

Copyright 2007 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

MaidenFaeSnow
08-22-2007, 05:53 PM
::freakyf::yuck::blech:

Think I'll stick with forks...

Bean
08-22-2007, 06:15 PM
I'm not coordinated enough to use them so I guess I'm okay.

Buxom Wench
08-22-2007, 06:16 PM
I have some that I bought that ARE reusable but I do wash them. :wink:

serena
08-22-2007, 06:35 PM
EEWWWW! :yuck: Gross, thank the stars I don't use chop sticks.

Torra
08-23-2007, 07:16 AM
You know, I've got 5 pairs, of various materials, and they're pretty much all washable, just not dishwasher-safe. This no-disinfecting is disgusting, and probably explains why most of the people in Asia I and my friends have seen carried their own chopsticks. Now, REALLY glad I did.

Phoenix McHeit
08-23-2007, 09:24 AM
China has said the world should have faith in the "made-in-China" label and that a spate of product recalls has been unfair, biased and politically motivated.

This is what gets me. Recalls for safety are UNFAIR????? WTF?

What about the people 'trusting' the MiC label getting hurt or sick? Isn't *that* the unfair part???

Selena
08-23-2007, 01:08 PM
When is this country gonna get a clue--- and I mean the government? BAN Chinese imports!! Until they can get their shit together, NO MORE!!! :sigh: It's probably too late. Our way of life is so intertwined with the world and it's imports.

Ysobelle
08-23-2007, 01:27 PM
When is this country gonna get a clue--- and I mean the government? BAN Chinese imports!! Until they can get their shit together, NO MORE!!! :sigh: It's probably too late. Our way of life is so intertwined with the world and it's imports.

That would be an out-and-out disaster.

Firstly, because China has the infrastructure to build the things we, at this point, can't: we use Chinese-made products on a scale I think none of us is truly aware of until something like this happens, and while we've been shipping our lower-level manufacturing to them, we've lost the space, materials, and manpower to do it here. We'd never be able to turn out those products we import from China at a cost commensurate with theirs, which would be an absolute disaster for American consumers, and for those American companies that buy components from China, or have their plants there.

And secondly, China is on its way to becoming the next global superpower. As their level of advanced industry rises, and more and more of their population becomes more and more tech-savvy, and-- best of all-- as their military gains power and sophistication, we are put into a position where we MUST maintain leverage with them, not jettison our economic ties.

It would be a nice thought to be self-sufficient. Really. But we're not. And honestly, it's sometimes wiser keep your friends close, and your potential rivals closer.

Selena
08-23-2007, 01:33 PM
It would be a nice thought to be self-sufficient.

Sad, ain't it. The country is one of the best in the Western world, yet we cannot be self sufficient.

WenchLadyKate
08-23-2007, 01:47 PM
Sad, ain't it. The country is one of the best in the Western world, yet we cannot be self sufficient.

Can we, or any country for that matter, really be self sufficient? Probably not.

Ysobelle
08-23-2007, 01:48 PM
Sad, ain't it. The country is one of the best in the Western world, yet we cannot be self sufficient.

But should we be?

China can make millions of, say, little plastic dinosaurs for kids. They make them far cheaper than we can, and it's economically beneficial to them and to us: we don't have to pay American wages or benefits, so the company that sells them here stays afloat, the Chinese workers have jobs that-- one hopes-- pay them well according to their local cost of living, and we can concentrate on things we CAN make here.

While yes, American manufactory workers are desperate for jobs, they wouldn't take a job that pays them pennies on the hour-- nor should they. We need more and better manufacturing jobs here. Leave the low-level stuff to China and Taiwan and Indonesia. We need more tech and science jobs. We need the jobs that pay American workers salaries that they can actually live with.