Jonas -
Normally I would let it slide, but as a person of notable Chinese heritage
and also living, working and investing in China I believe I have a right to
answer a charge of racism. The cultural norm that exists in the PROC is not
a traditional Chinese culture but a norm that is the ultimate result of
several decades of personality cult worship.
Intentionally poisoning, harming or killing hundreds of thousands of
children to make a profit would never have happened in the more traditional
Chinese cultures that still exist in Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong
or Singapore, so it's not a racial point that's being made. Yes the
Taiwanese used to make crappy parts also, but not at the expense of
someone's life as I can ever recall.
Chinese parents throughout China, to this day, mail order imported
baby formula from Hong Kong because the issue and the problem is lingering.
There are still enough people on the street in the PROC that think it's
perfectly ok to kill people with their product if it means making a profit,
and the milk powder problem has not gone away.
They publicly executed two mid level milk processors, but the rest of the
people involved with the sale and packaging of melamine in the supply chain
have been ignored, especially the well connected ones... and rather
shockingly have thrown a grandfather of
a victim in prison simply because he was investigating the matter
"too publicly."
The problems you mention with Ford/Volvo etc., are engineering design
faults which were discovered to be flawed after the product was in use,
and later fixed. This is much different than a contractor that knowingly
builds a kindergarten in an earthquake zone with inferior concrete
which does not meet the government's specified standards for concrete - all
to save a few thousand dollars. Of course building something that would
later kill thousands of children didn't even merit a second thought by the
builders, inspectors or officials involved in the practice.
If you have your own trusted inspector in the factory checking
the metallurgy, machining, metal treatment, and basic design features of the
brake component, then sourcing brake parts from China is fine, otherwise I
would not do it.
Kudos to Moss for doing the recall, shame on Moss for sourcing
brake components from China because it's cheaper to do so.
Alan
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