China Declares War on Tainted Exports

In an effort to counteract the flood of bad publicity about its product-safety system, China will mount a 4-month "war" on tainted exports that focuses on whipping government officials into shape, Reuters reports. The short-term campaign is "a special battle to protect the health and personal interests of the public," says the vice premier.

The effort is to run through the rest of the year, and officials' careers are on the line. Its short timetable is a hallmark of a traditional Communist Party approach that has fallen out of favor in recent years. "Clearly, this is an autocratic, top-down approach using campaigning methods," says a public policy expert at the People's University of China. (More China stories.)