TOXIC PET FOOD DOGS US-CHINA RELATIONS

Memo to Chinese food exporters: don't mess with America's pets.

It was, after all, the apparent accidental poisoning of thousands of cats and dogs that first drew widespread US media attention to the failings of Chinese food safety controls last month.

Fuelled by revelations of other Chinese food problems and reports of exports of toxic toothpaste to Central America, the resultant furore is now threatening China's fast-growing agricultural export sector.

Washington has already demanded tighter regulation of Chinese exporters. Democratic senator Dick Durbin has declared that "Made in China" has become a "warning label" for food sold in the US. And, US news agency Dow Jones last week ran a story considering the practicality of calls for a ban on Chinese food imports.

Such a heated reaction has taken Chinese observers aback. Food safety has long been an issue of consumer concern in China's richer cities, but few expected the death of a reported 16 US pets to escalate into the newest source of friction in ever-prickly Sino-US ties.

Some observers have dismissed the food scare as an effort by US interest groups to push an anti-China agenda. The overseas edition of the Communist party's People's Daily blamed US media for "stirring up" the pet food problems.

"In a moment, the US has filled the air with a 'China Food Threat Theory', the newspaper said.

Zhao Min, a corporate consultant and blogger, saw the food scare as a US effort to win ground ahead of last week's Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue.

"When the US government has economic talks with a foreign government, it is just like a war," Mr Zhao wrote. "The media is the air force; conducting aerial bombing to set public opinion before the talks, seizing the high ground while attacking and destroying the opponent's self-confidence."

Others see the scare more as part of a US zeitgeist where China is already seen as a challenger to US economic security and military supremacy.

Some Chinese, however, not only sympathise with the US reaction to the pet deaths – they actually welcome the attention.