China Moves to Change Damaged Global Image

SHANGHAI-After years of being accused by Western nations of making only token gestures to fight fake goods and months of complaints about the safety of its exports,China is taking extraordinary steps to change its image.Last week,Beijing unveiled new controls aimed at fighting counterfeit drugs and substandard exports.High-ranking officials and regulators vowed to strengthen China’s food safety system, tighten controls over chemical use by large seafood and meat producers,and create a system that holds producers more accountable for selling unsafe products.The government also announced that it had broken up a series of criminal rings that operated huge manufacturing centers,producing goods as varied as pirated Microsoft software,fake Viagra and imitation Crest toothpaste.Authorities here have also reached out to Ogilvy Public Relations,an international consultancy that advises on crisis management.“This is a very concerted effort to show they are doing something,”said Russell Leigh Moses,a longtime political analyst based in Beijing.“They are using work groups,issuing directives and closing factories.They are rolling out the artillery.”
Spurred on by a sense of economic realpolitik,Beijing has grown particularly fearful that mounting international pressure could lead to sanctions or embargoes,and thereby hinder China’s booming economy.Whether promising to overhaul China’s regulatory regime and stepping up enforcement will be enough to tame what some view as the Wild,Wild East of capitalism is unclear,analysts say, because some of the problems are so deeply rooted.“There’s no quick fix,”says Henk Bekedam,the World Health Organization’s top representative in China. “China has perhaps been cutting some corners because the focus has been on growth. But they have 5,000 companies that produce medicine. That’s far too many....
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As in the days of Noah...