For half a year, Dou Ai, known as the "leading brand of Chinese youth and children's furniture," was found to be substandard in random inspections conducted by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Shanghai Quality Supervision Bureau. Despite these findings, the company issued a public statement denying the results and claiming that its products were not faulty. The new national standard for children's furniture, introduced two years ago to improve industry quality, has been widely ignored by major companies, raising questions about its practicality and effectiveness.
**Incident:**
In just six months, Dou Ai failed two separate product spot checks. Following the "June 1" holiday, news emerged that this well-known brand had failed quality tests twice. The most recent failure occurred on May 29, 2014, when the Shanghai Quality Supervision Bureau released its "2014 Shanghai Children's Furniture Product Quality Supervision and Sampling Results." A bedside cabinet branded "More Love" with specifications "45 × 40 × 49 (cm), 8VB07" and manufactured by Dongguan Heng Solid Wood Industry Co., Ltd., was deemed unqualified due to "structural safety" issues, with a note stating the quality problem was serious.
Another failure took place on December 26, 2013, when the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine announced the results of its national supervision and random inspection of eight product categories, including children’s furniture. A bedside cabinet from Dongguan Heng Solid Wood Industry Co., Ltd., model "502 × 371 × 400mm, 8B934" with a production date of "2013-05-27," was also found to be non-conforming.
Two failures in half a year—especially for a leading brand—have sparked widespread attention and raised questions about the company's quality control and transparency.
**Statement:**
Dou Ai refused to admit any fault with its products. On June 6, the company posted a statement on its official website titled “Note on Shanghai Quality Supervision Bureau's Special Supervision and Random Inspection on the Quality of Dou Ai Bedside Cabinet Products.†It denied the quality violations and claimed the tests were unfair.
The statement explained that the unqualified sample inspected by the Shanghai Quality Supervision Bureau was for a product intended for young people over 14 years old, and thus did not fall under the scope of the mandatory national standard for children aged 3–14. Therefore, the corners and edges of the bedside table were not required to meet the new standard’s rounding or chamfering requirements.
Regarding the 2013 inspection, the statement argued that the external corners of the sampled product had already been chamfered during manufacturing and were not directly accessible to children. It claimed that the installation guidelines led to some misunderstandings. The company said it had followed the Standards Committee’s guidelines and revised its product instructions accordingly, submitting a review application to the National Furniture Quality Supervision and Inspection Center.
Dou Ai also mentioned that it had applied for re-inspection after both incidents. For the Guangdong inspection, the Dongguan Quality Supervision and Inspection Center tested the same batch and model, and the result was fully compliant. For the recent Shanghai inspection, the company submitted a re-inspection request and the bureau accepted it, agreeing to arrange for a re-test and publish the results.
**Current Situation:**
Despite its intent to regulate the children’s furniture industry, the new national standard faces criticism and is often disregarded by major players. Many industry experts question its practicality, and its implementation remains inconsistent.
Luo Xin, one of the main drafters of the standard and executive deputy director of the National Furniture and Indoor Environmental Quality Supervision and Testing Center, dismissed concerns about the standard’s reasonableness, stating that it aligns with international standards. He attributed the lack of compliance to inadequate understanding and poor implementation by companies. However, he admitted that many of the key participants in drafting the standard were not mainstream manufacturers, which led to limited industry consultation and weak enforcement.
A Beijing Business Daily report revealed that the main drafters included institutions such as the Shenzhen Institute of Metrology and Quality Inspection, Shanghai Municipal Quality Supervision and Inspection Technology Institute, and several smaller companies. Only a few well-known brands were involved, and many top companies were passive in their implementation. This lack of involvement and effective promotion has left the standard in an awkward position, with little real impact on the market.
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