China's Food and Drugs Are Dangerous

China's Food and Drugs Are Dangerous:

"U.S. officials are said to be concerned about 'China's standards,' and are pushing for more written codes and regulatory inspections. This would all be risible were America's health not at stake. The truth is that China has no standards worthy of the name. What it does have is a pervasive culture of corruption that makes it possible for virtually any offical, up to and including the head of China's FDA, to be bribed....

"China, as anyone who has lived there knows, has virtually no safety controls on food and drugs. At the same time, it is in the midst of a no-holds-barred drive to increase its exports, and is heavily subsidizing its manufacturers to ship container loads of cheap goods of all kinds to the U.S. and other overseas markets. As a result, over the past few years, China has stealthily become the second-largest supplier of foreign toothpaste — and many other questionable food and drug products — to the U.S. market."