2007年9月24日 与中国讲和

China to Mattel: play nicely. Having endured a long, hot summer of US criticism about slap-dash manufacturing and dangerous goods, Beijing has bitten back. On Friday, Mattel made an astonishing apology, emphasising that its three recalls of toys over the summer had more to do with design flaws than shoddy Chinese manufacturing. It also said it had recalled some products that turned out to comply with US standards.

谈起中国，人们太容易迷失于巨大数字之中了。8月14日，美泰开始召回其玩具产品，当时，该公司宣布将召回43.6万件含铅超标的中国制玩具汽车。随后不久，美泰表示，还将召回一些含有一种强力磁铁的其它玩具，若儿童不慎吞食这种磁铁，可能会相当危险。其中涉及多少玩具呢？总计超过1800万件。

When it comes to China, it is all too easy to get lost in big numbers. Mattel’s product recall issued on August 14 began by announcing it was withdrawing 436,000 Chinese-made toy cars for containing high levels of lead paint. Further down, the company said it was also recalling some other toys because they contained a type of powerful magnet that could be dangerous if swallowed by a child. The number of toys involved? More than 18m.

与含铅油漆不同，此次召回磁铁玩具的原因是设计缺陷，而非中国工厂偷工减料。然而，在那个时候，其它公司在此之前的大量产品召回事件，已经导致这件事必然与中国挂上了钩。美国政府忙着讨论制定法律，以保护美国消费者不受问题产品的影响（此外，还可能放缓制造业岗位的跨太平洋流动）。上周五，由于与几宗婴儿死亡案有关，100万张中国制造的婴儿床被召回——不过，这一次还是与设计问题有关。

Unlike the lead paint, the magnets recall was due to a design flaw, not the result of Chinese factories cutting corners. By then, however, a steady stream of product recalls by other companies had served to make this a China story. Washington was abuzz with talk of laws to protect the US consumer from faulty goods (and maybe slow the cross-Pacific flow of manufacturing jobs to boot). Only on Friday, 1m Chinese-manufactured cots were recalled after being linked with several fatalities – although, again, this was due to a design issue.

美泰之所以公开与中国讲和，原因在于另外一个巨大数字：65%的美泰玩具在中国生产。美泰的道歉尽管令其尴尬，但其股价不跌反涨，其中原因就在于此。这还应提醒美国政府，尽管产品安全事关重大，但在供应链全球化的时代，敲打中国是有后果的。

That Mattel has publicly made its peace with China is down to another big number: 65 per cent of Mattel’s toys are manufactured there. This is why, in spite of the attendant embarrassment, Mattel’s mea culpa prompted a rise in its stock price rather than a fall. It should also remind Washington that, while product safety is of paramount concern, China-bashing in an age of globalised supply chains has its consequences.