Mattel Apologizes to China!

A shameful kow-tow.

“Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls,” Thomas Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president of worldwide operations, told China’s quality watchdog chief, Li Changjiang, in the Chinese capital.

Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys.”

“But it’s important for everyone to understand that the vast majority of those products that we recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel’s design, not through a manufacturing flaw in Chinese manufacturers.”

As of 1300 UTC on the date of this posting, the Mattel website does not display any such statement.

Beware, all ye who dare to accuse.

UPDATE (2100 UTC):

Even the Wall Street Journal, that supposed bastion of the free market ideal, and its interviewees miss the point entirely:

it also would also seem logical for Mattel officials to take a respectful stance toward Chinese officials, as 65% of its products are built there. Drew Thompson, the director of China Studies at the Washington-based think thank, the Nixon Center, says maintaining good government relations is crucial for companies that want to build a lasting corporate presence in the country. “It’s incredibly important,” Mr. Thompson said. “It’s everything.” Bates Gill, who has worked as a China specialist at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, agrees, noting that while it’s important to maintain good governmental relations in most countries, it might be more so in a country like China. “The government has a lot of control over the full range of factors of production in China,” Mr. Gill said. “From land usage, regulatory questions, licensing, labor, all of these inputs for profitable production in China are, you know, controlled and can be manipulated by state authorities. So you have to be cautious and make sure that those relationships are positive.”

Why is it that, when discussing China, shameful bootlicking subservience under threat, a requisite of behavior before the ancient Imperial court, is tolerated by the most modern of businessmen and academics? Why is it blithely explained away, simply as an act of necessity, even of survival? Lord Macartney refused to bow to Qian Long:

In Peking Macartney refused to kow-tow, or make the nine prostrations, unless a magistrate of equal rank would kneel, and bow nine times before a portrait of George III. Both sides declined to yield. Finally, not in the palace, but in a garden, informally, the British minister obtained audience of the emperor, but in reality he was received and treated as tribute-bearer from a vassal state. Trade was opened at Canton, but the British foreigners agreed to obey the local magistrates. In a word, there was no “extra-territoriality” as yet. The foreigners’ place of business was called a “factory.”

[Note: If enough readers ask for it, I will find the incident in Macartney's journal of the trip, published ca. 1793.]

Bravo for that Brit! Who has the spine now?

Mattel’s apology should be publicly and vociferously deplored, not simply for the craven act itself, then for its assuredly lasting after-effects upon other foreign firms, who will now find themselves pressured to act similarly, at pain of who knows what sanction.

I regret to say I can not commiserate with Mattel executives on their decision to cave. Instead, this is a lesson to all those who would foolishly place most of their eggs in one basket. I’ve been saying it for years, boys, China is a tough town. They play for keeps. Diversify or suffer. Or they’re going to have you by the short and curlies. If they don’t already.