Washington diary: Toxic China?

By Matt Frei
BBC News, Washington

The troubled relationship between the world's only remaining superpower and its next emerging one, between the US and China, wafts in and out of our consciousness like those over-powering sweet and sour smells that emanate from the heating vent of my local dim sum restaurant.

Millions of Chinese-made toys have been recalled this year in the US

The smells come in waves, they depend on the direction of the wind and they can make you feel a little nauseous, even if you love the food behind them.

The latest waft came last Sunday at my daughter Lotte's sixth birthday party.

The party bags included a scented pencil. It was meant for writing but could easily be used for chewing.

With unbridled horror, one of the parents shrieked as if she had seen a poodle-sized rodent in the kitchen: "Oh my God. It's made in China!" Some of the other parents shuddered in unison.

"So?" I thought. "Isn't everything made in China these days?"

But I had failed to grasp the new terror that has gripped America, as it plunges head first into the holiday season: toxic toys.

The alliteration trips off the tongue like, well, Yellow Peril. The Chinese have become the latest incarnation of the Grinch that stole Christmas.

Lead poisoning

Having been alerted to this danger, I came across it everywhere.

On CNN, a digitised jingle, big and loud enough to knock a viewer off his perch, announced a "TOXIC TOYS" news alert.

Is the amount of lead in a Chinese pencil really much worse than the lead that used to trickle through Washington DC water pipes?

On MSNBC, they were dishing out advice to unsuspecting grandparents who were on their way to the shops to spoil their little charges. What was safe to buy? "Stick to American toys!" was one piece of advice.

But who still makes stuffed animals, cars or dolls in this country?

There is a place in Vermont, apparently, that uses nothing but organically nurtured cedar wood to make puppets. They cost a bomb. They have about 20 in stock. Hardly enough to satisfy the Yuletide cravings of 60 million or so under 10-year-olds.

China has been taking action over the high-profile product alerts

The Boston Globe newspaper raised the question of whether the toxic toys could seriously imperil your child's intelligence. Chew that thing, Harrison, and Harvard is history!

Now, I know that lead poisoning, which seems to be the main worry, is a serious business. I am not making light of the matter.

But is the amount of lead in a Chinese pencil really much worse than the lead that used to trickle through Washington DC's water pipes?

Three years ago someone discovered that our kids had been imbibing alarming amounts of heavy metal with their light cordial. That is what I call toxic.

Navy snub

It may be the season of good cheer but everyone loves to pick a fight - and the Chinese are an easy target, and they are not doing themselves any favours.

The Kitty Hawk was denied permission to dock in Hong Kong

After they took our manufacturing jobs, poisoned our pet foods and sold us toxic toys, the Chinese snubbed the mightiest navy the world had ever seen.

On 30 November came the news that the Chinese authorities in Hong Kong had blocked a US warship from visiting the fragrant harbour, for decades one of the regular ports of call for American naval vessels ploughing the South China Sea.

The frigate USS Reuben James had requested permission to dock in Hong Kong over the New Year's holiday, but the request had been turned down without reason.

This was not the first time. A week earlier, the USS aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk had also been snubbed, even though sailors' families had flown out to Hong Kong to join them to celebrate Thanksgiving.

No reason was given then, either, but later the Chinese said they had failed to realise the importance of the Thanksgiving holiday in the American calendar. Oh yeah?

It gets worse. A week before the Kitty Hawk incident, two American mine-sweeping ships had also been refused permission to dock, even though they had put out a distress call during one of the vicious storms that regularly churns the South China Sea.

Analysts have speculated that China might have been angry at a recent announcement that the US was planning to sell upgrades for a missile system to Taiwan, or that Beijing was retaliating because the Kitty Hawk had been busy monitoring a big Chinese naval exercise.

Sliding Greenback

There are plenty of reasons why the US and China do not get along.

No country holds greater dollar reserves - and, as everyone knows, you don't pick a fight with your banker

Iran, Darfur, Taiwan and Burma come to mind, just for starters.

The Chinese are flexing their military muscle in Asia. They have been exerting their economic and political influence in Africa and Latin America. They have been gobbling up natural resources from timber to crude oil to fuel their spectacular economic growth. They are riding the tiger. We are flogging a donkey.

But there are also plenty of reasons why Uncle Sam and Uncle Ho should get along just fine. If the American economy goes into recession and consumers run scared, we will not just be buying fewer Chinese toys, toxic or non-toxic - we will be buying less of everything made in China.

China is keen to present a positive image during the 2008 Olympics

Similarly, if the Greenback continues to slide, we may end up selling to the Chinese more but they might also dump huge amounts of dollars on the currency market.

China has become America's banker. No country holds greater dollar reserves - and, as everyone knows, you don't pick a fight with your banker.

Then there's the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The games are treated by China as the equivalent of a debutante's "coming out" party into the super-power club. The US could ruin them by threatening a boycott. The Chinese would never forgive them.

Then again, they both agree on climate change - much to the dismay of many Europeans.

Stocking filler

There are so many reasons why the relationship between Washington and Beijing is too important to be poisoned by hysteria about toxic toys, or tiffs about docking rights in Hong Kong.

Both sides love to ratchet up the rhetoric, as I discovered when I covered the saga of an American spy plane forced down over Hainan Island in April 2001.

I was based in Asia at the time. It was the first foreign policy crisis of the Bush administration and focused everyone's mind on the vexing and complex relationship between the US and China, which was subsequently forgotten in the dust of 9/11.

But it was a glimpse of things to come.

Taiwan is always there as a potential spark for a really serious falling out.

So here is my advice. Calm down about the toys. Let American sailors spend their dwindling dollars in the strip clubs of Wan Chai and, if you really are worried about lead poisoning, there is a handy stocking-filler from a company called IDenta coming soon.

Made in Israel - phew! - it will allow you to test for lead poisoning in the comfort of your home, costs just $15 or so and fits snugly into every party bag.

Matt Frei is the presenter of BBC World News America, airing at 2300 GMT (1900 ET / 1600 PT) every weekday

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