The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won, Revised and Expanded Edition

The Origins of China’s Flood of Contaminated, Defective, and Cancerous Products

Many of the “Southern-style” catfish fillets on U.S. grocery shelves these days are indeed from the South—of China. The Chinese government’s own reports express alarm that many rivers in this region are so contaminated with heavy metals from industrial byproducts and pesticides including DDT, that they are too dangerous to touch, much less raise fish in.

—Washington Post

At this point, it is critical to ask: Just why are Chinese products so unsafe over such a wide range of product categories? In their defense, Chinese officials routinely argue that their products are as safe as any other country in the world. Cold, hard statistics tell a very different story. China’s ...