perhaps cigarettes was a poor choice to use, concerning the unhealthy aspects of Chinese manufacturing. So here's another bit on a product more mundane, drinking water. I only point out these issues because it is interesting to see a new economy expanding rapidly, as the American economy did decades ago, and to observe a similar 'learning curve' take place. How soon before there is a Chinese FDA that will regulate traditional herbal medicines there? Of course we'd not be hearing about any of this, were it not for the fact that we are now at risk by their lack of oversight. But so much of what American consumers purchase today comes from this (relatively) unregulated system, we need to be concerned. The May 24, 2007 Newsweek magazine included an article about American companies that have outsourced work to China, and now are opposing labor reform there. Would they also oppose greater governmental oversight of their product safety? One would hope not, but anything that potentially hits the bottom line, like ensuring product safety, may be fair game. So until the Chinese have an FDA like ours, don't buy their bottled water:

Counterfeit Barreled Water Halves Beijing Market - Beijing Times

Posted by Michael Zhao :: 2007-07-09, 05:20 AM :: Society

Another sort of water crisis, this time maybe not deadly though. Translated from Beijing Times via sina.com (photo: see which is fake? answer in the end of story):

Beijing's bottled water professionals spill the secret that half of Beijing's bottled water is counterfeit, numbering more than 100 million barrels a year, worth 1 billion yuan. The big four brands, Wahaha, Robust, Nestle and Yanjing, with a combined annual sales of 25-30 million bottles, are the major targets of counterfeiting.

The bottled water market started up in 1997 and by 2002 the counterfeit products, also knonwn as No. 2 water, accounted for only 20%. In five years, counterfeits sweep half of Beijing. A Guangdong water firm tried to make in to Beijing but only learned it was impossible: over 1,000 water stations it approached to work with tried to teach its employees how to counterfeit. [left glass is fake, middle is tap water and right is genuine bottled water. Not much of a difference huh?]