Chinese to Japanese: No More Cheap MICs

This is something new to me, export of food and foodstuff from China to Japan was down, even before the now notorious dumplings.

For example, peanuts from Shandong Province, a place called by much as "Japanese's food basket", (I contributed partly to that, too, as I was importing meat products from Shandong at a pace of one container per month), has stopped going to Japan even from last summer, at least half year before the pesticide containing dumplings were found.

The reason is that Chinese side has strengthened inspection system, and one victim is the Japanese snakes makers, espcially mid to small ones, who used to rely heavily on cheap Made in Chinas, now they are facing mounting pressure to survive. Turning to domestic peanuts is out of question, because the sky high cost is unbearable for many, and prices kept going higher as more and more demand for domestic ones.

I am not totally surprised, as Chinese economy is now a part of the global economy, with everything goes up and labor costs jump, the Chinese are becoming more aware of the markets outside of Japan.

Getting to the bottom of both the dumplings and the peanuts, is a clash of a fast rising and changing China with a changing as well but not quite catching up Japan, without a comprehensive overhaul of the current dealing, I will not surprised to see that one day more Chinese products look elsewhere for markets.

Chinese Write: Dangerous Chinese Food Industry

TBS has an excellent piece on first Chinese who disclose the dangerous food industry, Zhou Jing, who won a reporting award for his works titled What Can We Eat On? --A Thorough View Into Chinese Food Safety. Like me, Zhou is from Xi'an and has a local flavor, speaking up after witnessing something wrong.

According to Zhou, the problem is not only in food industry, but a censored media, for example, in China, no reports of the dumplings dispute between China and Japan tells much on Japanese side of investigation, while almost every media reports how China is the victim, no fault can be found. Living with such a one sided media coverage, no wonder people are easy to distrust and more towards to emotion.

Take a look of the story here.

Blamegame goes on...where the pesticide got into the dumplings?

A big war of word is ongoing between China, who claims that there is no possibility whatsoever that the pesticide found in the doomed dumplings was in there where they are in China's turf, and Japan, who has said that as far as the investigation goes, a very low possibility of the poison was put in where the dumplings arrived in Japan, one of the evidence Tokyo police presented to the Chinese is that the use of the type of pesticide has been long discontinued in Japan. Not only the police of the two sides, now even Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara steps in, who has expressed displeasure towards the Chinese attitude.

Who should to blame?

Let's take a step back here, since the both sides have expressed a desire for a quick solution, and everyone realizes that as the issue drags on, more people will stop using more products from China, Made in China reputation goes down the drainage, and Japanese government, who has been facing a mounting inflation headache, suffers along with the consumers.

It takes two to dance, the solution should be a two step dance--one is to get into the bottom and identify the source of problems by presenting evidence clearly, exchange information on any clues, and take between door, intensive and collaborative works between all related parties from both sides. No questions are harder to ask, no suspects are left at large. Only through detailed hard work. Words are cheap and usually serve no good for no one.

Second step is to take a quick measure to ensure a complete root out of the problematic areas. Wherever it is, responsibility has to be taken. In today's globalized world, a local protectionism is simply not working, more protection invites more rotten wounds, to have a health back to the system, the affected area has to be taken away promptly.

A blame game is easy to play, however, a solution takes patience, hard working and more importantly, cooperation, are China and Japan ready to play along?

The Dumplings sunk Chinese frozen foods repution in Japan

A four person Japanese family in Chiba, just outside Tokyo, enjoyed their fried dumplings at home, Kyoza, as they are call in Japan, are mostly made in China. Within the next 30 minutes, they were rushed into a nearby hospital. Food poison, they were told. Three people recovered quickly, however, five year old daughter was more serous and had to stay in hospital.

It is certainly something the Chinese didn't want to hear, especially most of the country are fighting a once in 50 year snowstorm, and next Thursday, everyone is supposed to celebrate the coming of Year of Mouse, and the Olympics.

However, Japanese are not easy to let it go, and the government has asked Chinese government to help to investigate. More cases and more victims are being reported, Is it going to develop a Kyoza war?

Jiaozi (dumplings in English, Kyoza in Japanese) is also a traditional food for most Chinese families to enjoy during the New Year, it indicates the celebration of the New, the better and lucky. I certainly hope most Chinese will find their dumplings won't cause so much trouble.

Even they do, does Anyone care?