Can we please stop trading with China already?

It's not that I'm anti-China. When considering the facts that it perpetually abuses women, shows no tolerance for anything it cannot control, displays no concern for the environment, or human and animal rights, I don't think being anti-China is really being anti-China; it's merely disagreeing with a totalitarian regime that opposes everything good.

In fact, China, Korea and Japan, with their cultural and ethnic similarities, derived from the same ancestorship. That means that half of me is, a few generations back, linked to China. And take into account that we're all world citizens, that means that I'm fully related to people in China, maybe a few more generations back. Unfortunately, I'm also related to Hitler, Stalin and Fred Phelps, but I believe the world family has disowned them. They're the "under the bridge" kids. Not to be confused with the new pedophile houses in Florida...I think?

But seriously, Chinese women are the same as Korean, German, and American women. They're just not as fortunate as we; they were born into angst and hardship, while we, relatively, were born in sunshine meadows.

What annoys me is the Chinese state. Just as the Japanese state, but not the people, annoy me, the Chinese state drives me freaking bonkers. I read this article this morning in the Times and was actually late to work because I couldn't put it down. It is seven pages, and I had to keep double checking to make sure I really was reading what I read.

NYT: From China to Panama, a trail of poisoned medicine
By Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker

Basic synopsis: Chinese counterfeiters are substituting diethylene glycol for glycerin. You don't have to get past Chem 111 to know that diethylene glycol, "an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze," is poisonous. So these guys, in order to save a couple of bucks, exchange di-gly in place of glycerin, which is the sweet syrupy stuff that goes into cough medicine but still doesn't remove the nasty beerface taste.

Of the eight mass poisonings over the past 20 years, Panama is the latest victim. 365 are reported dead from this trickery, with 100 confirmed. Survival rate of the poisoning is 50%. This may be good odds for the last question on a test, but not in a life-death situation. I prefer something closer to 99.9%. Or 100 is even better.

So counterfeiters are bad, and should be drawn and quartered when they intentionally cause sickness or death. But what's equally as dispicable is the State's response.

When the poisoning hit in China, authorities arrested the counterfeiter and his sentence, possibly death, is being decided. Compare this to the State's reaction regarding the Panama tragedy. Our FDA tested the substance and found no glycerin, just di-gly and two other substances (the manufactureres advertised it as 95% glycerin). Instead of swooping in for the kill, the Chinese DEA equivalent said it had no jurisdiction, as the company -- State-owned, by the way!! -- is not certified to manufacture medicine; it had referred the case to the General Administration of Quality Supervision. Apparently this was news to the GAQS; it had never heard of the investigation. hmmm...

Aside from my little asides, that's the article in a nutshell. So my question is, in light of our recent wheat gluten incident, coupled with the State's inability to set any rigorous safety standards for its food and medical exports, and its refusal to prosecute counterfeiting murderers, can we please stop trading with China already? At least until we can guarantee our consumers' safety. Money talks. And we need to speak the language.