This article is here taken from Straits Times on 15/7/07, with the article title "Man who lost himself in greed" (Ms Quah, if the link cannot be reached can you search using the RI Newslink on asknlearn?)
This article is about the greed of an official tarnishing the image of “Made in China” products.
Over the course of a few years, many products from China have proven themselves to be substandard. These include recently, toothpaste and pork bun as well as the fake eggs from further back.
The reason many products of China are substandard is due to the fact that China began its food and drug supervision late and its foundations are thus weak. The recent scandal of buns being made from cardboard soaked in caustic soda, flavoured with fatty pork and seasonings has caused even Chinese to be afraid of their own goods.
The Chinese government is trying to salvage the image of the China brand by cracking down on shady operators and trying a “tit-for-tat” strategy to ban American products. Also, recently when Indonesia issued a warning over the safety of imported China goods, China in return banned fish imports from Indonesia.
The report in the Straits times on July 31 says the pork bun scandal was actually fabricated news to generate greater newspaper readership, as there is fierce competition between news agencies. Yet, many speculate that this is a cover-up and many Chinese are still afraid of eating buns.
All this goes shows a general lack of integrity in the people of China, regardless of the business they are in. Toy manufacturers have bad paint; infant milk powder is toxic; antibiotics are substandard, and even the media is faking reports. This general trend of dishonesty is worrying.
I believe the reason behind all these sub-standard products is corruption and greed, which all boils down to lack of integrity. Many of the state officials are aware of underground activities and factories producing sub-standard goods. The reason these factories are still intact is due to corruption as in the case of Zheng Xiaoyu. When it comes to businesses, cutting costs is an important factor. However, these Chinese have been overcome by greed, and disregard human life.
In comparison to Singapore, I think that one of the reasons that China is so corrupt is because China is too large. Being a vast country with poor infrastructure, it is difficult to crack down on lawlessness. Besides, many in rural areas are not well educated and so often misuse products from the West. One example would be that pesticides used in excessive amounts because farmers were not informed of proper usage.
China is trying to become a strong and vibrant nation. Yet in its attempt to do so, it is ignoring ethics and moral values. While trying to cut costs to the bare minimum, I feel that it actually makes good business sense to observe ethics. I think it is better for China to sacrifice a little in economic advancement for strong moral values and social responsibility. China should slow down its development in the cities and extend help to the rural areas to prevent such scares. In that way, it would be able to prevent such food scares.
1 comment:
It is all well and easy to say what China ought or ought not to do, the reality being that the drive to raise the economic prowess of the country, to catch up with the rest of the world and to even be a contending power, is hard to hold back despite the long-term harm it is doing to the environment and image of the country. For sure, it is a balancing act, but indeed one must not compromise integrity for greed.
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