The facts are there, or so it seems, but the "angle" is typical of the newspaper: the problem is stated in the headline, which begins with "FDA." It is, according to the reporter, the FDA's fault that China and India are getting away with corrupt, unprincipled trade practices. The WaPo's lunatic solution is to increase US taxes to pay the costs of doing for China and India the routine things those nations refuse to do. -- It's grisly: taxing the US citizenry to clean up the criminally irresponsible foreign drug industry is just a subsidy of greedy, unprincipled Asian manufacturers. Worse, it will never result in genuine reform and reliability. As soon as the inspectors leave, the criminals will be right back at it. That's the way things are in such corrupt nations, period. It's hopeless, and will be for at least a century or more. The FDA should not try to instruct this tar baby. -- Consider: it is clear that there are nations that cannot be trusted. If the mission of the USA's FDA is, as the reporter says, to protect the US consumer, then the biggest benefit can be obtained by simply turning back all Indian and Chinese pharmaceuticals at the border. The next-best approach would involve quarantining Asian-made drugs and sampling them for quality testing, releasing them only after analysis showed them to be as labeled. Costly, but that cost should be added to the price of the drugs, and paid by the consumer. On-site inspections are a joke, as they are easily defeated. -- I live near China, and I avoid Chinese products as much as I can. They are egregious and even dangerous. For that, I blame the Chinese. I do not see it as my responsibility to try to upgrade Chinese ethics, governanance, and manufacturing standards by wasting money on futile regulatory efforts. By simply refusing to purchase from such nations, the USA could do more to protect its population AND bring about positive change than in any other way. The WaPo does not grasp that truth. No surprise there.