Made in China(二）

When they are not testing TV remotes, middle-class Chinese are squinting at the labels of the foods they feed their children. Quality has become an obsession since the tainted milk crisis of 2008, which sickened hundreds of thousands of infants. Not surprisingly, consumers were annoyed when Walmart was recently accused of labelling common-or-garden pork as organic. They expect that kind of thing from domestic companies but not from foreign multinationals. Now that China is getting into the habit of exercising the basic human right to buy non-toxic foods, it is a short step to demanding shoes that do not fall apart in the first week and home appliances that last at least until the next house renovation. Tesco, the UK retailer, says the Chinese middle class is "becoming increasingly sophisticated in the quality of products they purchase", including buying more foreign and high-end brands, not just safer food. purple prom dresses Everyone is jumping on the safety bandwagon. Malls and real estate developers are trying to brand themselves as safe by asking impartial international quality inspection companies to verify that their lifts will not plunge or their walls fall down on shoppers. "From fruit to paint, Chinese are willing to pay for something with a safety seal," says Shaun Rein, author of The End of Cheap China. That may sound like good news for multinational brands, because they — rightly or wrongly — are perceived as having the edge on quality. white prom dresses But there is no room for complacency. Chinese consumers are no longer willing to spend blindly on anything foreign for the sake of it. The Chinese shopper has come of age, not just in the world's premier shopping destinations but in the malls and high streets back home. "Made in China" will never be the same again.