Clinton digs in on toxic toys after China's 'slander' charge

clipped from afp.google.com Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton Friday slammed China for calling her criticism of made-in-China toys "slander," and urged Washington to take "immediate, decisive steps" to protect US children. "This is the same government that just this month revoked the licenses of more than 750 of its toy companies because of quality control problems and ordered another 690 to renovate or improve their facilities, even as it asserted that 99 percent of toy exports met quality standards," Clinton said in her statement. "And the Chinese government's watchdog agency reported earlier this year that 20 percent of the toys made and sold in China pose safety risks. That is unacceptable." Clinton also took up China's claim that the majority of problems with Chinese toy exports were due to "design faults by (foreign) importers and designers." China is the world's top toy exporter, selling 22 billion toys overseas last year, or 60 percent of the globe's total.