一篇美國人看中國的文章--摘自華爾街日報

每讀《華爾街日報〉總是會特別關注有關中國的報道。這些報道時不時有極端，這篇文章倒是出自一個中國通的老美筆下，部分觀點有些出乎我意料--比如，認為中國劣質產品的根源是政府無法解決的，原因來自唯利是圖的國民性。

Made in China by Emily Parker
why would so many chinese be willing to cut corners even at the cost of human lives?

The recent flood of international attention has given a jolt to the chinese government. Beijing may slam down a few hihgly publicized punishments, such as the execution of former head of the State Food and Drug Administration. A stain on the country's export record and increasingly agitated chinese consumers are hardly in the best interests of the communist party. But actions from the top down will not solve this problem, becuase the problem goes much deeper tan Beijing.

What's most frightening about this anything-for-a-profit attitute, which one former diplomat described to me as the national ideology of china, are the far-reaching consequences. Accidents in the conuntry's infaous coal mines, for instance, took thousands of lives last year--market demand for coal is at such as height that some mines only blindly pursue profits and push production beyond limits.

some chinese will protest that the current wave of panic is overblown and that the majority of chinese goods are perfectly safe. but others donot want to live in an environment where brushing your teeth can be a death-defying act. there seems to be widespread agreement among ordinary chinese and western businesnessmen that on the mainland, ethical consideration often get lost in the race to get rich. some would argue that this "ethical vacuum" is smiply an aspect of china's stage of development--some wealthy people can afford to be ethical, the theory goes, the others just want to grab a piece of the pie.

perhaps the profit-above-all idelolgy is just a factor of the current business environment: when competition is fierce and margins are razor thin, every extra dollar does count. while some will say that the same kind of unethical behavior was rampant in the US roughly a century ago, there are elements here that are particular to china. one commonly heard theory is that the chinese have nothing to believe in: the communist destroyed traditional values and beliefs, leaving nothing sustainable in their place. now that many chinese have lost faith in communist ideology, getting rich has, in a sense, become th national religion.

the chaos of communist rule over the past decades--from famines to purges to neighbors information on one another--has also likely contributed the blurring of moral distinctions. " the cultural revolutoin created an enormous dent in morality. society was in confusion for a long time. couple that iwth the madness of trying to get rich--you put these things together and you end up getting contaiminated toothpast and slave labor".

what is clear from all these safety scandals is that sth is seriously wrong and beijing's doling out punishments is not going to fix it. even assuming that the central government has good intentoins, it might will be still powerless to rein in shady local officials or individual businesses. the larger problem is that in a country without a real rule of law, where everything is subject to communist party "interpretation", there is no codified set of ethics to guide national behavior.

a political system without popular elections or an effective system of checks and balance has helped create a cluture in which the chinese are not accoutable to each other." there is no sense of social solidarity that would tell you: i put this stuff in and marybe childern are going to die".

the good news is that as the ranks of china's middle class continue to swell, consumers will become increasingly demanding. positive changes could come from the outside too: china's role as an export power will mean that its goods are accountable to the american consumer as well.

increased consumer activism is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough to guarantee safer products. the moral of this story is that chinese businesses do not operate outside of their larger political culture. until china address the root causes of these widespread unethical practices, the lives of its people and those of its trading partners will remain at a risk.

原文比這個稍長，主要意思都節選下來了，我就不打那麽多字了。

作者的觀點有些支離破碎，欠缺邏輯,層次和論證。很多信息過於籠統，顯然道聽途說，或者說基於采訪資料。但作為中國人，有些話，還是值得思考，他說得在理。