Tuesday, June 26, 2007

And the (Chinese) Beat Goes On

Today's Wall Street Journal has another chapter in the continuing saga of the Chicoms selling us total garbage.

About 450,000 Chinese-made tires sold in the U.S. -- and possibly many more -- may lack an important safety feature, according to federal regulators and the U.S. distributor that helped design them...The tire defect comes in the wake of several other high-profile safety problems involving Chinese products, including the discovery of lead paint on children's toys and hazardous materials in Chinese-made toothpaste and in wheat gluten used in pet food.
The American distributor of the tire began sounding the alarm when it discovered an abnormal number of incidents with the tires.

FTS knew about the tire defect, which it reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this month, as early as last year -- when it conducted its own tests in the wake of an accident in New Mexico that didn't result in any serious injuries or deaths.
It gets better. Just like in their software piracy industry, the Chicoms have either distorted the product numbers or left them out completely.

The case points to questions about the effectiveness of U.S. safety regulations as they relate to imported tires. Not only has FTS told NHTSA it doesn't have the money to pay for a recall, it said it can't even clearly identify the tires affected because the Chinese manufacturer has failed to provide it with the identification numbers of the tires that were made with the missing safety feature.
The article has lots more details. Read the whole thing.

Our Missionary to the Frozen, Northern Wastelands has more posts like this as well. There's enough to go around for everyone. China has recently or very soon will pass the US in carbon emissions. I look forward to Al Gore's visit to China where he roundly castigates them.

Ha ha.

3 comments:

Kelly the little black dog said...

Ah more wonderful news from the East. I did some digging, and the brands effected are ones I'd heard of before. I loved the comment from the American distributors that they couldn't afford to do a recall. Perhaps they an afford jail time????

K T Cat said...

I love stuff like the American distributor saying they can't afford the recall. Doesn't it sound like that line from Tom Lehrer's Werner Von Braun song?

"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.

Kelly the little black dog said...

Tag, you're it!