Chinese government hasn’t been tracking drug manufacturers, much less regulating them, or ensuring drug safety. This arises out the investigation of (at least) four deaths linked to heparin sold in the United States by Baxter International, which contained ingredients made by a firm called Changzhou SPL, which is in China but whose majority ownership is held by the American company Scientific Protein Laboratories.

Excellent recent account (from which most of the details above were obtained can be found in Blood Thinner Might Be Tied to More Deaths," by Walt Bogdanich, and "China Didn’t Check Drug Supplier, Files Show ," by Bogdanich and Jake Hooker, both of The New York Times .

Since getting drug companies to behave themselves responsibly is often so difficult – and setting up regulatory schemes is difficult even in the absence of an industry determined to resist regulation – we’d like to propose an interim solution: require that all pharmaceuticals which contain any ingredients, packaging, or in any other way have been produced in China, be explicitly and brightly labeled. The text might be only "Some components may have been made in the People’s Republic of China." As an interim measure, this might allow the market to assist in reducing the risks associated with taking medication.