A flag factory in eastern China has been forced to introduce round-the-clock shifts to cope with the huge demand for the Stars and Stripes following last week's terror attacks, its manager said Thursday.
The Shanghai Mei Li Hua Flags Co. has been swamped by demand prompted by the vast outpouring of patriotism-laced grief thousands of miles away following September 11's terror strikes in New York and Washington, with 500,000 US national flags on emergency order.
"We had to turn down some of the order," said manager Wu Guomin.
"The order was too big, we could not cope with it. Because it was so urgent, they wanted everything too soon, we could not do it."
He said the factory, in China's commercial center of Shanghai, had been forced to introduce a series of shifts spanning 24 hours a day to meet the demand for US flags of all sizes.
Those placing the orders in the United States had told him the retail price for some flags had increased five-fold since the attacks, which are feared to have killed more than 5,500 people.
The US national emblem has become all but ubiquitous across the country since the attacks in New York and Washington more than a week ago, hung at half mast on flag poles, draped across makeshift shrines to the victims which have sprung up nationwide and placed over the shoulders of mourners at memorial services.
China exports huge amounts of manufactured goods to the United States, recording a bilateral trade surplus of almost $30 billion last year -- BEIJING (AFP)
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