China Ignores Safety Concerns In Their Manufacturing

China is an interesting country. Their economy is booming at record levels. They are funneling money into all kinds of national efforts such as space, infrastructure, military, education for the masses and oil exploration. They have found a very tentative balance between quasi-capitalism and government control of every aspect of Chinese life. China is bringing their massive population into the 21^st century with incredible speed but like any project with many twists and turns there can be dangers of huge proportions.

We are constantly reading of huge mine disasters in China. Then come the repeated alerts about lead in paint used for manufacturing children's toys. Cheap manufacturing is the source of China's main brand name-"Made in China". If that brand name fails, China will revert back to an economically depressed state with no future. The lack of basic safety concerns in mining and manufacturing show a complete disregard for human life that is very distressing and puzzling. There can be no defense expressed for this situation. Their economic fortunes enable them to easily address any of these concerns if they will use their vast capabilities effectively.

Recent news accounts say that China is going to have more inspectors. Nothing is said about company managers in the mining and manufacturing arenas expressing any concern about the safety of their employees or customers. There is no concern expressed about miners who will refuse to go into a mine for safety reasons. There is no concern expressed about Americans and other nationalities that can no longer trust the "Made in China" brand because it might endanger their child. We have all used the term "control freaks" to describe someone that uses a hammer first and usually disregards reason and common sense approaches. This must be the situation in China. That control approach will work for a period of time but eventually the Chinese government (the true managers of these capitalist efforts) must find a way to use the individual's internal drive to succeed and their pride in doing well.

We went through our growing pains in this country during the industrial age. There was a major difference though. The government instituted controls but the individual entrepreneur had to discover their own need for providing a good, safe work environment and had to apply a new theory called "customer service" to their endeavors. In other words, business owners and managers needed good, safe workers and satisfied, returning customers. Eventually it is hoped that China will realize that safety and quality control are required if a mining operation is to continue operating at full capacity or if a manufacturing operation is to stay in business because they offer a high quality product manufactured with safety in mind.

The Chinese government is very smart but sometimes they simply have a blind spot about human lives. They were clever enough when they stole missile launch secrets and manufacturing designs from the US. Communists have done this for years. What they need to steal from the US is the knowledge that business longevity and success is grounded in customer and employee confidence in the company brand name and its reputation. In our accounting system the accountants call it "good will". Destroy that and you destroy the company. In China's case it could destroy a country or as the title of this article says "China could be killing the goose that laid the golden egg."