Hey Wu, Can I Get a Fork?

On second throught, the fork will probably be washed with dirty water and soap.

China has a serious problem on their hands, but will probably blame the evils of capitalism. Just the other day, we learned about infected pigs and tainted jammies, two things near and dear to me.

Today it's chopsticks.

Can't wait for those Beijing Olympics next year. The stadium will probably collapse during opening ceremonies.

Dirty chopsticks picked up in new China scare

BEIJING, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A Beijing factory recycled used chopsticks and sold up to 100,000 pairs a day without any form of disinfection, a newspaper said on Wednesday, the latest in a string of Chinese food and product safety scares.

Counterfeit, shoddy and dangerous products are widespread in China, whose exports have been rocked in recent months by a spate of safety scandals, ranging from pet food to medicine, tyres, toothpaste and toys.

Officials raided the factory and seized about half a million pairs of recycled disposable bamboo chopsticks and a packaging machine, the Beijing News said.

The owner, identified only by his surname Wu, said he had sold the recycled chopsticks for 0.04 yuan a pair and made an average of about 1,000 yuan ($130) a day.

Wu, who had no licence to sell the goods, said he had sold 100,000 pairs a day when business was good.

China lacks the manpower to enforce food and drug safety regulations at home or for export. Imports are generally carefully scrutinised.

Shao Mingli, the country's food and drug watchdog chief, conceded that in recent years the safety situation had "indeed been relatively grim".

But in a posting on the central government's Web site (www.gov.cn), Shao vowed it would take "about five years of hard work" to realise an "obvious turnaround" in management order and food and drug safety across the country.

"The number of cases of fake food and drug products and criminal activities will be effectively curbed," Shao said.

A lack of business ethics and a spiritual vacuum after China embraced economic reforms in the late 1970s have been blamed for unscrupulous business practices and corruption.

Sure, a spriritual vacuum. Communism has nothing to do with it, right?