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China confiscated more than 89 million poor-quality face masks, a government official said Sunday, as Beijing faces a large number of complaints about faulty protective equipment exported worldwide.
Demand for protective equipment has skyrocketed as nations around the world battle the deadly coronavirus, which has infected nearly 2.9 million people.
But several countries have complained about faulty masks and other products exported by China, mainly for use by medical workers and vulnerable groups.
As of Friday, China’s market regulators had inspected nearly 16 million companies and confiscated more than 89 million masks and 418,000 pieces of protective equipment, Gan Lin, deputy director of the State Administration of Market Regulation, said in a Press conference.
Regulators also seized ineffective disinfectants worth more than 7.6 million yuan ($ 1.1 million), he said.
It is unclear how much of the confiscated assets went to overseas markets.
In an attempt to eliminate low-quality products, China released new rules on Saturday saying that even non-medical masks must meet both national and international quality standards.
Exporters must submit a written statement that their medical products meet the security requirements of the destination country, the trade ministry said in a statement.
The stricter standards come after several countries, including Spain, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Turkey, were forced to remove hundreds of thousands of poor-quality masks and pieces of protective equipment imported from China.
The Canadian government said last week that nearly a million face masks purchased in China did not meet adequate standards for health professionals.
Dutch health authorities last month recalled more than half a million Chinese masks, which had already been sent to hospitals, after complaining that they were not properly closed or had faulty filters.
According to official figures, China’s daily mask production has exceeded 116 million.
In the first two months of the year, a staggering 8,950 new manufacturers began producing masks in China, according to the Tianyancha business data platform.
Despite the crackdown across the country, companies continued to illegally produce medical equipment as it was a way to earn “quick money” Jin Hai, a Chinese customs official said earlier this month.
In mid-April, port officials had confiscated more than 31.6 million defective masks and 509,000 protective suits destined for export, he said.
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