Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda is pictured during a press conference in Beijing, capital of China, March 1, 2010. Akio Toyoda apologized to Chinese consumers for recall of Toyota cars on Monday. [Photo: Xinhua]

As Toyota's recall problems persist around the globe, the Japanese auto giant unexpectedly has become entangled in another dispute after Chinese authorities and customers accused it of a discriminatory recall policy, the "China Economic Times" reports.

"The way Toyota has treated Chinese customers is different from how it conducted itself in the U.S.," said Zheng Yumin, head of the Zhejiang provincial industry and commerce administration. "It's unfair for Chinese customers. The company is less active about doing a recall of problem vehicles in China than in the U.S., and it has not announced any pragmatic measure to avoid future accidents."

Since the recall began late last year, the world's largest automaker has recalled more than 6 million vehicles among eight of its models in the United States. But in China, it has recalled only 75,000 RAV4 compact SUVs.

According to the Zhejiang provincial consumers association, Toyota vehicles received the most complaints among cars owned by Chinese consumers. The complaints were mainly about brake glitches in Camry models and incompetent off-road performances of the Highlander SUV.

"Toyota also required its U.S. staff to visit affected users and help drive the problem vehicles to its garages and offered owners temporary replacements for free," Zheng was quoted as saying in the report. "For users driving to Toyota's outlets personally, the company will reimburse their travel expenses. But in China, customers have to drive to the designated repair workshops, and some even have to go several times because of a shortage of related parts."

Both the provincial industry and commerce administration and the consumers association in Zhejiang have urged Toyota to moderately compensate Chinese consumers in addition to repairing their vehicles in a timely manner.

In response, an official with FAW Toyota Motor Sales who is in charge of Toyota's recall in China, told the newspaper the company would only pay for repair fees and offer free replacements for those whose cars could not be fixed in a short period. He said no compensation would be offered to Chinese consumers.

The local Toyota official also said the company's recall was not as wide in China as in the United States, because it involved only RAV4 vehicles sold in China which had the same deficient gas pedals as those widely used in the U.S.