China's food safety problem has been exaggerated by international media recently and Chinese food has become a decry target of a few media organizations for some time. If the safety issue of a commodity is overstated groundlessly as existing in the whole trade or industry and proceeds to be generalized to all manufacture goods of a nation, it could be termed as a way of speculation neither objective, nor fair and serious. Such a speculation brims with considerations of commercial interests of all sorts, apart from intentions solely to please the audience with claptraps.
How is the present overall situation with China's food exports? According to the latest report by the Japanese food watchdog, or the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 99.42 percent of the food imports from China was up to standard; the disqualified rate of food import from China was 0.58 percent, as against 1.31 percent for the United States and 0.62 percent with the European Union (EU). Furthermore, the spot check rate of the Chinese food exports to Japan was the highest. So these statistics obtained through the all-round, rigid spot checks should be said to be convincing.
Food security issue represents a global one; it exists in all nations, and every nation should work hard to supervise and resolve the issue. For instance, food of an ace US firm was suspected of carrying Clostridium botolinum, and so 90 kinds of food products were recalled. The problem was not spotted during a pre-examination but when somebody got poisoned. It is well recognized that the United States is a country with a fairly complete, strict food inspection system, but to date it still has a host of problems. This fact alone shows food safety can improve gradually only with long-term, unremitting efforts.
As a matter of fact, it is entirely neccesary and imperative to carry out supervision in public opinion over the food security issue, and such supervision, however, should be based on indisputable facts.
There was an occurrence inside China of a so-called "Steamed buns with paper stuffing" not long ago, which soon burst into an uproar nationwide, but it was verified afterwards as a sheer fabrication news concocted by a few media people for their own self interests. And another case in point was the so-called the problem involving"big rabbit" toffee speculated overseas and it was also proven untrue afterwards.
The issue with food safety is particularly sensitive, and groundless media reports constitute a "weapon of devastating destruction" for an enterprise. So, it is very crucial to report such individual cases with discretion.
A factory owner is held responsible chiefly for the production of commodities and, if a problem is found with commodities, it is up to the factory owner to take his or her due responsibilities. This constitutes a conventional international practice. Nevertheless, some overseas media in their reports "magnify" or relay the problem of only a few isolated commodities to the "overall" problem of "China made" with the method of "generalizing isolated cases into the national one as a whole". In this scheme, what have been hidden behind are ideological factors to "talking politics generally" and due consideration of commercial interests beyond words.
As for Chinese enterprises, they should increase further their awareness of their own brands when their products are now being marketed globally, since brand names represent the full confidence of enterprises in themselves as well as their sense of accountability.
By People's Daily Online
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