Official: US toy designers also at fault

Beijing defended its exports yesterday amid the Mattel recall earlier this month, saying that the company's designs, not its Chinese contractors, were to blame, the South China Morning Post reported. Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said 85% of Mattel's recalls were caused by problematic US designs and 15% by mainland manufacturers. This month Mattel recalled 18.2 million toys containing magnets small enough for children to swallow, following an earlier recall of 1.5 million toys found to contain lead-based paint. "Demonizing Chinese products … is simply a new form of trade protectionism," Li said last week, appearing on television as part of a media campaign to counter international concerns that Chinese-made products are substandard.