generalspeaking

The Mystery of Disappearing Chinese Manufacturing Ethics

"The stuff was at the airport ready to be shipped. We had it on the tarmac. I was hearing on the news about companies bringing in 10,000 masks, 5,000 masks -- and we have five million masks coming."
"Then the craziest thing happened."
"To this day I have no idea where that shipment went. It's like somebody pulled up with a truck, picked up our pallets and put them on a different plane and it disappeared and nobody will know because it was just cash changing hands."
"It was like the Wild West at the airport."
Manny Kapur,  Xthetica, wellness supply

"We never got the shipment onto the airplane. It turns out we were suddenly outbid. [It sounded like] modern day pirates."
"We started with looking for masks but it is all about protecting each other from COVID-19."

Dr.Elaine Chin, medical director, Executive Health Centre, Toronto

Medical masks being Shanghaied, FR24 News

Dr.Elaine Chin, a Toronto doctor, arranged with a business colleague to have five million medical masks shipped from a manufacturer in China directly to Canada to help in the fight against COVID-19. That was away back in early March. Having contacted a manufacturer who agreed to sell the duo the masks, requiring a $500,000 down payment to secure the shipment, Dr.Chin and Mr. Kapur closed the deal, and made shipping arrangements.

It all started when Dr.Chin, recalling her and her husband's involvement during the epidemic of SARS in 2003, found herself trepidatious for public health in Canada given her previous involvement in the SARS epidemic. So she decided to source medical masks, beginning with making them available to a cancer patient of hers with an obviously compromised immune system. She asked Mr. Kapur if he could procure a box of masks for her patient.

He did some homework and through calls to contacts realized masks were in short supply. He called a contact in Europe who informed him masks were being ordered from China and that was where he should focus for the supply he wanted, as long as he could meet the minimum order requirement. "I can't get you one mask, but I think I can get you two million", he informed Dr.Chin. And so both together decided to give it a try.

Friends of influence and clients donated some of the needed funding and then they were left to tap into their personal lines of credit to make certain they could gather the $500,000 down payment for the five million N95-equivalent masks they decided to obtain. March 18 their order was confirmed, set to arrive March 23. In the interim, Canadian government ministers and health officials, hearing of the order, called to express interest and offer assistance.

Dr.Chin and Mr. Kapur lined up private donors for mask purchase to turn around and donate them to hospitals. "It was all working out just fine. Then it all blew up in the ether", explained Dr.Chin. Their assured shipment had gone to a higher bidder. They were at the airport in Shanghai to supervise the transfer of their ordered shipment to Canada, directly from the Chinese manufacturer. The 'crazy thing' that happened is that the Chinese manufacturer found the offer from a shipment-competitor too alluring to pass up.

So much for business ethics and the morality of doing business with manufacturers whose reliability can be handily turned at the whiff of greater profit. They were informed while at the airport that a sudden offer four times the price they had agreed upon simply short-circuited their contract. Then, out of their disappointment they created a campaign to raise funds for the COVID-19 fight in Canada.

Through the Faculty of Medicine at University of Toronto, Dr.Chin initiated the Masking Together Challenge, to work to provide personal protective equipment to medical personnel across Canada. Securing the PPE from sources other than China and as well funding accommodations for medical trainees required to isolate, and for COVID-19 research.

"We need to make sure there is a safe sanctuary for residents and interns and fellows who are on the front line and still making student wages."
"The pandemic is an unprecedented event on a global scale. We need to dig deep and think about solutions, and how we can each do our part."
"We started with looking for masks, but it is all about protecting each other from COVID-19."
Dr.Elaine Chin

A sample of the five million medical masks Dr. Elaine Chin and Manny Kapur were buying from China for Canadian doctors and patients in the COVID-19 fight. Supplied