I do my best to stay away from anything made in China that aren't fireworks.

From counterfeit car bumpers that shatter upon impact and cheap brake pads that glaze and fail on the first hard stop to the recent pet food deaths to this...

Chinese manufacturing and the government that fails to oversee it is to blame for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defective and dangerous product and countless failures in the field that result in deaths, injuries, property damage and premature failure.

When will we, the US retailing community and ultimately the US consumer, learn that you do get what you pay for? If we didn't buy this garbage up as fast as they can churn it out - I'm looking (among others) at you, Wal-Mart - there would be less incentive to lie, cheat, steal and poison in the name of profit.

Since they are neither interested in nor capable of ensuring their exports are safe, our government desperately needs to enforce strict testing standards, paid for with an excise tax on all Chinese imports.

I'm beginning to worry it's not just an accident.

It's a test.

Whats the running conspiracy theory on that angle ?

I never trust the dollar store products anyway, even less if it's something I might eat. I don't mind buying their cheap crayons or picture frames but anything that is made for consumption I pass by.

That's what happens when people want cheap things...

Truthfully, I'm not surprised to hear about this after the whole pet food fiasco. China is just out to get us I suppose.

To say that they aren't actually doing anything about it is extremely misleading. You might want to do some research for your stories. Not to mention, they just sentenced the head of their Food and Drug Administration to death for "taking bribes and dereliction of duty". True, he was arrested in 2005, long before the recent problems, but it appears that they are sending a message. You can be sure that the recent problems are a result of policy, or lack there of, developed under his watch.

The dirty Commies are trying to poison us!

However, I will still buy my tools at Harbor Freight, because they don't treat me like shit like Sears does.

They also honor their warranty better than Sears does.

Plus they have tons of stuff you'll NEVER find at Sears like vise brakes, motorcycle tire changing machines, large bench vises, shop presses, motorcycle work lifts that actually fit a motorcycle, cross-slide vises, benchtop arbor presses, and a decent assortment of metric tools.

I'd think about buying them at Sears or another American store, but they DON'T stock any of this sort of thing, so it's a choice between cheap Chinese stuff and ... let me see here... NOTHING! So I'll take the cheap Chinese stuff.

Now you do have to give it the hairy eyeball because the stuff isn't the highest quality, but then again I'm not running a machine shop, I just want to work on my motorcycle when it needs it.

The Chinese attitude is "if someone will buy it, we'll make it" including poison toothpaste.

Ooh, I see. I did do research, but hadn't found a lot on that front. I'd be happy to edit to accommodate the error.

Global Capitalism at its finest!

send production over to China for better profits for US Coporations for lower wages and defective products for the masses!

three cheers.

All it takes is a bottle of good strong alcohol and perhaps a cut of the profits for local party secretary and the police chief and you can produce whatever poison you need, use children workforce to get it mixed and label it however you want. Don't be fooled about high-profile executions - in a communist state, especially the size of China, the central government is a paper dragon and its only concern is staying in power.

Not to mention Beijing is far far away and $X000 you can get for a Barrel of poison labelled as syrup is fortune worth dying for.

My question is.......

Who would buy dollar store toothpaste? Like the 79 cent tube from wal mart isn't cheap enough?

you haven't bought toothpaste in a very, very long time have you ?

It's funny....everyone's so down on China right now, what with their businesses killing our pets and all, but read a little out of "The Jungle" to see how American meat packing companies used to put all kinds of toxic substances in their consumables. We were the "China" of a hundred years ago. In another 100 years it'll be some other country. Why? Because:

Capitalism + zero oversight = antifreeze-flavored toothpaste and sawdust-filled sausages.

Money follows the path of least resistance and the path of least resistance is what makes a river crooked. -Utah Phillips

China still cool! China still cool!

Yeah, but they ostensibly have a planned economy; these sorts of stories reveal how unplanned it is.

I love this guy.

And as for this:

Maybe a third of their stuff is from China. My wrenches, for examples, are made in India (India? Yes, India.), toolbox is Taiwan, and a lot of the rest of the stuff is Cambodia. Which doesn't exactly warm the cockles of my heart, but I'm also not going to buy anything from there that can lift a vehicle high enough that it's in an excellent position to crush one of my limbs.

I guess you could test your toothpaste on your cat first to see if it contains anti-freeze.