Wu Guangqiang

    THE 29th World Consumer Rights Day has just passed. Every year, to mark the March 15 event, the authorities get busy cracking down on manufacturers of counterfeit products, seizing fake goods and — if successful — apprehending a few offenders.

    But these 29 years appear not to have increased consumer confidence in domestic products. In fact, public indignation is reaching its boiling point over the ever worsening cutting of corners in the commercial world.

    The sanest of souls can be driven mad by the knowledge that everything he eats, drinks, or breathes has the potential to make him a victim of shoddy — maybe lethally so — workmanship.

    No amount of education can enable one to test everything that goes into one’s mouth. But there is every possibility that the attractive delicacy that lies under your nose in an expensive restaurant contains a dozen of chemical additives designed to make the food more savory, and to manufacture a certain taste. That’s why attempting to enter the kitchen of an eatery can be seen as tantamount to industrial espionage. If you know what went on in there, would you still want to eat the food that’s made there?

    It may be unfair to tar everybody with the same brush. But before the public see effective curbs on the rampant fraud and strict punishments for offenders, the safest strategy, at least for me, will be trust nobody. The latest exposure of the illegal use of pork containing clenobuterol hydrochloride by Shuanghui, one of the major meat product makers of China, is more evidence. Blind trust in a domestic brand by virtue of its fame, publicity or popularity may lead to extreme disappointment.

    The days are long gone when I saw dining out as a pleasurable experience. Unless absolutely necessary, I would rather stick to the plain food cooked by my wife, however drab it may taste. Someone would say the ingredients that go into the food we buy in shops are equally unreliable. I agree with that. But I for one think that eating in is less risky. Don’t you?

    My discourse may sound despairing, as nothing is more sorrowful than a gradual loss of faith. Look at those housewives who flock out of the Chinese mainland to snap up imported dairy products, and you can sense their depression and their adamant distrust in home products despite authorities’ repeated assurance of the safety of domestic products. It takes decades to build trust, and a few seconds to destroy it.

    It is strange that even during this year’s “two sessions,” no officials came out to make an apology for the increasing instances of cheating, not to mention that nobody was genuinely held accountable for such utter neglect of duty. It’s shameful on those officials who are trusted with the responsibilities to safeguard the public interests. It’s not an overstatement that it is them who acquiesce to and even encourage widespread deception.

    Many may attribute the overflow of fraudulent cases to offenders’ quest for profit and consumers’ desperation to squeeze every penny, which in turn, gives incentive to swindlers. It’s ridiculous. What are watchdogs for?

    The primary cause is inarguably the inaction of watchdogs at various levels and lenient treatment of culprits.

    Their inaction is primarily manifested in the absence of an effective deterrent to offenders. Almost any cheater knows that unless his conduct results in the loss of life, the worst punishment he faces is a fine, which in most cases is easily affordable. He also knows nobody at his locality will bother him unless some whistleblowers or victims expose him to the higher authorities. It’s no secret that some local officials act as a protective umbrella for these thugs, and in many cases they are hand in glove.

    We see heavy punishments meted out to murderers, arsonists and drug smugglers, who deserve it, of course, but we seldom see even minor punishment given to counterfeiters. As for the officials who shield the offenders or even get involved in shenanigans, barely anyone has ever been punished.

    The laws are already in place to deal with counterfeiting and cheating, but without strict implementation and supervision, these laws are no more fearsome or formidable than a scarecrow.

    (The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer. He can be reached at jw368@163.com.)