Clinton fires China Christmas toys warning
SHENANDOAH, Iowa (AFP) — Democratic 2008 front-runner Hillary Clinton on Tuesday blamed China for a tide of millions of toy exports which she warned could be defective and endanger American children at Christmas.
The former first lady also recalled how she had "stood up" to the Beijing government in 1995 at an international conference on women on a day in which she ridiculed her Democratic rival Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials.
"One of the things I don't believe we should have to worry about is the safety of our food that is served for Thanksgiving or the toys that we buy our children for Christmas," Clinton told a crowd of Iowa voters by telephone.
The former first lady had been forced to call in to a campaign event in the crucial electoral state after her plane was diverted to an airport 65 miles (100 kilometers) away.
She complained that there had been 72 recalls of toy models so far this year in the United States and said the US government had not taken appropriate steps to protect consumers.
"That's approximately 32 million individual toys. And more than 99 percent of them were made in China," Clinton said.
"These were trusted names, like Thomas and Friends and Elmo and Dora the Explorer and even Big Bird," she said, reeling off a string of beloved children's characters.
Clinton said the situation was "just as shameful" regarding food safety, tapping an issue of increasing potency in the White House campaign, 43 days before the leadoff Iowa caucuses nominating contests.
"We are not inspecting food the way we need to, when it's imported from China," she said, and called for new leadership at the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.
She also outlined a plan to create a single food safety agency, further restrictions against lead in children?s products and to require an independent party to test imported toys.
"I'll improve the safety of children's toys and stop dangerous toys from getting into our children's hands by completely banning lead in children's toys," she said.
"If China expects to do business with the United States, they're going to have to meet higher standards.
"And if American companies think that they can get a cheaper deal by going to China, well, they're got another thing coming, because they're going to have to meet the same standards."
Clinton warned that the United States had problems including a huge trade imbalance with China, and global warming and she recalled how she had travelled to the communist giant as first lady.
"I went to Beijing in 1995 and stood up to the Chinese government on human rights, women's rights," she said.
After a furore in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, Beijing recently banned more than 700 toy factories from exporting in a crackdown aimed at repairing its tarnished image.
A consumer group warned in a study published Tuesday that US store shelves are still stacked with dangerous toys despite a spate of recent recalls.
Inspectors from the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) found dozens of examples of toys and jewelry with high levels of lead and other poisonous chemicals, dangerously strong magnets, and parts small enough to choke a child, it said in a statement.
China is the world's top toy exporter, selling 22 billion toys overseas last year, or 60 percent of the globe's total.
Chinese-made products ranging from seafood to car tires have been targeted in a spate of overseas safety recalls this year, with toys in the spotlight in recent months.
In one high profile case, which had political reverberations in the United States, US toy giant Mattel recalled 18 million toys in August, including Barbie Dolls and Batman action figures amid concern the toys had been made with toxic lead paints and magnets that posed a choking risk to children.
It was not the first time that China had emerged as an issue in the accelerating 2008 campaign.
Democratic candidates bemoaned the food imports from China and defective toys during a debate in Chicago in August.
"China bashing" has been a staple of past US campaigns but the candidate that wins the presidency also tends to temper the rhetoric as geopolitical concerns take on more importance once the White House is secured.
In Iowa earlier this month, the national Republican front-runner Rudolph Giuliani warned emerging China was a "great challenge" to the United States, but backed continued engagement with Beijing.
