The Chinese Shell Game

Many Chinese manufacturers of consumer products are so obsessed with shoveling products out the door that they cut dangerous corners in order to keep their selling prices down. First it was lead in children's toys. Then faulty materials in wallboard that made several hundred U.S. homes uninhabitable because of mold and noxious odors. More recently it has been deadly cadmium in children's jewelry. Why do Chinese manufacturers use toxic materials in their products? It's cheaper.

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After outcries in the United States, China's biggest market, its government usually punishes one or two offending manufacturers and vows it will make more and better inspections in the future. It turns out that Chinese corner-cutting isn't restricted to consumer products. Some Chinese industrial manufacturers and trading companies, owned by the government, have devised an elaborate shell game to bypass U.S. sanctions. These sanctions, in place for more than three years, prohibit U.S. companies from importing products from foreign firms that sell missile technology to Iran. One of them, China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp. (CPMIEC), has managed to skirt the sanctions with approximately 300 sales into the U.S. since the ban went into affect in 2006. More...

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