Toys riffing on China’s hottest online idiom, “calling a rat a duck,” were yanked from online shelves this past week, a sign of the idiom’s continued political sensitivity. The tongue-in-cheek saying “calling a rat a duck”...
Mattel has settled a class action lawsuit over a recall of lead-tainted toys made in China, the Wall Street Journal reports: Co-plaintiff lead counsel Whatley Drake & Kallas said in a statement the settlement provides...
Business professor Prakash Sethi has spent the last several years monitoring the working conditions in Mattel’s Chinese toy factories. Jonathan Dee writes in the New York Times Magazine: If Mattel were simply a greedy or sloppy company that got caught doing something it shouldn’t and paid the price, its story, and Sethi’s, would be a […]
On Yale Global Online, Anita Chan and Jonathan Unger write about the recent rash of toy recalls. From the introduction to their article: A series of recalls of toys and other products suggest that some manufacturing plants in China have quality-control issues. Often, Western media and politicians blame Chinese manufacturers for design flaws or incentives […]
From AFP: Democratic 2008 front-runner Hillary Clinton on Tuesday blamed China for a tide of millions of toy exports which she warned could be defective and endanger American children at Christmas. The former first lady also recalled how she had “stood up” to the Beijing government in 1995 at an international conference on women on […]
A new study by Canadian researchers says design flaws, and not Chinese manufacturing, are to blame for dangerous toy exports. From the Globe and Mail: “The consumer concern [about toy safety] is well founded,” said Paul Beamish, a University of Western Ontario business professor who co-wrote the study with two University of Manitoba professors. “But […]
From AFP: A Chinese province is likely to join a planned libel suit against US giant Mattel, accusing the toy maker of harming the region’s reputation, state press said Tuesday. The government of Guangdong province is considering the suit after Mattel issued a safety recall on more than 21 million Chinese-made toys this summer, but […]
More recalls (toys and toasters, among other things). From AP: More than a half-million Chinese-made products were recalled Thursday, including “Pirates of the Caribbean” and Baby Einstein toys, because they contain dangerous levels of lead. Coin-shaped “Pirates of the Caribbean” flashlights and soft, textured Baby Einstein blocks were among the 555,200 products recalled, the Consumer […]
From Time Magazine: So are toys from China safe or not? If you think you’re confused, it looks as if even Mattel, the largest toymaker in the United States, doesn’t know. On Friday, Mattel’s executive vice president for worldwide operations, Thomas Debrowski, met with the Chinese product safety chief Li Changjiang, to apologize for the […]
The Telegraph reports: Chief executive Robert Eckert is to visit the Asian economic powerhouse later this month to ensure sub-contractors are implementing a tough new set of safety guidelines Mattel has imposed. Mattel’s reputation has suffered in the last two months after it has been forced to recall millions of products on three separate occasions, […]
On Fresh Air, Terry Gross interviews New York Times’ China-based business reporter David Barboza about his experience being held hostage in a toy factory, as well as about the recent spate of tainted exports from China. LIsten to the interview here.
A new Canadian study says Chinese manufacturers should not bear primary responsibility for the recent spate of toy recalls: A new Canadian study examining toy recall records suggests that while problems have been found in China’s factories, toy companies should shoulder their fair share of the blame for faulty designs and varying standards. …”The big […]
Shih-Fen S. Chen, “an international business professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business, at the University of Western Ontario,” states that “Companies that take full credit for product successes must accept just as much blame when things go wrong.” From ReportonBusiness.com: For years, consumers have been buying Chinese-made products bearing American brands. Many believe […]
From Xinhua: China’s quality watchdog on Friday introduced the nation’s landmark recall systems for unsafe food products and toys amid efforts to improve product safety. The two regulations, following the introduction of recall system for defective automobiles in 2005, went into effect on Friday. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (AQSIQ) stated […]
Will China and America start a trade war? China warns about U.S. soy as Chinese goods are under scrutiny. See more via The New York Times: Zhang Shuhong, a 52-year-old businessman, had apparently committed suicide, just days after Mattel blamed his company, Lee Der Industrial, in Foshan, in southern China, for the recall of one […]
BusinessWeek takes a look at how Mattel ended up producing unsafe toys and issuing a massive recall, especially since the company is frequently held up as a model of how to operate overseas while respecting product safety and workers’ rights: Mattel is not just another company suffering because it uses low-cost Chinese suppliers. The company […]
Following the massive recall of Mattel toys made in China, parents around the world are considering a boycott of Chinese-made products, yet many realize such a move could make toy-buying unaffordable, Reuters reports. In an editorial, the International Herald Tribune calls for the U.S. and other countries to encourage a transparent regulatory system in China […]
The reputation of “Made in China” is tainted. The latest event is the recall by Mattel of 18 million Chinese-made toys. From Times Online: China is starting to feel like the outcast child picked on in the school playground. Hardly a day goes by without more bad news about some dodgy product “Made in China”. […]
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