Colgate - China's largest toothpaste supplier - claims toxin laced product is "counterfeit."

Toxin laced toothpaste produced in Communist China is pulled off the shelves around the world and two weeks later "counterfeit" toothpaste with the exact same toxin, which just happens to bear the trade name of China's largest toothpaste supplier,  is discovered in the US and Canada.

Coincidence? 

Let's go back to this English version 2003 news story/press release from the house propaganda organ of the Communist Party of China:

Colgate fills production gap in China

Shenzhen-based giant Colgate-Palmolive Co. will expand its production bases in China to cement its position as the largest toothpaste supplier in China.

Colgate entered the China market in 1992 with the then pre-requisite joint-venture.  The 2003 People's Daily story above details how Colgate intended to expand its toothpaste production in China:

The firm's growth blueprint also includes merger and acquisition (M&A) plans with Chinese players to accelerate its expansion in China.

"With the completion of our new production facilities, we are going to seek more opportunities for additional investments in M&A activities in the Chinese market," said [Colgate China VP] Fong, in a recent interview with China Daily...He said Colgate-Palmolive could target companies in northern and western China, where it has no production bases.

The company acquired the Sanxiao Company --- a large domestic oral care products supplier in East China's Jiangsu Province --- in 2000 to turn it into a major production base for middle and low income customers.

While government investigators work with Colgate to come up with a plausible explanation as to how a toxic chemical came to be found in relatively official looking Colgate packaging, albeit with several gross English spelling mistakes, let us offer our own CSI time line of the possible events:

1. Colgate buys or contracts out toothpaste production with an existing Chinese company
2. Colgate market share and profits in China continue to rise.  Colgate and communist party bosses at contract manufacturer both happy.
3. Bustling Chinese contract manufacturer finds it difficult to obtain relatively non-toxic polyethylene glycol (PEG) or propylene glycol (the safe anti-freeze additive in US Colgate toothpaste and Dr. Pepper).  With or without the approval of Colgate's the contract manufacturer starts using the more toxic sister chemical di-ethylene glycol (DEG).  (Alternatively, the gel quality enhancing DEG could have been added or increased in quantity to correct a first pass deficiency in a QC standard.)
4. Fix was good enough to continue shipping out product, but as Chinese citizens started ending up in hospitals, a silent crackdown on the use of DEG in Chinese toothpaste ensues.
5. Worried Colgate rejects back to its supplier(s) all stock of the DEG containing toothpaste in the system. 
6. Chinese contract manufacturer stuck with the Colgate inventory is not happy camper -  decides to package the rejected Colgate product into counterfeit packaging.  Labels production source as South Africa to cover their tracks -- but makes English language mistakes that would never happen in English speaking South Africa. Dumps product into the busy South African re-sellers market.
7. Discount South African re-sellers distribute product around the world, including shipments back into the US.
8. Colgate QA and PR teams fan out to cover a downside of globalization.

Before all these Chinese food contamination stories play out, we may yet discover that General Jack Ripper was spot on about the Commies being after our precious bodily fluids. (Don't be surprised if we learn that the fluoride in Chinese toothpaste is nuclear waste from North Korea.)

In any case, brace yourself for the ultimate distressing news out of the world's most populous country: Soylent Green is People.

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