This is in retaliation. "China assailed the decision by the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, to grant honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama as a "grave interference" in China's domestic affairs. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8094417.stm

It's very thinly veiled.

↓↑report

Closed internal market...check

Central Bank manipulation keeping the local currency cheap...check

Dumping products overseas...check

Zero respect for intellectual property rights...check

Yep, this must be China.

The EU is a lot more likely than the US to retaliate against China over this kind of crap, and it's long overdue.

↓↑report

Fat chance of the EU retaliating when it's in the middle of a recession. German exports are down 27% this year. If you think Germany's going to go and retailiate when VW/Audi/Mercedes/BMW rely so much on the Chinese market you're nuts.

If this is indeed political retaliation, then they probably chose a small player like Renault because it sends the message without actually messing up anybody's economy. Less than a thousand cars a year in a country with over a billion people is smaller than a small player.

Apparently though last year Renault hadn't bothered to recall cars it had shipped to China even though it had recalled the same cars in France, which is basically treating China like a dumping ground for shoddy cars. So they got a warning about notifying their Chinese customers about recalls.

And then this particular ban was because a bunch of Renault cars actually did show up unsafe and defective, but Renault is saying that they got damaged in shipping. So it's not that Renault denies that there are a bunch of unsafe Renaults in China, just that China is blaming it lousy quality control of stuff being shipped to China and Renault is blaming it on lousy shipping.

Either way if they had shipped a bunch of cars to the United States then recalled all the ones in Europe without bothering to notify US customers or the NHTSA I think Americans would be pretty pissed too so this might not have anything to do with other stuff. Plus it's not like other countries don't regularly have the Dalai Lama over, the United States has him all over the place and we're huge trade partners with China.

↓↑report

That is 100% true.

China is the biggest criminal when it come to doing fair trade.

↓↑report

Bribes are a part of the culture and doing business. Renault must not have bribed the right people.

↓↑report

In US, it's called lobbying and bribes are called fees.

↓↑report

I guess real "free trade" is what we see in Japan and Korea, where nearly zero foreign made vehicles are sold.

↓↑report

It's funny how hypocritical you guys all are, but sad too. You guys are all blind, ignorant, naive sheep if you don't think things like that don't happen here all the time.

↓↑report

it's called protectionism. They're not serious.

↓↑report

It really depends on how much they bribed the Chinese officials. In this case, probably none. :P

↓↑report

Of course they're serious, just not honest.

↓↑report

Because, until recently, our domestic manufactures didn't build the safest cars and trucks.

↓↑report

@Tyler: and your point is?

↓↑report

@Tyler: That's kind of the point -- Chinese manufacturers don't necessarily have the safest cars.

That being said, I don't think there's been a serious safety issue with any domestics since the late 70s.

↓↑report

"until recently, our domestic manufactures didn't build the safest cars and trucks."

They still don't.

↓↑report