Chinese quality supervisors have a lot of work

China said one-fifth of its consumer products don't meet government safety and quality standards.

China, the world's biggest exporter of consumer products,
faces pressure to improve safety standards as its trade surplus widens. Authorities
in the past year found industrial dye in duck eggs and carcinogenic fungicides
in turbot fish. Melamine, used to make plastics, was found in pet food that was
blamed for killing cats and dogs in the U.S. this year. Contaminated toothpaste
and drugs in South America linked to Chinese producers contained industrial
coolant and the toxic solvent diethylene glycol.

About 19 percent of products sold locally in the first half
didn't meet Chinese standards, according to a survey of 7,200 types of food,
farm products and consumer goods from 6,362 companies, posted today on the Web
site of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine.