It was really only a matter of time.

The Wall Street Journal’s “China Journal” has translated an article written in Chinese that provides us with some insight into how the U.S.’ Chinese Drywall crisis is playing out in Chinese media.

The verdict?   They blame America.

According to the report, China is simply confused (and I’m paraphrasing) that Knauf Plasterboard could supply 75% of the drywall for the Beijing Olympics and over a million tons of drywall to countries around the world in 2006 and 2007, yet only receive complaints from the United States.

Xu Luoyi, the head of the National Building Materials Industrial Technology Supervisory Research Center (real organization) offered this potential explanation:

It’s worth considering why this problem has only emerged in the United States.  The U.S. credit crisis has caused the real estate market to collapse, and as a result domestic drywall manufacturers have seen their sales suffer and their product is relatively expensive compared to the Chinese-made drywall, so we should also consider these issues.

Cryptic quote from Xu Luoyi, but the commentary does offer a perplexing thought:  Why is the United States the only ones complaining?   Is it a climate issue?  Is it because we’re more litigious than other countries?   Or did we coincidentally get the only contaminated drywall?

It is important to note that the concern from China (and its defensiveness) comes at the heels of 2 U.S. Senators proposing federal legislation to put a hold on certain Chinese imports.