ManufactureThis has frequently reported on two very diverse sets of problems: -unsafe imports; -lost domestic U.S. production of key national security items. But what if you combine the two problems?  What if a basic item of everyday life—one that we all rely upon—were no longer manufactured in the U.S., or even in Europe, but were only available from China?  And what if that basic item were manufactured and shipped worldwide with contaminated ingredients? Sound far-fetched?  Well it isn’t.  Aspirin, the wonder drug first manufactured and sold by Bayer in the 1890’s, is now manufactured almost entirely in China.  At present, China produces two-thirds of the world’s aspirin.  But with the imminent closing of the Rhodia aspirin factory in Lyon, France, China is poised to become the world’s sole aspirin supplier. Is this problematic? It is when you stop to consider the ongoing list of shoddy and unsafe products, toys, and medicines that come from the People’s Republic.  In their quest to be the world’s low-cost factory floor, Chinese firms routinely skimp on safe ingredients and practices.  The New York Times reports that in 2002, the Pharmaceutical Association, a Chinese trade group, estimated that as much as 8 percent of over-the-counter drugs sold in China are counterfeit.  Since January 2007, 81 Americans have died from tainted Chinese heparin, a blood thinning drug.  More recently, 53,000 Chinese babies were sickened, and four died, when the toxic compound melamine was added to baby formula.  The same melamine compound has subsequently been identified in chocolate products exported from China.  But the list goes on…In recent years, China has exported everything from poisoned toothpaste and dog food to tainted fish and lead-painted toys.  ManufactureThis questions whether it is sound practice to rely on the same Chinese factories to be the world’s sole source of aspirin, one of the most ubiquitous and utilized products in the history of mankind. When production costs are emphasized above production safety, fatalities occur.  The United States needs to rebuild its domestic productive capacity so as not to be reliant on unscrupulous, unsafe suppliers.