The Chinese seem to very protectionist in their attitude and think that there is an ulterior motive "China Bashing". No one wants to see their child poisoned by dangerous toys or jewellery whatever nationality.

No one wants to see their pet poisoned or their tyres to explode, and who knows what else. I think this is the tip of the iceberg and many other potentially life threatening items will be discovered.

Where does the blame lay ? The manufacturer of course. If he cuts corners or has inadequate QC then he is to blame. If the company is a Western one and it has outsourced manufacturing to China then it is thats company's responsibility to ensure that the good it imports are safe . For the Chinese to accuse the West of jealousy is ludicrous. Most of the goods produced are for the export market. It is not good business to kill and maim your potential customers.

David Roberts, London,

Its been obvious to me for a long time these goods that are cheap
to produce are cheap,ie poor quality,garbage basaically, last five minutes . so what did you expect.

ben, peterborough,

lost me! Why do children need jewellery?

John Ledbury, Kings Lynn, England

There have been so many problems with chinese products now, and this jewellery case is just another example added to the list. There were all those past incidents involving tainted food, dodgy drugs and pharmaceuticals (including dangerous toothpaste!), the 'kimchi' issue with Korea etc. All this makes me very worried and apprehensive about purchasing products originating from China. Their health and safety procedure is obviously not as regulated as it should be.

James W, oxford,

Have any chiildren been reported to have died because of this jewellery?
Thousands of children are killed and injured by automobilists in their cars every year - perhaps we should ban cars.
Hypocrisy rules.

c, limpsfield,

To AChinese of Manchester, read the other report - Fake Permits let China's toxic toys into UK - in the Related Links above.

This is not an anti-China issue, nor politically motivated. A problem has been detected, and the subsequent investigation has shown just how big the problem is.

Richard, Surrey, UK

"Monsoon Accessorize said it regularly conducted safety checks on its jewellery and had had no complaints from customers about lead levels."

Are they being serious? How the hell am I supposed to check lead levels myself? PR at its most noxious and mendacious.

Guy Collier, BASINGSTOKE, Hampshire

Easy to blame low value-added manufacturers in China.

Western brands that outsource their manufacturing to China, and retailers like Hamley's are also responsible for quality control.

The media hype on this one is turning into an opportunistic witch hunt.

Martha, London,

What about the jewellery which comes free with childrens magazines, will this also contain lead.

Margaret , Sale, U.K

Have the authorities cooperated with China to solve this problem?If that's real,we will say sorry.And I do hope that this case won't be another "reason" for refusing goods from China.

aaron, Guangdong, China

Ian: you may have a point, but it's a rather different story to the Sony battery recall, which was due to a fundamental flaw in the manufacture of the batteries, discovered only after they had been sent out to various computer companies (and as far as I could discover, no computer actually burst into flames, though it was a risk). The batteries were all recalled and were replaced by Sony at enormous cost (and I found a huge amount of media coverage!). Conversely, the dangers of lead have been known for decades and the manufacture of products with over 80% lead can't happen 'by accident'. While I'm sure that UK companies are partially to blame for not checking their products rigorously enough, or for outsourcing to China in the first place, the conscious choice of using lead to cut costs is, I'm afraid, a seriously irresponsible decision made by the Chinese factories involved. I doubt they will step up and take responsibility of the cost of replacing the products as Sony eventually did.

Emily, Cambridge, UK

I think ,the time being,it is important to solve the problem in a proper way.Rather than blaming or raising to a political motivation .I am a Chinese people,and this problem can also be seen in our society .And so in UK.
Of course,the children are inculpable,the problem should be solve quickly.

Jason, Xi Ning, China

I am appauled at the news about toys and jewlery for children and now clothes have joined the list. It is really terrible, what are people going to do at the olympics? It is a real scandal.

Renate Baramy, Ramat Hasharon, Israel

It is interesting that China is getting a media bashing on this subject in the UK and US (as well as here in HK). However, it strikes me this is the responsibility of the western companies who apply ineffective saftey standards / quality controls in their outsourced factories?

Niall, Hongkong, Hongkong

I can’t help thinking that the recent spate of “discoveries” of problematic Chinese-made products are part of concerted campaign of “China bashing”, wittingly or unwittingly on the part of the media, to help US to gain an advantage in trade talks with China.

The equally serious recent replacement of 46 million Japanese-made mobile phone batteries from Nokia, and similar recalls from Sony and Apple etc, have been given far less prominent coverage by the British and American press. One wonders why.

From those China-bashing stories, one also senses a touch of jealousy towards the recent rise of economical power of China.

Is this really the way that we fair-minded British and our American friends compete with the like of China and India, by focusing only on how much they have yet to achieve, in stead of recognising how far they have gone from where they were and are going to be in a short period of 10 to 15 years.

Ian Gower, Kent,

I feel no surprise that Times will follow USA's suit to launch a series of anti-Chinese products campaign in the name of protecting consumers' interest. While I suspect it might also include some political motivation behind these reports, namely, protectionism. This is particular evident on the trade deficiency in the Sino-Britain trade.

Back to the safety issue, first of all why do these reports single out Chinese products? Are children's jewelery sold in Britain all made in China? Or are children toys sold in Britain all made in China? Any sensible person know the answer is NO. Then why just target Chinese products? Secondly, reading this report it seems according to Sunday Times it was the Chinese manufacturer that should be responsible for these incidents. Is this really the case? Take Mattel toys' that contain small magnets as example, what Chinese manufacturer did is to product them according to the design. It is Mattel who designed the toys with magnets. Then why blame Chines

AChinese, Manchester,

There is tremendous focus on toys, but what about food? Many areas of China are now so polluted the food is loaded with poisons, and coupled with sharp manufacturing processes (e.g. the dumpling filled with cardboard), this leads to many deaths.

This food is entering the UK. Is the Food Standards Agency looking into this? Probably not, they are chasing a more important agenda e.g. making sure tags don't fall of the ears of UK cattle or a UK manufacturer is comply with stringent laws most of Europe ignores.

And are other goods checked e.g. the safety and construction of DIY tools, car parts, kitchen goods? Doubt it.

Angus, Yateley, UK

why this report want to single out products made in China?

AChinese, Manchester,

It is scandalous that the Government is not stepping into these matters urgently and refusing to accept Chinese goods until they clean up their act. I for one will refuse from now on to buy Chinese made goods as I do not trust them in the slightest. Maybe one day China will realise that we want quality as much as cheap prices and take much more care of what it allows exported.

Philip, Brighton, UK

This is one of the reasons why they can be imported so cheaply. And yet they do not seem to be sold very cheaply, do they?

Martin, Shropshire,