China shuts 180 food factories for chemicals
Toxic ingredients used in products from candy to seafood, state media says
Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for food safety.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19457564/

Yeah I guess it is all just a bunch of hype ;)

Someone said it's the fault of red commie China to seek only profits and careless about public interest.  That's not true.  Chinese are absolutely and sadly Capitalists, like tobacco companies.

I do business in China and just returned from my first visit from there.  I visited the factory where my product is made.  I witnissed a work force that was happy to work and please the customer (me).  They were housed and fed by the factory.  They make more in 3 months at the factory than an entire year where they are from with farm labor.  The people seem quite content, dare I say happy, in their daily work.  I have suppliers here that act like they are doing me some kind of favor by doing their jobs.  Americans ARE spoiled beyond comprehension.  Any person in America at least has a chance to get what they want out of life.  

Jim from Colorado Springs wins this debate. He seems to be one of the few people with clear, objective head in this country.
Diamond Pet foods based in South Carolina killed dozens of pets last year; Firestone tires (US made) had 17 million tires recalled, etc. These are just a few of the many examples of bad American products. Remember?

boy cott all things comming from china. they are trying to kill you off the easy way, you think you are getting cheap goods, but you are realy getting poison.

China does bear responsibility for the deaths and illnesses caused by deliberately mislabeled Chinese goods in Haiti, Panama, the Dominican Republic, etc.  China bears responsibility for defective tires and other goods, as well.  It is not the fault of the consumer that Chinese goods are deliberately mislabelled nor is it the fault of "the Wal-Marts of the world" , as you cravenly put it, who seek quality goods at the lowest price.  China wants access to the world, but then hides the wrongdoers.  In many cases the goods are hidden behind a maze of middlemen in China, none of whom are ever prosecuted for their crimes.  Prosecution of one official here or there is nothing compared to the many party members who are protected by the state.  Perhaps Americans ought to refuse to buy Chinese goods and we would see how fast Chinese authorities would actually pursue the murderers.  In the meantime, stupidly blaming the purchaser of mislabelled Chinese goods is like balming the victim of a drunk driving accident for being out on the road.  It is obnoxious and only helps the wrongdoer.

I went to Wal Mart a few years ago to purchase an American Flag. On the box I could see "IN AMERICA" The price tag covered "ASSEMBLED" I opened the box and the tag on the flag "MADE IN CHINA" was on most of the flags and the price tag was placed in the same spot on every box to hide ASSEMBLED. I consider that treason. Because of that I'll never shop at Wal Mart again. It is the selling out of the American people by Corp. America. Blame the greed of Corp America. In fact I couldn't find an American flag at any local store that was made in America. I had to order one to get a true "MADE IN AMERICA" AMERICAN FLAG.

I suppose this all boils down to points of view...not that there is necessarily a right or wrong one, just different ones. In any economy, society, or business, everyone is going to do what is in his or her own best interest.  The average Wal-Mart shopper is just trying to save money, and to condemn him or her is hypocritical. Same with the CEO, CFO, COO etc. who has just decided to move operations over to China to save his or her company millions of dollars every year.  The persons in his or her company will make more money, and his/her product will cost less.  So long as he/she has not knowingly outsourced labor to a sweatshop, then his/her actions cannot be scrutinized.  I would condemn the individuals who knowingly do what is in their best interest at the expense of others.  However, contracting with Chinese factories that employ individuals who have willingly moved off the farm to seek employment in these factories is no crime. This is no different than hiring a gardener for minimum wage who just emigrated from Russia. I am sure the gardener is happy to be employed.  If the individual employing the gardener feels obligated to pay more than minimum wage, he or she should.  What he or she should not do is tell their neighbor to start paying their gardener more, because it is the right thing to do. So I say, criticize individuals, companies, societies who knowingly cause harm to others to benefit themselves.  Not individuals, companies and societies who are doing what is in their own best interest, in a moral and legal way.

People just still don't get it.  China's population will make it the next superpower regardless of what we want--they have more people in the top 10% by IQ than we have people total.  If they continue to pursue a 19th century economic model they will suck up all the mineral resources now known to exist, poison their own homeland and poison the world at the same time.  Look at how long it took the U.S.A. to get lead out of its' gasoline.  We need to encourage them to adopt a more reasonable model and NOT make the many mistakes we made with the environment and product safety. If we fail in that, a military confrontation with them is inevitable and it will not be pretty. The idea that we can just not buy anything or run home to isolationist America is nonsense.  As for the "collect all the chips" comments, who is really worse off, the people who manufacture goods and sell them for paper money backed by the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. or the guys who received those goods (especially when we default)?

Don’t be so hard on the Chinese people. There are over a billion of them and as in any other country; A few bad apples don’t make the entire batch bad. The government can’t possibly check every single manufacturer. They hand a death penalty for corruption, which is more than I can say for our own government  A few years ago I spent 15 days in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Chonquin and a 6 day cruise on the Yangtze River).  I had a time of my life. Although the air was pretty polluted, (The Chinese Government is working on changing from coal to gas and electric) I found the country and cities very clean and the people sweet, friendly and kind towards foreigners. I saw only two homeless people, try that in San Diego, San Francisco, New York or any other city in the good old USA.  No one is trying to keep up with the Joneses over there. They are industrial hard working people, trying to get ahead just like the rest of us. Buy American made; and take care of our own corruption first, don’t rag on people you have never met.

Sodium hydroxide is not baking soda (NaHCO3).  Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is also known as caustic lye and is a basic (or non-acidic) compound used in the manufacture of soap, Drano, and other non-food items, although a very, VERY weak solution can be used to dip some breads in to change the color of the crust, possibly the technique the author was talking about, although given China's record of giving a damn, I doubt the technique was used properly.  Now that the US knows about such risky behaviors, it's all on us if we allow it to continue.  Why not post US inspectors in sites from which we purchase our commodities to ensure quality and safety?  And if China refuses, then we refuse to buy their products.  Simple.

I wonder why bother mentioning issues at all. Regardless of importance, they seem to always have two sides arguing with "the solid truth" on their side... The real question is : are we willing to change our opinions based on dialog? Accountability is something that in inverse-proportional with power and wealth ... and until media will decide to step in and mass-report on corruption in business and governments : here, in China and everywhere else in the world; this sort of angry blogging on issues will just remain a feel-good-few-minutes-a-day experience for most of us... no real global change.

Why not establish more manufacturing and food processing plants in Mexico? We would solve the illegal immigration problem in a flash, by employing the same people that come here illegaly. Mexico has a triving shoe, processed foods, auto parts and furniture industry. Give them the work, instead of our potential enemies.

I agree. Every time some uneducated, flag waiving, low income, white trash American spends his/her welfare check at Wal-Mart it empowers a communist nation who is bent on the fact inevitably communist/socialist governments will control the world. US influence is the only thing stopping them from achieving that goal, hence why they are spending so much of their GDP earnings on bulking up their military. Trust me, when WWIII breaks out and people are picking sides, China will NOT be on ours. Go ahead and laugh if you want, but you will not be laughing in 30 years when a Chinese battle group is 300 miles off the coast of San Francisco enforcing Chinese foreign policy.  

not all the people who shop at walmart are trailer trash it is just a great place to go if you need a lot of househoild items at a lower price, and as an economic choice it simple buy the same item at a lower price. It isnt right that these items are made with chemicals and other harmful agents but when they are made safe we are saving money. just imagine if we had to pay some average joe in a union 20 dollars an hour instead of .10 cents an hour plus benefits and health care. think of the astronomical price the item would cost.  Also i cant blame the chinese for wanting to cut corners when we as american companies pay unfare basically unlivable wages. Cut corners go ahead just dont poison us.

I just have one question. Why are we considering importing poultry from China? Course I don't understand why we are importing any foodstuff from there in the first place. After all, we can hardly eat anything produced in this country anyway, e coli has become a mainstay it seems.

No wonder most European countries don't want our food.

I am done and am getting off the China train - you want to know why:

NOT A DEMOCRACY (not a communist either)
GREEDY IMPERIALISTS
DECEPTIVE and DESTABILISING smaller, poorer (and DEMOCRATIC!) India
Support of Pakistan, North Korea, Sudan and other destablising forces
Total disregard of the environments
Building a DARN TAR ROAD to the Everest - what next the Rockies?
Doing nothing to curb illegal TIGER HUNTING
UTTER DISREGARD for TIBET and TAIWAN (recognise these two and China will treat you as an enemy)
Absolute imperialist in the guise of "The People's Republic"
HORRID Human Rights record (no other place has the reputation for Chinese torture)
Systematic attempts to bypass all American and European laws on decent international standards
Predictably deceptive - recent CIA documents document Chinese perfidy in attacking India in 1962 in the middle of broad peace ties
Killing my pet cat with tainted food - must you eat everything in sight

So, getting off the China train - unimpressed - boycott all things Chinese. (Chou on this)

Wake up and buy American made products only! Get it?

The reason for all of these issues is the Unions.  The unions are the reason Ford and GM are laying off so many workers.  Americans have unionized themselves out of the global market for labor.  $22 an hour to work an assembly line?  Please!

It should be up to the American buyers to police the the products they are having manufactured in China. For an importer to allow lead based paint to be used on a childs toy, especially after years of press on this, is unacceptable. Companies are not enforcing their own specifications or are ignoring them, at their own peril. I havn't been in a Wal-Mart in many years because of the continued poor quality of much of their merchandise. As for the melamine in the animal feed, the Chinese did not invent this but taking chances is deeply ingrained in the Chinese character and the consequences of getting cought don't seem to mean much. It will be a long time before I knowingly buy a food item with ingredients manufactured in China.

I have to agree with Carlos Gutierrez (above), that history has a way of being circular and, if America isn't careful, we will soon be working as coolies for the Chinese, much as they had been working for us on the XIX Century California railroads! The problem is particularly scary due to the fact that it is clearly of our own making: China is a Communist coutry which is being build up by the Capitalist greed! I think that it is time for a global referendum on this, not just in the U.S.,  but wherever the freedom-loving people congregate!

Sodium hydroxide
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as lye or caustic soda or sodium hydrate, is a caustic metallic base. Forming a strongly alkaline solution when dissolved in a solvent such as water, caustic soda is widely used in many industries, mostly as a strong chemical base in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents. Worldwide production in 1998 was around 45 million tonnes. Sodium hydroxide is also the most common base used in chemical laboratories, and it is also widely used as a drain cleaner.

I work for a U.S. company that does a lot of business in China.  I have been to China several times. We do go through pain staking measures to ensure the quality of the products being made in China under our name is safe and effective.  But that is because we have the money and the resources.  The issue is China is wide open to any company (U.S. or other) to do business there.  And the blame for the issues we are seeing now lie on both sides.  For one China regulation is not even 1/10th of what the U.S. does, but it is getting better.  It has to for them to play in the global sandbox.  However, the message being sent to China from U.S. companies and others is low cost, low cost, low cost.  And the Chinese are doing that.  If we went there and said cost is important, but safety and quality are number one.  Then that's how they would do it.  For now, China is going through what the U.S. went through in the early 1900's.  An industrial revolution.  And it will take time for them to get to where we are regulatory-wise.  You have to consider it took the U.S. 75 years from the start of our industrial revolution to establish the EPA.  

Hi Everybody,
    My wife is Chinese, and by virtue of this wonderful relationship, I am related to a lot of Chinese people by marriage. Guess what? All of you China bashers, you have it wrong. Dead wrong.
    By and large, the vast majority of chinese are hard working, diligent, dedicated to education and life-long learning, intensely moral and ethical, as well as so dedicated to family concepts the average North American family looks like a disfunctional game-board where the members play with one anothers' heads in pursuit of control of the household.
    No. I'm not some ignorant young pup without a history either, I'm in my 50's, as is my wife, I've been married twice before to both an American woman and a Canadian one, and now thank God for the dose of Yellow Fever I got in marrying my present wife.
    I also lived in the U.S.  for 21 years of my life, and with God as my witness, I wouldn't live State-side again for love nor money.
    Ther ignorance of the average American defies comprehension on any level. You live in what you call the most progress, democratic and powerful nation of laws and morals on earth, yet 48 million of your people are without medical insurance of any kind due to the high cost of coverage demanded by the greedy scum who run the medical community. As a consequence, some of the most desperate of your society are turned away at hospitals and clinics to die in your streets or the abject poverty of their homes. Your pay structure denies the majority of your citizens even the basics of creature comforts let alone any appreciable standard of living. You will take your young and ship them off to war half way around the world at the whims of your greedy, self-serving politicians, oil industry leaders, weapons manufacturers, and the ethics of the least deserving of your people, all in the name of so-called National Security. Your nation has been turned into a paranoid nightmare by your own politicians, In fact, I wouldn't be surprized if your own government set up 9/11 just so they could begin the process of total control of a New World Order. I can go on all day on those scores. But, better still. Your education systems teaches precious little to your children. Certainly not enough to give them the vital head start they need in the Global World we live in. Half your students don't even know where Canada is, and we're the second largest land mass in the world, right next door.
    Crime, criminal elements, consumer fraud, and all other ills are present in every society, as are those who will perpetrate it. The only difference is, your biased media will downplay the criminal nature of American firms committing potentially dangerous offences against your people, while tearing a whole new butt-hole out of foreign entities doing the same thing.
    Stop being so damned ignorantly American, and start realizing that your own greed, malcontent, over-priced unionization, trust in crooked politicians and business leaders, judicial failure to inflict adequate punishment on those business leaders and politicians who function with impunity, and a host of other things have led to this period in your history. Don't blame the Chinese people. They didn't do this. A few greedy people did, with a big chunk of them being your own American business leaders demanding lower production costs and higher profits, and all in collusion with your own politicians.
    Birds of a feather fly together, and they're all over the planet.
    Personally, I feel a whole lot safer in the middle of a crowded Chinese community than I do anywhere in the good old U.S. of A.
   By the way, most chinese have no idea of who Paris Hilton is, and don't want to either.

Come on Folks!......Greed and Lust for the almighty currency of the day RULES here and there....It's a ME,ME,ME world.....Do you really believe YOUR "Rants" are going to change the "'if' you do this for me, I'll do that for you world?" NO ONE...I mean NO ONE gives a hoot and a holler "If" it is safe and durable.....except those who "control it." Take NANO'S as a example.....4% investment in research into "It's safety.".....It's like a budget for NASA to look for planet killer comets, meteors, greedy people falling from 3% of the sky.....But NANOS will be in everything in 10 to 20 years at the geometric rate of doubling knowlege (a penny's sum doubled for 30 days)....Only here in this field "it will be trillions in secret doubled 'by the 'NANO's'(AI)." No it's real...check it out in the Consumer's Report's issue July 2007. So....Matrix Revolutions is NOT far off..."IF" we do not die of a myraid of other causes first, laughter..more laughter...It's YOUR world baby!

what happened to BUY AMerican...........Jobs here first Not the rest of the world

what happened to BUY AMerican...........Jobs here first Not the rest of the world

It's not just food they're out to poison us with. Have you read the caution label on any set of Christmas Lights or extension cord sold in the last few years. The  warning label says to handle wash your hands because of the high lead content. Every factory town there must be as bad as the Love Canal.

Jon A:  "Not sodium hydroxide! you mean they use BAKING SODA?"

No... baking soda is sodium bicarbonate.  Sodium hydroxide is lye, a highly-caustic chemical.

That said, lye solutions are used to prepare several foods, among which are German pretzels.  It seems this Chinese baker was using a perfectly acceptable method of baking German bread.

Who's to blame?  The fat lazy majority who make up the Western world today and the hungry politicans who prey on those that cannot make their own imformed decisions!!!!  China, India and whoever else will take our way of life away due to political incorrectness and the greed of the few among us.  Our only hope is to start thinking clearly and logically as our forefathers did before us, and then maybe just maybe we will have a fighting chance to survive the near future.....

Here is a fun fact 50% percent of america is really ignorant it shows everywhere and they are all republican.

Jon A:
better get your chemistry straight,my friend, Sodium Hydroxide isn't baking soda..it's caustic soda..I know,I have two burns from it while working in an industrial wastewater facility. Sodium Bicarbonate is baking soda...

"... that sentence sends a message, but will it be a deterrent?"  my guess is he'll not be doing that ever again ie. he has learned his lesson.

Seems to me someone has swallowed Chinese propaganda 'hook, line and sinker'.  What 'soaked their uncooked bread in water mixed with sodium hydroxide in order to give them better color' describes is German Lye Rolls.  Look up a recipe, it will tell you to soak the bread in lye water, or 'water mixed with sodium hydroxide'.  The same is done with pretzels too.
The Chinese are just trying to cast attention away from their own problems.

Sad, sad, sad.  I live in China so I see this all the time.  96% of domestic ice cream companies in China produce a product that is unfit for human consumption by THEIR standards.  This was reported in the news here.  Farmers PAINT ginger with toxic paints to make it look better for market (you need to buy the dirty ginger here).  The China Daily said (when they set up the office of that jerk that's being executed) that there was no regulating body in place to regulate the amount of talc in flour (why would talc powder be in flour in the first place???).  Restaurants here buy used oil  (and if you've ever seen the carts they collect it in, or SMELLED *Gag*, you would never eat out again).  Several illegal brick kilns were just busted here (once again this was in their paper so you can imagine the problem is much worse).  The kilns had enslaved their workers some of whom were middle school students still wearing their school uniforms from the day they were abducted.  The kiln that got the most coverage was run by the son of the town's party secretary.  They BUY other countries' e-waste (the most toxic garbage in the world btw), locals of those areas sift through it looking for reusable parts for China's own tech industry.  The toxic chemicals give the people there cancer.  The other day I went outside and my eyes felt like they were being burned (and Beijing's pollution is pretty good by Chinese standards).  The government constantly says that they will not cut pollution if it stymies their "development".  THIS is what we are talking about.  This is the real China straight from the horse's mouth.  If you think that I'm being hard on China, or "it's not that bad because I've been in one of China's big cities for 2 years" (I've been 7), please keep in mind that I've only sited Chiense propaganda newspapers (which under-report the bad stuff).  China's government and businesses care about its people less than people in America do (at least we TRY to push for human rights).  They use the political restrictions that are just as strong as ever to make sure that the economic boom does not benefit anyone but the government and its cronies.  If you think that THIS group of people, who don't care about their own country, will care about a foreign country or the rest of humanity (look at their Africa policy, makes the US look like Mother Theresa), THEN YOU ARE DELUSIONAL.

China has a problem from over-population to environmental pollution. It is a growing country in which the government is having a hard time to control. This is not a matter of politics.
Buying American doesnt solve any crisis because we live in a global world. Exporting and importing is suppose to help countties prosper.
Other competitors will come up with ways to make things better than the US (like the Japanese with Honda and Toyota). Who doesnt trust Japanese cars?! No one ever complains about Toyotas breaking down.
This is an issue of morality. China was always been behind in technology since the beginning of the 20th century and they are trying their best to catch up with the rest of the world. However in their effort to become rich, they have neglected many rules and regulations; like how to run an efficient and trustworthy company. Not all chinese companies are corrupt and careless, but it is so hard for the government to track all personal businesses and factories that many of them become un-noticed with their malfunctioning or dangerous products.
When other products are being bought to the US, it is our job to test these products to see how safe and reliable they are. It seems like our system is not any better either.
If you think it is so dangerous buying Chinese made products, think about the Billions of people in China everyday who suffers from such negligence.

Jim, Colorado Springs, I will agree with you, after we had the Pet food scare, this same food was fed to some fish growers in the midwest and tons of it was also send to Cattle Companys for human food comsumtion, our own goverment knew the food was contiminated, yet it was sold to them, do we still blame China? Msn had a report several months ago about our own food supply in LA shows the food that is sent to our stores were repent with cock roaches and rodants, even worker peeing on the food the we eat, Remember. Remember the Firestone Tire Recall, the car recalls and the hundred of recall just here in the USA, before we throw rocks, lets look at our own windows, we to have to take responsibilties for what we ship to other Countries! Remember the cargo of nuts that was shiped to China last month and was returned back to USA because they found insects in it, hmmmm.

keep letting the illegals in THEY are the source of most of our problems THEY are the ones undercutting the US workers. THEY are the ones living like RATS 20 to 30 to a house with only one thing in mind send the US dollars back home until there is enough to go back and live high on the hog in some shithole country. Ask any african truck driver why they are here and they will tell you just to get capital so they can go back to africa and buy a truck. Why do you think they have no interest in learning the english language or living the American way. Thats the honest truth.

FYI, baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, not sodium hydroxide.

nafta was a big mistake ! how stupid can this country be,take clinton and all his followers and export them,like they did are jobs!

Jon A you need to do your home work follow this link http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/s4034.htm and learn about sodium hydroxide! No they donot mean they use BAKING SODA,

I agree with you Jim Lipuma on firing all the politicians but how would we do that?  Besides someone had to vote for these yokels and put them in office.

Term limits would be great. How about changing the standards on how to be a senator, and limiting the money that can be spent on campaigns.  Many are buying their ways into office. I say take away all the benefits of the politians and give them the same as everyone else for health care, and social security.  Take away their stipends, car expenses, the privilege of allowing their kids to get free eduations etc. I will bet that if we did that you would see social security change in a heart beat, and socialized medicine approved over night.  But How would one get the constitution changed and who in their right mind would ask for that in congress.  Their career would be down the tubes over night.

CARLOS GUTIERREZ.   If they call in their chips, we do what any red blooded American should do.  Don't pay them because they are the fools to think we care about their country.  Think Cinco de Mayo.

People are trashing Wal-mart, the cheap china exports/imports, it is true that living in china and what is paid to workers in china is very small and unreal in our country. I know that when i was a kid i had a great can opener, i never knew of buying another becasue the one my mom had, she had for countless years, In the past i would buy one a year from walmart, maybe 2 a year, they never worked right or broke pretty quick. I broke down, bought an expensive one from an american company and we will see. I hire people for good money, much more then the level they could get at walmart or at any other local mom and pop shops around here where i live, Americans or people in my area turn down good money or demand more or want a lot more then they could get paid by me to work, most of my employess are not worth what i pay them, but i need people to work so i can make money, I would pay more, whatever i needed to find good help, but people dont work, they are horrible, they turn up late, screw things up, do all sorts of things that make my business harder, even if i paid A LOT more, they would be the same quality as they are now, It is rare to find a GOOD employee and if i do, i give them raises and bonuses to keep them, and they still leave to find a job that pays more, or just to "move on" who knows why, to me the "general type" of employee is not very motivated or skilled at least in my area, they always want to get rich and work nothing for it, Its sad but true. I sell antiques on ebay.com, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to find people with computer skills or who know how to use a spell checker, basic point and click skills, im talking office applications here, its crazy and scary and its sad really. I do teach them, and it seems that the learning curve is high with many people i hire, it is really sad.

China is one of the world's most irresponsible and worst totalitarian regimes pretending to be embracing democratic reforms in the eyes of the west while vast human rights abuses, torture, destruction of the environment, murder of its own ethnic and religious groups, corruption and systematic arms build up continue uninterrupted. It exports dangerous defective products, it floods the western economies with cheap corrupt labor that has destroyed millions of jobs in the EU, Canada, Australia and the US.
The international community should have never allowed
the Olympics to take place in an autocratic society and every decent human being that cares for humanity should boycot it worldwide.  The United States has created a monster by engaging in business contracts with such a dictatorship.  The EU has stopped purchasing aircraft components, pharmaceuticals, baby food and high tech equipment because they already figured it out that the manufacturers in China do not care if the western economies are flooded with dangerous defective products. The other western nations should do the same.

It is true that China is experiencing great growth at this time, very much as we did in years past. The cost for labor is lower than the US including benefits to them or businesses could not afford the shipping cost to the US.
The way I see it is, there is less regulation environmentally. The cost to comply in this country is much higher and must be passed along in the piece price of the product. There is a marked financial advantage to not have to pay for compliance by manufacturing out of the country. We have learned that the price is much higher later when cleanups and health issues become major problems. As time goes on I see a leveling of ground between countries manufacturing expenses, where it will eventually be more cost effective to manufacture locally as fuel cost will beat out the other expenses. Investors come from many different countries to have products made as cost effective as possible. In that mix of buyers and manufacturers we will see the good and the bad.
Our focus should be good quality control using safe practices to protect all people and animals. Saving a nickel does nothing for anyone if they are ill or dead. The general populace in all countries is made up of working individuals just trying to get by and have a better life. One should not be angry with people we do not know. Hold the supposed responsible people to their responsibility.      

i keep telling people the "viruses" are because of the food we're eating.

WOW, IT REALLY IS IN THE FOOD AND WATER AND AIR

EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY

I believe that the American Public is being a little to harsh on China.  China has been very successful at marketing its products to the world, half of the stuff Americans have wouldnt even suspect it came from China.  China's economy is growing rapidly, their military budget is increasing very fast (yet Americas budget is much more then any other country in the world)so Americans are felt threatened from this.  I might also add that there communist witch the U.S will not tolerate competing with us.  China and America will be the next competing countries in economy in the near future so I give China credit. People should view this positivley and learn from what they are doing.

I feel sorry for the baker of German bread who is accused of using Sodium Hydroxide to make bread.  He is being strung up mostly due to ignorance.  Sodium hydroxide, also known as household lye is, indeed, used to produce the soft chewy crusted German style pretzels.

Good luck trying to explain that to some middle-aged Chinese officials who missed schooling during Mao's Communist Revolution so they could work the fields.

This is one of China's great shortcomings;  The lost generation of The Communist Revolution.  Pulling kids out of school and sending children to the fields may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that generation is of the age to lead the nation in government, industry, science, and education.  Sadly, many or most of them have a huge educational deficiency.

to Larry,
Wal-Mart is great. Guess who came up with the ide of "one world, open market, exporting jobs, going offshore to avoid rax, making bigger and bigger profits". You guessed it, an American and the amirican greedy business followed.  Now eat what you have cooked Larry.
Incidentally the name of the person was David Rockefeller the then Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank. He was the very first, advocating global market theory.  While not all Chinese products cut the mustard I do recall the American auto industry's dismal record in the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties. Deservedly they lost half of their marketshare and my guess is that you are be driving an import too. That's for the "Buy Amrican" idea.

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