While walking along a Detroit sidewalk last month, a friend's 6-year-old son picked up a small, unremarkable golden locket. He chipped away dirt clumps before reading, "Made in China."

He offered me the locket. I told him I didn't see the words. "Where do you see that?" I asked. He grinned, then exploded with laughter—he was fooling me.

Like the best jokes, it contained a nugget of truth. My friend's son had been reading for only a year or two, but he'd come across "made in China" enough to know that the phrase is on countless items. The phrase has become a part of American life.

Wary of 'Made in China'

Lately, a steady pulse of negative news about poisoned pet food and toothpaste and abysmal working conditions in China has made more of us wary of the phrase. Just last week, the Boy Scouts recalled more than a million badges tainted with lead paint and the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled another 550,000 products.

Since August, more than 21 million Chinese-made products -- including toys from Dora the Explorer, Thomas & Friends and Baby Einstein lines -- have been recalled. Three children have been killed in defective playpens, and pets have been poisoned from tainted food. Factor in rampant environmental problems and, increasingly, we're seeking products made anywhere but China.

Misplaced trade priorities are at the heart of these problems. As corporations have outsourced American manufacturing jobs, our government has sold short the system that protects against unsafe products, allowing workers to be exploited in ruthless pursuit of low-cost goods. We must drastically improve this dangerous arrangement.

In August, China Labor Watch, a U.S.-based workers' rights group, issued a report detailing labor violations and brutal conditions.

China's Working Conditions

"Wages are low, benefits are nonexistent, work environments are dangerous and living conditions are humiliating," the report said of its investigation into plants that make toys for multinational companies.

Two-thirds of China's power comes from coal, and it comes at a steep price. The Chinese government reported more than 4,700 deaths related to coal mining—13 a day, on average—last year, while independent groups estimate 20,000 deaths.

Working conditions in China need to be improved. Norms for working standards worldwide are being set in China.

Change is happening in China, although not easily. In response to mass protests by workers, the Chinese government drafted a law strengthening the workers' union. The law would require employers to enter into contracts with employees, allow workers to change jobs and oblige companies to bargain over health and safety issues. However, U.S. corporations objected, saying they would make it harder to do business.

My visit to China convinced me that China is not building a middle class capable of sustaining economic growth. In fact, it created a situation that allows corporations to exploit poorly paid workers in often unsafe conditions. It's time that companies respect workers' rights here and in China.

Here at home, the Bush administration has relaxed the regulatory system that protects workers. By allowing goods to be produced in a shallowly regulated China rather than in the much safer United States, we're seeing our safety standards are lowered.

Simultaneously, the Bush administration has cut our capacity to inspect imports. The New York Times reports that the Consumer Product Safety Commission "has one lone toy tester, at an outdated lab in Maryland, for the whole country." And while we are importing four times more food from China than we did in 1996, our Food and Drug Administration inspects less than 1 percent of imports. What sort of oversight is that?

Trade should be fair, to benefit our citizens and our trading partners. We must lift labor standards in the United States and around the world.