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China’s food crisis PR strategy: Blame everyone else

By Dan Harris on Posted in Recommended Reading

In partial response to those who have been e-mailing me asking when we are going to run our promised post on what foreign companies should be doing to protect themselves from bad/dangerous Chinese product, I give you a superb post from the ImageThief, entitled, "China’s food crisis PR strategy: Blame everyone else."    In typical ImageThief fashion, the post thoroughly describes the current situation and explains from a PR perspective how China has been handling it and how China needs to handle it. 

You really should read it. 

  • Law Office of Todd L. Platek

    Yes, a thorough and rousing piece on that pervasive problem. The paucity of tort and product liability legislation in China will need to be addressed if China wishes to continue to forge ahead as a responsible supplier to the world in so many fields. Many cases are refused by Chinese courts who cannot identify a relevant statute to justify the suit, so more sophisticated legislation is in order to provide such bases. Lopping off a couple of heads because of alleged bribery will not rectify a system which is off-track, nor will it protect and compensate consumers who are injured.

  • http://www.chinalawblog.com China Law Blog

    Todd Platek –
    Kill the chicken to scare the monkeys. Not are there very few laws, but even if the plaintiff wins in China, the damages are absurdly low, even by Chinese standards. I have been told that one is lucky to recover $3,000 for a death in such a case and $50,000 might be wildly possible if the person killed was young, with a huge income and a family. This is another reason why I feel it is incumbent upon the foreign importer of Chinese food and products to take these issues into their own hands.

  • nanheyangrouchuan

    This isn’t just gov’t behavior, the first reaction of any chinese person is to deny complete involvement in anything perceived to be potentially negative and blame everyone around them, especially foreigners.

  • http://www.chinalawblog.com China Law Blog

    NH –
    There is certainly too much of that, yes.