When something bad happened, it’s not unusual for the party who’s responsible to find a scapegoat to take the blame. The convenient scapegoat in Mattel’s massive toy recalls this summer is obviously the Chinese manufacturers. They are thousands of miles away and can’t defend themselves here in the US amid media frenzy of the safety of Chinese products, among the other issues between the two countries such as the trade imbalance and the value of Chinese currency.

There’s no excuse to sell substandard, unsafe goods, whether they are for domestic markets or exports, and there are problems with “Made in China” products as we all know. I feel sad every time news like this comes out. However, it’s just not right to immediately start finger-pointing before the facts are all in, then makes “extraordinary apology” when the damage is already done. It will take much longer time and more effort to rebuild the reputation than destroying it.

Let’s see what Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president for worldwide operations, has to say when he was in China (from AP, Reuters, USA Today, and New York Times).

“And Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys,” Debrowski said. …… On Friday, Debrowski acknowledged that “vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel’s design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China’s manufacturers.” Lead-tainted toys accounted for only a small percentage of all toys recalled, he said, adding that: “We understand and appreciate deeply the issues that this has caused for the reputation of Chinese manufacturers.” In a statement issued by the company, Mattel said its lead-related recalls were “overly inclusive, including toys that may not have had lead in paint in excess of the U.S. standards. “The follow-up inspections also confirmed that part of the recalled toys complied with the U.S. standards,” the statement said.

This doesn’t make Mattel look good! According to a Time magazine story, Mattel recalled a total of 19.6 million toys world-wide. Of them, 17.4 millions were recalled for reasons not even related to lead paint and the toys were sold as far back as 2002. Yet, Mattel decided to mix the recall of toys due to design flaws together with the lead paint toys. From what I can see, they did that for an obvious reason: they can put the blame solely on Chinese manufactures.

And why does Mattel go back to China and apologize now? Li Changjiang, Chinese product safety chief, may have the answer:

“a large part of your annual profit … comes from your factories in China.”

That’s right, Mattel can’t afford to lose the factories in China and the revenues generated from toys made in China. As the Time article pointed out

Mattel needs China just as much as China needs Mattel, and it cannot afford to jeopardize its relationship with the country that produces 65% of its toys.

Then who should bear the ultimate responsibility of those lead-tainted toys? Material suppliers? Manufacturers? Product designers? Importers? (My friend Golbguru at Money, Matter, and More Musings also discussed this issue.) After the first recall, the boss of the Chinese factory which supplied those Mattel toys committed suicide. Could that life be saved if Mattel didn’t rush to blame the manufacture?

I just hope that after these “high profile” incidents, Chinese manufactures can make their products safe and reliable, not only for international consumers, but for the 1.3 billion people in China as well, so everybody can enjoy them, not simply because they are cheap.

After I posted this entry, another recall for products made in China was issued. This time, it’s the cribs under the Simplicity and Graco brands. The headline at CNN.com reads

My first reaction was “No, not again.” Then after I read the news, I had nothing but questions of the intention of CNN for using such a provoking title. From its own article,

Failures in the crib’s drop side are due to a combination of hardware and design flaws that allow consumers to unintentionally install the drop side upside down. This installation could weaken the hardware and cause the drop side to detach from the crib, creating a gap that could lead to the entrapment and suffocation of infants.

Does it even have anything to do with “Made in China”?