Why, then, is it so hard for this same government to crack down on exporters of dangerously tainted seafood, toothpaste, and medicine, despite years of warnings by local and foreign experts?

Why would they want to?

Such things profit China while hurting people in this country; Repugs won't do anything to stop it because no regulation is good regulation in their book (unless it comes to bedroom activities and other personal privacy goings on).

The writer of that article fails to acknowledge the number one problem that China faces - corrupt opportunism. While most of the world was horrified with the recent execution of an official for corruption, they fail to understand that it was exactly what was appropriate and needed. Opportunism is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture and until a message is sent loud and unmistakably clear, it will continue to undermine all efforts to "fix" China.

arteclectic: Opportunism is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture and until a message is sent loud and unmistakably clear, it will continue to undermine all efforts to "fix" China.

Interesting.

Opportunism is deeply ingrained in the conservatives in general and the Bush administration in particular.

Just like the GOP (and Bush administration) rejection of anything that doesn't adhere strictly to the partisan policy line and further the party also is similar to communist government operating procedure.

And the GOP's love of government spying on its citizens, denial of human and civil rights, and the creation of a police state is exceedingly similar to that of communist regimes!

What's more, conservative rhetoric and demand for ideological purity can be matched only by the jihadists.

And conservatives have the gall to call Democrats communists and socialists and government control freaks and terrorist sympathizers, when in fact it is conservatives themselves who are emulating China and the late Soviet Union with its KGB and the terrorists!

Conservative hypocrisy!

I LOVE IT!

Ah, Kevin.

Here you go again with the global warming, as if its already established fact. The fact is, as any nuetral scientist will tell you, that global warming is a THEORY, and a very political one at that. It gets more play in liberal academia, Hollywood and the halls of Congress moreso than any serious scientific establishment. Very sloppy work on your part.

The most recent example of a high official in China sentenced to execution was the equivalent of our FDA director. He was accused of a too close relationship with drug companies and approving unsafe drugs for marketing. Guess the poor guy was just trying to emulate US practice.

I second anonymous. The powers that be in China pick and choose where to use their unlimited power. The anti-Japanese protests and riots last year in Shanghai and elsewhere, along with the continued pirating of foreign intellectual property, are emblematic of the issue.

Egbert, your complaint might be worth pursuing if you had even bothered to look at who you were responding to. I'm not interested in bothering with the recylced foolishness of the WSJ Idiotorial Page, however.

Larson: ..the pertinent question now is not only whether Beijing adopts carbon caps — a big if — but whether the Chinese government, perhaps with the help of unlikely partners, can find a way to convert its edicts into reality.

The sad thing is, if China does adopt carbon caps or goes all out in limiting or eliminating greenhouse emissions, they'll develop the techniques and technology faster than the US does...There's something to be said for a gentle push (or a hard shove) from a government to spur innovation and solve problems.

Those who remember the downfall of communism in Europe almost 20 years ago, might remember that citizens rallying around environmental issues, which was allowed because it was deemed non-political, morphed into more political opposition.

I wonder if the same dynamic can appear in China too?

There's an old Chinese proverb: "The mountains are high and the emperor is far away."

China's an awfully big place, and it's just possible that even a theoretically totalitarian government doesn't actually have unlimited power.

Or, they just haven't wanted to crack down, because they haven't perceived the downside. Defective counterfeit DVDs, poisoned toothpaste, what's the difference?

The execution of the responsible bureaucrats brings to mind Voltaire's comments on the supposed British execution of admirals: "to encourage the others." Interesting method of operation.

The title of this post communicates US businesses do not endanger their clients, but China's do, and that their inability to regulate is endangering our future. China does have problems and some of those problems probably do endanger some people in the US, but mostly China's lack of business regulation endangers Chinese. I would guess poorly regulated domestic forest cutting and paper making, as examples, endangers more American lives than any Chinese businesses do, but that headline doesn't sell magazines or perpetuate the new propaganda theme of China's inabiilty to manufacture quality goods for the US market.

The sad thing is, if China does adopt carbon caps or goes all out in limiting or eliminating greenhouse emissions, they'll develop the techniques and technology faster than the US does...There's something to be said for a gentle push (or a hard shove) from a government to spur innovation and solve problems. Posted by: grape_crush

Don't hold your breath. The Japanese are probably better positioned to do this than any nation, but there is no political will and next to no popular push, so things aren't changing there for the better either.

As the Chinese enjoy virtually no political freedoms we're not likely to witness any popular groundswell for these changes. Besides, every one's either too busy getting rich or too busy trying not to starve to death. Wasn't it Mao who said something about full bellies and politics? Oh, that's right. You're not supposed to reference Mao in China these days.

With the Chinese having embraced consumerism Western-style and clamoring to have their own cars (even if it is only a minority of the population, that's still tens if not hundreds of millions of new cars - not a one hybrid or electric), we're likely to see the Chinese carbon "footprint" expand for a couple more decades before it stabilizes, if ever.

There is zero chance of the Chinese adopting carbon caps any time in the next two decades, and probably even longer into the future. At the rate they are building coal fired plants, they will produce more than twice the amount of carbon dioxide as the United States in 20 years. The only way this does not happen is if China stops its growth in its tracks. Not an impossible outcome, but looking increasingly unlikely as time goes by.

What you will see will be work at ending the direct pollution of their immediate environment, but the major part of this will come when the country reaches the level of wealth that existed in the US in the 1960s and 1970s. You are seeing the first stirrings of this, but it is a lengthy and expensive process.

I do want to mention that Shanghai today is far cleaner than it was 10 years ago (Which is saying a lot because Shanghai is still pretty dirty). Although, this might be because more Westerners do business there, and it is becoming more of a tourist destination. But I do want to put things in perspective. Yeah, China's dirty (by our standards), but it is cleaning up a bit.

Free speech and a free press are essential tools to clean up China's problems. We take it for granted here, but without a free press, the Chinese government isn't serious about fixing their problems. The equivalent of something like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle would be banned, so until that happens, I'm not holding my breath.

There is one thing the Chinese are doing that is very smart in regards to their American clientele: sentencing a few high profile cases to death. Americans love the death penalty and think it actually deters crime. The Chinese are exploiting this intellectual weakness of Americans by condemning a few bureaucrats to death. This fools American consumers into thinking China is doing something to improve product safety. It is a pretty good strategy, copied from the conservative's death penalty deters crime populist playbook.

A partial answer may lie in the fact that much of the business in China is tied one way or another to the Red Army.

Like the robber barons of old, they see no need to change practices that maximize their profits.

So what if America hollers? It's not like we're going to pick up our businesses and go home, is it?

Toss out the occassional scapegoat, especially one that is not quick enough on his feet to avoid an embarassing scandal, and it's all good.

Another partial answer is that many of the Chinese businesses selling dangerous products in the US are actually owned by US corporations.