Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Is It Ethical To Purchase Electronics Products Made In China?
dryriver writes: A lot of people seem to think it's O.K. to buy electronics made in China. We get to buy products considerably cheaper than we otherwise would, and China by all accounts is growing, developing, and modernizing as a nation due to all the cool stuff they now make for the world. There is only one problem with that reasoning. 21st Century China has an atrocious human rights record, and almost all human rights watchdogs report that China is becoming more and more repressive each year. Freedom House put it this way in 2018: "It's worth noting that, in its attitude toward political dissent, the Chinese Communist Party has proven much harsher than the old Soviet regime of the Brezhnev era. Modern Chinese sentences are longer, the prospects for early release are far worse, and the Chinese authorities are generally unmoved by pleas for leniency from foreign diplomats." Basically, consumer dollars from around the world are not gradually creating a gentler, freer, more prosperous and more modern China at all. They are making the Chinese Communist Party richer, stronger, bolder and more aggressive and repressive in every respect. To the question: knowing what the human rights situation is in China, and that consumer dollars and euros flowing into the country from abroad is making things worse, not better, is it at all ethical to buy electronics or IT products manufactured in China?
Remember when America made things?
Yeah, neither do I, but my parents keep talking about it.
20 years late question.
The US is the #2 manufacturing nation on the planet.
>"Is It Ethical To Purchase Electronics Products Made In China?"
Here are some reply questions: Do we even have a choice? Exactly what can I buy that isn't made in China? What is the proposed solution? Ban imports from China? Is THAT "ethical"? Drive prices up so high on products that poorer people here can't afford to buy anything? Is THAT "ethical"? Is it "ethical" to try and interfere with another sovereign nation's political and operational process? Even if we restricted trade based on "ethicality", how effective would that be? (We are far from their only market) And how much influence would we THEN have? Is there some difference between electronics/IT and any other products we buy from China? (Other than perhaps spyware, which has nothing to do with human rights inside THEIR borders).
For huge numbers of end consumers, there's not much choice. With wage stagnation and general costs of living generally increasing, the cheap Chinese-made thing is all they can afford. If there even is an option made somewhere else. Assuming the other options aren't made by companies being just as exploitative.
The real question should be, "is it ethical for corporations to outsource all their manufacturing to China?"
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
isn't that part of the question, do you try to buy local/US made?
i do but its not always available even at a higher cost. and cost is part of the real equation. Not every one has the luxury to search for American made products, even the ones that are just packaged here.
can't talk about manufactured in China without talking about job loss or income inequality.
we must buy cheap because we can't afford anything more.
By European/Canadian standards you make the same argument that it is unethical to purchase products from the US where workers are paid below-poverty wages, may not have access to health care and can be fired for disagreeing politically with their employer, plus some types of torture are deemed ok etc. So should we all stop buying each other's products or should we accept that the best way to change another's opinion is through leading by example and discussion rather than by refusing to talk/trade with them?
I think the poster should take the log out their eye, because the US is no better! Massive amounts of homelessness, 50% of bankruptcies due to healthcare costs, something that is considered a basic human right in the rest of the western world. MUCH higher prison population per capita than any other country. The government is literally stealing social security. Gerrymandering making elections all but a foregone conclusion. Voter suppression that isn't very different than ballot box stuffing that happens in Russia. I think this is the single stupidest post ever on slashdot.
Everyone is living in a personal delusion, just some are more delusional than others.
i do but its not always available even at a higher cost. and cost is part of the real equation.
This is something I often run into. For example, take the ubiquitous smart RGB LEDs like the WS2812 or APA102. They're great little devices that cost 15 cents or so and very useful for a lot of applications, but no one in the U.S. makes a comparable product at even 10 times the price, so you kinda *have* to get them from China if you want addressable RGB blinkenlights that fit in a 5050 form factor. TI makes some RGB controller chips, but they're not nearly as flexible or capable and don't have the controller and LEDs in a single package.
It may be because the Chinese companies have patents on them in the U.S., but that brings up another problem - in the U.S., intellectual property on such things is usually respected because the courts will smack you down if you don't. In China, it's a free-for-all (despite their government saying otherwise), with outright counterfeits (complete with counterfeit branding) being allowed to be imported into the U.S. You can't compete with that kind of tilted playing field.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
I'm willing to bet you bought a lot more Made in America products than you think...
Did you buy gas for your car?
Did you or your office buy you some post-it notes?
Have you bought any medications lately?
Do you use Gillette razors?
Drink any cheap beer lately?
Plan on buying a Hallmark card for Valentine's day?
Buy a car in the last 5 years?
And this is just the kind of day-to-day products you'd probably run into. We *export* over $125 billion in machinery alone....
Show me on the 1st Amendment bobblehead where the moderator touched you...
Up until fairly recently, the strategy worked. We allowed them into the world of modern trade and commerce and bought their stuff. Overall, the country became more open and more modern. The strategy helped to pull about half a billion people out of poverty. Yes, we had to tolerate a highly flawed Chinese government with a bad human rights record and a lot of dodgy Chinese business practices, but nothing worse than we've tolerated from a dozen other countries we regularly do business with. Overall, the benefits were enormous.
Then something changed. China started backsliding. The most obvious symptom of this is Xi Jingping, who has actively pulled the country back towards autocracy, but there's a long list of things that suggest our "do business with them and they'll improve" strategy isn't working any more. A lot of foreign policy types are concluding that a change is needed. I've read that even most pro-Chinese economists in the West have concluded that China is sliding backwards. The carrot isn't working any more, so governments are trying a bit of stick instead. They're not going to have much luck expanding their overseas businesses for the next decade or two.