Being that China is a communist country why do we buy their lead paint tainted toys?

Answer 1

China is not communist

Nor is it socialistic.

It is also often referred to as totalitarian and a dictatorship.
Both are equally as wrong too.

We buy products from them because we have shipped our manufacturing overseas to countries that have cheaper labor and stable governments and society. China is one of those.

What is China?

Communism:
is a the opposite of capitalism so therefore it is impossible they are communistic. The first people who were allowed to use limited capitalism were the farmers back in the 50's because of the failure of collective farming. The whole country is one huge capitalistic machine now.

Socialistic:
means the state controls all production, manufacturing and business. That is impossible as well since individuals own businesses and those state run businesses are a mixture of state and private working side by side. Currently today, less then 20% is state owned. 30 years ago it was 100%. Example, their oil industry is a mix of private and state working together and their cost per gallon of gas is $2.25. There are no taxes added, all the revenue and profits are done before that with both private and state profiting. The USA could do that same, but we'd rather pay $1 more per gallon then allow any kind of socialism to creep into our economy. Our socialism is through war for oil while ignoring what the people really need.

Totalitarian:
means the state controls all aspects of life. That is simply not the case as individuals are free to seek new employment, open businesses, travel at will, immigrate, buy homes, become rich, buy any consumer product they want without permission, in short, do just about anything the people in the west take for granted.

Dictatorship:
They have an election system in place that is at the province level. Those elected officials, who are elected by the people, are then sent to Beijing to represent the people there and those people elect the president, much like many government systems in the world, like Britain.

One party rule:
True, but in recent years the government is encouraging people from outside the party to become involved in government and politics. They can also hold high office, something that was unheard of a few years ago. China understands that it needs new blood in its system in order to survive and do the will of the people otherwise China will stagnate.

What type of government does China have?
At this point, it is hard to say, because it is a mixture of democratic ideals, federalism, socialism, and authoritarian. From what I can see, and how China likes change slowly, that it is slowly morphing into a democratic federal republic, much like the USA has now. But at their own pace, not the instant change that the west demands of China. China is smart enough to know that instant change can have social and political repercussions and its best to take it slowly as to not wake the angry dragon of discontent and descent.

Source:
My experience, living here as an ex pat from the USA
My web site.
http://www.pbase.com/sailingjim

http://www.china.org.cn
and see how their system works. Use their search engine and put in the words democracy, then communism, then socialism. You'll probably be surprised at the results you get. Keep in mind, the people read the same things you will read there.

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Looking at the China bashing pragmatically instead of with a blind eye like so many do.

The Amnesty International types of organizations depend on donations to survive. Therefore, they have a vested interest to believe one side of the story while ignoring the other side to keep up the hate and the money coming in.

Therefore, what should be done is we need to look into the lifestyle of the CEO's of these organizations, what percentage of donations goes into education vs administrative, salaries, etc.

What I find disingenuous with so many people is they will selectively believe these organizations on issues they want to believe, while condemning them on issues they don't want to believe.

Much of the information comes from people who have a ax to grind, or the information is collected from 3rd and 4th parties. Remember, we went to war in Iraq, in part, because of the word of ex pats who made claims that have since been disproved, even outright lies.

I live here in China as an ex pat from the USA and teach in a college. I expected to meet dissidents, and to date, I have not met one. The people in China seem to be very apathetic and it took me a long time to figure out why. It's because they have more freedom then anytime in their history and they are grateful for that. The biggest complaint I have heard about the government from students is they don't spend enough on education.

A final thing to ponder is Tianamen Square. Few in the states know why it started. It was because the government cut back on college spending and the students were upset. It morphed into a democracy movement and the crowds were huge only because the people were curious. The reason the movement was brutally crushed (I do not support that) is because with world wide attention, plus it was all over the Chinese news that the government appeared to be weak and could possibly be overthrown. The aftermath of that, is anyones guess what they would have ended up with. We are now seeing what instant change has done in two countries that we have gone to war with that never had democracy before and have a long history of human rights abuses.

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They have a very stable society and government.
Foreign companies are not afraid to invest there.
China learns by its successes and mistakes.
China is a very old and wise country.
China has an over abundance of brain power
China is very innovative.
China is not afraid to go outside of their country for answers to questions and problems they have.
China is very careful not to let foreign investment take over like they allowed to happen two centuries ago.
China plans for the future through five year and one year plans that are changable.
China's government is slowly morphing into a federal democratic republic, much like the USA but at their own pace.
China realizes that to limit people in government only to one party is counter productive and in recent years is encouraging people outside the party to become involved in government and even run for office.

China is much of what we want her to be and little of what we think she is.

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Peace

Jim

Answer 2

What amazes me is that most peoples refusal to pick up a dictionary and look up the word communism and capitalism. China is communist in name only. If one wants to argue that is enough, then you should also claim that North Korea is democratic, since they have that in their name as well. China is not even socialistic, even though they claim to be. Socialism is defined that all aspects of the economy is controlled and owned by the central government. 20 years ago that was true, but now less then 30% of businesses are owned by the government and more and more of that is being handed over to private enterprises. China started their economic reforms shortly after Mao died. There were only a handful of "free enterprise zones" which eventually morphed into the whole country being one huge free market. What I find troubling with so many of the answers here is they are pretty much spewing what the west and talking heads say is correct without bothering to look up the information themselves. America has a well oiled propaganda system that is often based on outdated material and assumptions of a static world. That everything that goes against American values is bad and that every country needs to be just like us. If that is the case, then be prepared to have global warming and pollution on a march larger scale. With the exception of one answer, I consider the rest of you pretty much uninformed. signed, an ex pat from the USA living in the heart of China. Peace Jim .

Answer 3

It is partially due to capitalism and partially due to the fact the Americans are mass consumers.

American like to have stuff, in fact in such a materialistic society your self worth is often based upon the amount of stuff that you can hoard. However the flip side to that is the average American does not have the means or the will to pay what would otherwise be a Fair market price for their stuff. This forces large companies to outsource or import a lot of their goods in order to satisfy Americans mass consumerism.

The Capitalist part comes in to play with the fact that many companies could technically afford to produce goods within their borders, or even perform more rigorous quality control on their imported goods however,r those two processes can get very expansive and thus hurt the bottom line of the company so they don't. However, the average consumer does not care anyhow so the companies can continue to import defective or hazardous goods knowing that it Will not detour most consumers from buying them.

It has nothing to do with the fact that China is communist, it has everything to do with the fact that Americans like cheap stuff.

Answer 4

Corporate greed. For anyone looking for toys NOT made in China, check out my website: www.toysmadeinamerica.com. It includes over 100 clickable links to some great American-made toys and products for kids -- I update my site on a regular basis as I find more companies to add, so check back often!
Thanks,
Teresa

Answer 5

This is a great question. I wish I had a logical answer.My son when he was 3 was looking at a plastic ball. He looked up at me and said, "Mommy, why does everything say Made in China?"

Out of the mouths of babes.

Answer 6

Cheap labor. How else can these fat cat executives collect million dollar bonuses and mess around with their employees pension funds. Remeber Tyko? It's cheaper to farm out badly needed jobs to China, India, etc., than it is to keep the work here and pay americans a higher rate. It's got nothing to do with communism, just greed.

Answer 7

It's sad, really.

We can impose sanctions on our communist neighbor, Cuba, who is not in competition with us.

Yet China is becoming more powerful than we are, and we're fueling it. It's ridiculous.

China and Cuba have a lot in common. Communism, cooperation with Soviet demands, questionable human rights actions.

One thing we forget...China is a nuclear power, Cuba is not. Do we punish them? No.

Did Cuba send soldiers, money, food, fuel, and weapons to kill our young soldiers in Vietnam and Korea? No. China did.

China is our enemy, yet we treat them very, very well.

Answer 8

Just a few weeks ago I saw in the newspaper that China demands Democrazy.

Answer 9

Because our great government,decided to let them own us.Bush said it would be seen as an unwise action to boycott the country that is holding trillions of our dollars for debts we owe.So I think no cost on the American People(even to our children) is to great in his eyes,just look at all the tainted food.How much Mad Cow do you think he has covered up in the Texas Beef industry.He doesn't care ,people won't be stumbling and dying till he is out of office.I hate to say it, this administration will go down as the most detrimental to Americans health in our history.

Answer 10

It's been happening since the 70's but for some reason everybody has amnesia. If you really want to blame someone, you should blame the corporations and politicians that let it happen because they’ll sell you cyanide if they could. All they care about is the money and how to control the masses.