Chinese Government Cracks Down On Faulty Medical Gear Manufacturers–Confiscates 89 Million Masks

The Chinese communist government doesn’t like bad press.

A shortage of personal protective gear has prompted thousands of new manufacturing businesses to open up in China as entrepreneurs try to make a quick buck in a time of need. There’s just one problem, though…

The businesses that started manufacturing the masks and other protective medical equipment weren’t making the products up to proper standards before exporting them.

China has been the target of complaints as medical gear–from masks, disposable gowns, and test kits–exported around the world has been found to be defective.

Beijing has cracked down on the pop-up medical equipment manufacturers and is seizing the faulty products.

China’s market regulators had inspected nearly 16 million businesses and seized over 89 million masks and 418,000 pieces of protective gear as of Friday, said Gan Lin, deputy director of the State Administration of Market Regulation, at a press conference.

Regulators had also seized ineffective disinfectants worth over 7.6 million yuan (US$1.1 million), she said.

It’s not clear how much of the confiscated gear was set to be exported to foreign markets.

China has released new regulations to halt the production of poor-quality medical products that stipulate that even the non-medical masks must meet both national and international quality standards. In addition, businesses that are planning on exporting their products must file a written declaration that their medical products meet the safety standards of the destination country.

In the first two months of the year, a staggering 8,950 new manufacturers started producing masks in China, according to business data platform Tianyancha.

Despite the nationwide crackdown, businesses were continuing with illicit production of medical equipment since it was a way to earn “quick money”, Chinese customs official Jin Hai said earlier this month.

Over 31.6 million faulty masks and 509,000 protective suits destined for export had been confiscated by port officials as of mid-April, he said.

Source: CTV

China has bungled the coronavirus response since it appeared in Wuhan in late 2019.

The Chi-Coms are finally cracking down because faulty medical gear in the midst of a shortage is bringing them bad press and they just can’t have that.

Perhaps these new mask manufacturers don’t recall what happened to the masterminds behind the tainted milk scandal back in 2008–two people were executed.

The Chinese government just can’t stomach bad press and that’s the only way that they’ll respond.

China has tried to use the coronavirus pandemic to alter its position in the world and as a means of spreading pro-Chinese communist propaganda. ClashDaily reported that China was trying to tie Western countries’ access to medical equipment to using China’s 5G tech. Reuters reported that the Chinese government attempted to pressure the German government to praise China’s response to the Wuhan coronavirus. They also used the World Health Organization as their own personal propaganda machine. 

Just because they’re doing the right thing now it doesn’t excuse the deliberate malfeasance that occurred months ago. The spread of the virus, and therefore every death, could have been prevented if China had acted differently and not fed bad info to the WHO.