The China Teaching Web

Here comes the FDA to save the day. This is the week when the FDA (Federal Food and Drug Administration) will be opening three offices in China. Why? Someone in Washington thinks that the FDA can do what the Chinese government has constantly failed to do; protect people from being poisoned by Chinese goods that are constantly laced with pesticides,drugs, and who knows what else. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that someone in Washington has a little too much confidence in the 13 FDA employees who are being sent here. These people will probably soon find that they would have better luck inspecting and overseeing operations at a North Korean nuclear ’power plant.’ How the FDA was even able to wiggle its way into China is still a mystery to me. It is very uncharacteristic of the Chinese government to allow such ‘interference.’ No matter, Beijing must realize that three ‘puny’ offices in China are not going to pose a threat to much of anyone and certainly not to the hundreds of factories that have been getting away with adding poisons to their products for many years.   

The fact is, if Washington really wants to protect the American people from tainted Chinese products, it needs to start restricting imports on consumable goods from China. Now there is a novel idea, right? Maybe we could even work on narrowing that trade deficit at the same time. More importantly, however, such an action would send a clear message to Beijing that the United States is not going to sacrifice the health of its people in exchange for cheap goods. Only then might Beijing actually get serious about combating the corruption and lack of respect for human lives that is rampant in these factories. And not because Beijing actually cares about the well being of people but because China needs our money to fuel the rapid development that is taking place.

Instead, the FDA is sending a grand total of 13 employees to work in 3 offices in China because Washington does not have the ‘guts’ to stand up to Beijing and say ‘enough is enough.’ The money flowing between the two countries is apparently just too good to jeopardize. In the end, Washington is an accomplice to the damage that these tainted goods have caused because it continues to put more value on cheap prices and strong trade relations than it does on human life.