Sunday, September 20, 2009

Ford Ignores Tiananmen Sanctions of 1990

China is about to celebrate its 60th anniversary with a huge parade in Beijing. Among the millions of dollars in military and security hardware on display will be armored Ford vans.

After the Tiananmen Massacre, the U.S. passed the Tiananmen Sanctions, which prohibits the export of "any crime control or detection instruments or equipment" to China. So how the hell did Ford get away with selling these vans to China?

2 comments:

Ed said...

Ford itself doesn't sell armored vans...my guess is that China bought the vans through an upfitter, who in turn bought the basic pre-modified vans from a Ford dealer.

Maxichamp said...

You're probably right. Eventually, we'll see armed cops emerging from Ford vans beating unarmed civilian protestors in China. That can't be good for Ford's image.