President Bush stated the following in an interview with Sky News in Australia:

.. that he would be concerned about China’s military if the country ever turned hostile, and he urged allied countries to keep their troops in Iraq.

Speaking to Australia’s Sky News network in Washington ahead of a visit to Australia an annual meeting of Pacific Rim leaders, Bush addressed China’s growing economy and military.

”My view of China is that they’re internally focused to the extent that they want economic growth and vitality, they’re externally focused in order to get the raw materials they need, but if they ever turn hostile, I would be concerned about the military,” Bush said.

Bush said his administration spends ”a lot of time on China” and that Washington had good relations with both China and Japan, two traditional rivals in Asia. He said it was important for the United States to be an ”active presence in Asia to make sure that old tensions don’t flare up.”

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I mean they are, aren’t they? These days it seems our tee shirts and Jeans tradition ships to us from lands far away. Yes, you guessed it, China.

Denim jeans are getting more and more expensive these days. The “trendy” kind at least. I literally remember buying my first pair of “Seven Jeans For All Mankind” at the Promenade in Santa Monica, CA just because I had “finally” found a perfect fit. I was back in California on business a week later and had loved my jeans so much, I ran to the store on my first opportunity to buy more.

GONE? They were GONE? ALL GONE!

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Complete coincidence, but I went shopping for fabric at Joann etc. this morning after I dropped my oldest off at preschool. Of course every fabric I loved was Made in China so it promptly went back on the shelf. After about 20 rounds of this ritual I found the sales lady in the next row and asked her if they had any fabric not made in China (I did not want to waste my time looking if the answer was no.) She made it quite apparent that the question annoyed here (which I’m needing to get used to!) and answered, “Of COURSE we have fabric from everywhere.” I kindly asked her to point me in the right direction and she once again made sure I could tell how annoyed she was. People like that really need to mind their own business!

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Thank you for the Hat Tip Layguy I hadn’t done my daily check on the CPSC site!

Taken from the CPSC.

Toys “R” Us Recalls Wooden Coloring Cases Due To Violation of Lead Paint Standard

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Imaginarium Wooden Coloring Cases

Units: About 27,000

Importer / Retailer: Toys “R” Us Inc., of Wayne, N.J.

Hazard: The printed ink on the outer packaging of the wood case contains lead. Also, some of the black watercolor paint contains excessive levels of lead, which violates the federal lead paint standard.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: The recall involves the Imaginarium brand 213 Piece Wooden Coloring Case which includes crayons, pastels, colored pencils, fiber pens, paintbrush, pencil, water colors, palette, white paint, ruler and pencil sharpener in a light tan wooden carrying case. The case measures about 14 inches high by 19 inches wide.

Sold by: Toys “R” Us stores nationwide and toysrus.com from October 2006 through August 2007 for about $20.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately take the products away from children and return the item to the nearest Toys “R” Us store for store credit.

Consumer Contact: For more information, contact Toys “R” Us at (800) TOYSRUS/869-7787 between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET Monday through Saturday, and between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Sunday, or visit the company’s Web site at www.toysrus.com

This is a guest post by Ann W. Hopefully she will become a regular contributor to Not China Made! Ann is a Christian, a grandma, and lives in the Pacific North West.
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In the September 2007 issue of Good Housekeeping has an article called, “Playing
with Poison” by Virginia Sole-Smith. It begins with a heart wrenching story of a
little boy who ingested a piece of trinket jewelry from a 25 cent vending machine. The boy soon after displayed aggressive symptoms, then illness, and subsequently died as a result of lead poisoning.

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I have been rather swamped and not posting much. Let alone not researching as much as I would like to for this blog. And to be honest there are days I waak up and wonder if I’m crazy doing this. I mean, I’m not typically this activist driven. And will the world even hear me? I have 2 little ones to care for and sometimes feel alone in this fight. BUT I always receive an email from my site soon after. At bare minimum I get one of these emails a day.

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Thanks once again Nicole for the hat tip as I have been pretty busy outside of internet world today.

Reutgers published an article today detailing the Chinese reaction, or shall I say, plan of attack, toward the growing safety concerns about their export products.

I applaud action being taken, but I also question the possibility of success. The fact is, these companies get mixed messages. They are told to hit the cost so they don’t lose money, but now will be “told” they are to no longer compromise safety by using inappropriate ingredients and assembling improperly.

I think that unless a drop in sales is seen that things will not be able to change long term. It is like telling an alcoholic they need to change while their drinking is still being enabled. As long as they are not losing business in their exports, they will continue to do what they have been doing.

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