The mainland's small workshops and US protectionism were to blame for a series of damaging problems overseas involving mainland-made products, a senior quality supervision official said.
The standard of goods had been improving steadily and the US Congress' increasing focus on trade protection was the reason the reputation of mainland-made products had been so strongly attacked this year, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine news office director Li Yingfeng said yesterday.
Mr Li made the remarks following a series of scares this year involving goods such as poisonous pet food, tainted toothpaste and substandard toys.
He conceded that some products had quality problems, saying the majority of them were made by small operations. For instance, of the 450,000 food enterprises across the mainland, 78.8 per cent were 'small workshops' that employed fewer than 10 people.
'The major problem lies in small workshops,' Mr Li said. 'Some owners have decayed morals and battered credit. We will intensify the crackdown on them.'
One way to attack the quality problem was for consumers to veto substandard products by not buying them and lodging complaints against them, he said.