Fake materials, export ban blamed for HK businessman's suicide

The co-owner of a Guangdong company at the centre of a US toy recall claims his late Hong Kong business partner was the victim of fake raw materials and a new export ban, mainland media reported yesterday.

Cheung Shu-hung, the Hong Kong partner of Lee Der Industrial in Foshan, committed suicide at a company's warehouse at the weekend after concerns about excessive lead levels prompted US firm Mattel to recall 967,000 toys that his company made.

Lee Der's mainland co-owner and chairman, identified as Mr Xie, said the company presented new production samples for testing early this month but the Foshan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau temporarily refused to accept them, the Southern Metropolis News reported.

The bureau said that under state quality supervision rules producers subject to recalls were not allowed to send their goods for testing during the 'rectification period', temporarily halting all of their export business.

Mr Xie said the ban was a blow to Cheung and destroyed his plans to resume exports of new products to pay salaries and cover materials costs.

He said Mattel also gave Lee Der new orders valued at tens of million yuan and allowed the export of newly certified toys on August 2 after Cheung worked to improve production standards, the report said.

He said he remembered Cheung saying a few days before his suicide that he was unlucky to have stepped on a landmine in the Sino-US trade war.