China Tries Crisis Management in Product Crackdown

The Chinese government has wrapped up an extensive campaign – including a crisis management push – to shore up the country’s reputation as a manufacturer of quality goods. Did it work?

The Associated Press’ Audra Ang says that as “the four-month initiative - part crackdown, part public relations drive - ended in December, experts say China has taken significant steps toward addressing product quality and safety problems. But they also note the risk of backsliding in a country with a convoluted bureaucracy and a well-documented history of local leaders ignoring edicts from the top.”

Ang notes that while the high-profile campaign is over, the government is continuing work on several fronts, including developing China’s first-ever food safety law. Ang says the country’s reputation took a beating in 2007 in the wake of high-profile pet food and toy recalls.

“The crisis put China’s position as the world’s factory at risk, threatening the underpinning of its economic success and the jobs that are lifting millions of Chinese out of poverty,” Ang says.

But despite the amount of work government officials have done in crisis management, Julie Livingston of the New York-based Toy Industry Association, which represents about 500 toy companies, told Ang the jury is still out.

“The damage done to the reputation of toys made in China has been immense and it will take time to turn around,” she told Ang. “It will require a continuous effort by the Chinese government, and by the toy industries in both countries, to rescue China’s tattered toy reputation.”