[ad_1]
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 around 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.
China’s market regulators inspected nearly 16 million companies and confiscated more than 89 million masks and 418,000 pieces of protective equipment as of Friday, Gan Lin, deputy director of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said at a conference on press.
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 on Saturday released new rules 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.
China is producing more than 116 million masks per day, according to official figures.
It has exported more than a billion masks this year so far, Ministry of Commerce official Li Xingqian told reporters.
China has also signed contracts to export $ 1.41 billion worth of medical materials to 74 countries and six international organizations, he added.
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 the illicit production of medical equipment, as it was a way to earn “quick money,” Chinese customs official Jin Hai 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.
[ad_2]
