TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China-made face masks falsely claiming to have been manufactured in Taiwan have surfaced in the Philippines in another example of how the country’s reputation for making quality masks is being exploited.
Photos of the counterfeits were shared by Facebook user beargotraveling (熊熊來七逃) on Thursday (June 11) to warn Filipinos. The masks, sold in boxes labeled as the brand AiDeLai (愛德萊), are described as "anti-bacterial, able to keep out smells, dust, smog, sunlight, and can block PM2.5 particulates" in both simplified Chinese and English.
The masks even come with a certificate that blatantly states the protective gear was manufactured by "Taibei Rongyi Textile Co." (台北市融億紡織有限公司), with the place of origin erroneously specified as "Taiwan, China" (中國台灣).
Not only is the name of the Taiwanese capital "Taipei" spelled wrong, the company Rongyi Textile Co. does not exist in the island country. However, there is a firm called Rongyi Textile Co. located in China's Jiangsu province.
This is not the first time that netizens have noticed fake made-in-Taiwan masks from China. In April, a user who goes by the handle awakenedcivil (暴民) also took to Facebook to bring attention to counterfeits found in Japan.