'The China effect'

faustus · Post by **faustus** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 8:19 am

Samsung is south Korean, a quick Google suggests they're now made in Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia ...last China factory shut due to low market share rather than ethical reasons though...

redefined_cycles · Post by **redefined_cycles** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:13 am

Thanks Faustus/James. Regards Samsung, yes you're right. They're not actually manufactured there but do have links for components etc. Definitely a hard thing to achieve but in the words of the famous saying, "all it takes for evil to prevailis for good people to do nothing".

Might end up going with Samsung afterall then. Regards Taiwan also James... I think that PM has a special place in history (maybe) as I read once (as a muslim who stands up for my rights, I've not actually been out of the country for many years - mainly for fear of being violated up the back passage by the 'security services' etc and I'm really not overreacting or being overly paranoid here - it's been a regular 'controlling' tactic) that she made an open statement to muslims and how they were/are welcome to the country. Complicated, maybe... But ever since I read it I started to make a special effort to try and rejig my buying habits. I'm even willing to ride SRAM again

Oh... and for those that find it hard or believe that boycott of China goods isn't necessariyl the answer. That's all fine too and I don't think there's a proper 'right' answer here. No hard feelings at all, but... It would be good to know/investigate how certain contracts with the Chinese govt have a certain form of privacy/rights violation ongoing... etc etc etc

slarge · Post by **slarge** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 11:06 am

Currently watching a series on iPlayer called "the Capture" - it's a really interesting take on CCTV and how it could (is?) used. In series 3 the Chinese security services are involved and it gets really scary.

Worth watching as it might change your views on CCTV - and how the real danger to all of our freedom / way of life is maybe not the most obvious.

jameso · Post by **jameso** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 11:33 am

CCTV and facial recognition is worrying. China's use of it with Huawei and how it's suggested they may have got hold of the technology initially from Apple is an interesting story, it's suggested it's unlikely that Apple get to produce so much in China without some sort of concessions to the CCP but that's all getting a bit murky and conspiracy-like. Either way, this is how it ends up being used or at least trialled - https://www.business-humanrights.org/en ... port-says/ and it was used in Hong Kong.

stevenshand · Post by **stevenshand** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 12:07 pm

I've been using a Fairphone (https://shop.fairphone.com/gb_en) for a couple of years now. They're made in China (at least they were when I last checked). There's a good article online where the founders (a Dutch social enterprise) discuss how difficult it is to produce a 100% 'fair' phone and trying to do it outside of Chinese involvement was virtually impossible. They made the case that having something less than perfect but having a vehicle to raise awareness and aim to work towards, was better than just not bothering. They are a Certified B-Corp and talk a lot about their environmental aims.

One of the issues of not buying Chinese is that unless billions follow your lead, no one will know. If you think much more about what you do buy and put your money in that direction (even if it's Chinese goods but with some sort of ethical mission) then you are actively helping push things in the correct direction.

As an aside, one of the main reasons I went with the Fairphone is their commitment to repairability. The idea of just chucking stuff away that is 95% functioning just because it's impossible to source spares or even if you do have the spares there's no easy way to make the repair, drives me nuts. I managed to snap a plug off in the charger port that did some internal damage. I was able to buy a replacement charger port for about £25 and fit it easily myself. They have full instructions and repair notes on their website and the whole thing is put together to be able to dismantle it easily.

redefined_cycles · Post by **redefined_cycles** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 1:02 pm

slarge wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 11:06 am Currently watching a series on iPlayer called "the Capture" - it's a really interesting take on CCTV and how it could (is?) used. In series 3 the Chinese security services are involved and it gets really scary.

Worth watching as it might change your views on CCTV - and how the real danger to all of our freedom / way of life is maybe not the most obvious.

Yes... there was an episode released by OnePathNetwork (muslim aussie channel) I think where they interviewed a few people frol the Uighers and what lengths they'd gone to get away from the surveillance. I think there was one chap/family who'd gone as far as the Antarctic and were still getting threats from the Chinese secret service. They track the Uighers through the facial recognition (and anyone would be forgiven for thinking it was science fiction...

redefined_cycles · Post by **redefined_cycles** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 1:05 pm

Thanks for that about Fairphone Steven. Really appreciated and very good to hear that a fair few people are doing something rather than nothing..

Boab · Post by **Boab** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 1:27 pm

Most mobile phone manufacturers get pretty dire scores from Ethical Consumer, all except for Fairphone. You can read an interview with them here - https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/technol ... -interview

'The China effect'

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