Friday, September 21, 2007

Mattel Apologizes to China

And it's about time. Mattel has issued an apology via its executive vice-president for worldwide operations, Thomas A. Debrowski.

From the article (the italics are mine):
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."
Yes indeed, folks. That is mighty big of Mattel to admit that they hung the Chinese manufacturing sector out to dry for several high-profile toy recalls, while all along they knew the problem rested primarily with their own designs.

Isn't it weird how the US mass media published almost nothing to the contrary this entire time? They obliviously went along with letting everyone swallow the implication that China's manufacturing centers are unscrupulous, third-world dungeons that would do anything to squeeze an extra yuan out of their piece of the supply chain.

I don't want to sound like I'm some kind of advocate for the Chinese manufacturing industry, because I'm not. I think it would be great if Mattel did not move its factories to another country to begin with, since all they're doing is shipping the toys right back to America. I mean, if they opened up a factory in China to produce toys for the Chinese market, that would be completely different. All they've done is outsource their manufacturing jobs.

However, I do have a strong respect for the Chinese and I believe them to be an honest, hard working people. It disturbed me to see Mattel, and subsequently our own sycophantic media, drag China's good name through the dirt when clearly the responsibility was at least shared, and as it turned out, primarily Mattel's.

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