>> Good luck in finding even an expensive mouse without parts from China :-)
>
> I was going to say... aren't *all* manufactured goods from China?
>
> (Certainly we don't manufacture anything in the UK any more. You see, we 
> have these pesky *laws* that say the process has to be *safe* for the 
> people employed to do it, and this makes it kind of *expensive*...)

That really doesn't have anything to do with it, anything made in China that 
is organised by a reputable company will have far stricter safety and 
quality "rules" than you get in the UK.  From the point of view of, say, 
Nokia/BMW/Dell/whoever, they will have a set of guidelines that *all* 
suppliers must follow, whether they are based in Finland, UK, Hungary Mexico 
or China.  It just so happens that the Chinese can follow those guidelines 
and quality levels for far less money than most other countries.  That is 
because people are willing to work for orders of magnitude less money than 
in other countries, and when you can go for a meal in a restaurant for 
around $2 you realise why.

Take this article from the bbc:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6927156.stm

The key part is the manufacturer started doing something outside of the 
guidelines (ie using a non-approved paint supplier) and Fisher Price failed 
to notice this.  How on Earth can you guarantee the quality of products you 
are selling if you don't even know which companies are supplying the parts!

For any normal product that is manufactured you have a list of component 
part details and the suppliers, a process plan that shows exactly each step 
of the assembly and what parts are used, and then once mass production is 
about to start you AUDIT the factory to make sure everything is as it should 
be.  If Fisher Price failed to do this then it is totally their fault. 
Suppliers always try to cut corners to save money, it's not something 
confined to China.

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