The Great Trade US-China Trade War
Yep, there is a war going on...
- Timeline
- September 14, 2006: Chinese authority announces that excessive heavy metal is found in P&G's high-end skin care product SK-II. Pandemonium ensues. The company insists the amounts are within safety limits, while agreeing to refund customers. Popular Chinese media fans anti-Japanese sentiment (the effective ingredient of SK-II is said to be an extract from sake). Angry consumers broke the glass door of P&G's Shanghai office. The Japanese think it's a retaliation after Japan tightened control of agricultural imports from China.
- October 23: SK-II officially cleared of contamination. No comment on the September finding.
- March 16 2007: beginning of the 2007 pet food recall.
- May 6: NYT bravely exposes the danger of diethylene glycol from China -- never mind that the poisoning in Panama occurred 6 months ago and was linked to China at least 1 month ago.
- May 29: China's former director of State Food and Drug Administration was sentenced to death for taking "bribes and dereliction of duty". He was executed on July 10. (Note that he left office in June 2005, and was under investigation after December 26, 2006).
- June 2: as if on cue, diethylene glycol toothpaste from China shows up in US dollar stores. Supposedly the FDA is still hunting for them.
- May 30: China seizes 118 tone of Evian water, citing excessive bacteria count. Company says the bacteria count is natural and within safety limit.
- June 26: China rejects U.S. orange pulp, apricots for contamination.
- June 29: F.D.A. blocks 5 seafoods from China citing "unapproved animal drugs and food additives"
- July 08: The cardboard bun hoax in Beijing. Well, the most disturbing thing is that nobodsy knows whether is is a hoax or not...
- July 14: China blocks U.S. chicken and pork for "salmonella, feed additives and veterinary drugs".
- July 27: China China buys 60 million lbs of pork from Smithfield Foods. This time sans Paylean, a food additive legal in the US but not allowed in China and one of the culprits of the July 14 pork incident.
