Who Will Apologize Next?

The American Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued another set of product recalls involving leaded toys and jewelry from China. (Golly gee willickers, but don’t they look so cute!)

In Bejing, Commerce Ministry spokesman Wang Xinpei on Thursday said: “Our attitude toward the toy problem has always been the same, that the problem is one in a thousand.”

With several million products already recalled and many more likely to follow, that ratio may be somewhat erroneous.

The $64,000 Asia Business Intelligence question: which of the American companies involved in the recalls will be the first to suddenly appear with Chinese officials, apologizing deeply, humbly and profusely to the government, exporters, manufacturers, factory workers, transport carriers, freight forwarders, longshoremen and God knows who else in China?