The COVID-19 outbreak has prompted China to become the world's top exporter of badly-needed protective products. But some importing countries have complained of quality issues in recent weeks. CGTN Reporter Wang Hui talks to one expert who explains.

According to the Chinese General Administration of Customs, from March 1st to April 25th, China exported medical supplies valued at about 55 billion yuan or 7.7 billion U.S. dollars. They included 21 billion face masks and 109 million protective suits.

The Vice President of China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Medicine & Health Products, Meng Dongping, says she is confident about the quality of Chinese products.

"As China went through SARS, the nation developed very high requirements and standards, and very strict quality systems for all medical supplies. Many standards are even higher than those in the U.S. and many European countries."

But Chinese medical supply exports raised some so-called quality issues in some receiving countries. The Netherlands ' government recalled some Chinese masks, and India has stopped using Chinese testing kits.

But Meng says, according to her tracking of recent cases, the problems of most cases were not caused by the products' own quality, but other factors.

"In most cases, it was not caused by quality issues but operational misconduct. For instance, the users distributed non-medical masks to medical workers, or even those working in ICU's. For testing kits, different brands should be used in different ways, and for people with different symptoms, but the users failed to use them correctly and professionally."

To better ensure the quality of Chinese medical supply exports, and avoid the problems caused by operational errors, the Chinese government has released a new notice.

It adds non-medical purpose face masks, not only medical-purpose ones, to its oversight list.

Since many countries and regions have their own quality standards and oversight systems for medical supplies, the new notice requires both the exporter and importer to sign a joint declaration to ensure product quality compliance. And, importers must confirm acceptance of the quality standards of the products and commit not to use the non-medical face masks they purchase for medical purposes.

Meng says, according to international rules, usually it's the county who buys the medical supplies that will ensure the products' quality. She says that China has never limited its exports of medical supplies, but it's taking better measures to make sure that their qualities meet the standards of other countries and regions.