What are you proposing to do about it?

Nothing I just thought it was an article of general interest.

Would it cause you to abstain from purchasing Chinese-made solar panels, for example?

Well - interesting question. There was a fair-trade advocate on the ABC last night saying that shoppers ought to be more aware of where their clothes are made so as to avoid buying products produced by child labor or forced labor. I think for sure insofar as we're consumers, we need to be at least aware of those kinds of factors.

As it happens, I put a solar plant up in about 2014, mostly made in China, I guess. Had I read that report before then, it might have caused me to ask the supplier about it. But to be honest, I don't know if I would then have chosen not to go ahead. But anyway, I just noticed this report, and thought it was worth raising the awareness of.

I agree that it is good to be aware of these issues, so thanks for posting!

Actually I notice now that I look again that I posted a quote from the report as the opening paragraph but as I didn’t put quotes around it, it does look like I wrote it. That was just meant to be a lead-in to the story.

Ah, I thought the "we concluded" was odd there!

Would it cause you to abstain from purchasing Chinese-made solar panels, for example? — Janus

The Chinese can and have made wonderful things wonderfully. But unless you know exactly what you're getting, I do not think they can be trusted. And never mind labor and environmental issues. I try to buy nothing Chinese. Even cheap kitchen utensils: are they lead-free?

I don't trust Chinese production ethics either. If the US is anything like Australia, it's not so easy to avoid buying Chinese products.

I think public pressure has to be applied however possible. It’s completely unrealistic to avoid Chinese production altogether, they’re ‘the world’s factory’, but the campaign against their totalitarianism has to continue.

but the campaign against their totalitarianism has to continue. — Wayfarer

Boycotting would be the most effective method of protest; but it would be very hard to do. And there would be reprisals from the CCP, and probably no reform of their practices.The Chinese government apparently doesn't listen to any criticisms of its treatment of dissenters or ethnic minorities within its borders. Or if it does listen it does so only sufficiently to be offended by what it refers to as unwarranted and unwelcome challenges to its sovereignty.

True on all counts. It's a very intractable problem. Let's hope it doesn't result in actual war or that in due course the PRC's leadership is changed.

Yes, I heard on ABC Radio the other day an interview with an academic (I don't remember his name, but I think he is a professor of military history) who thinks that war with the US over Taiwan is increasingly likely, and that if such a war did eventuate, it would likely, due to stalemate given China's much more effective military technologies compared to ten years ago, lead to deployment of nuclear weapons by each side. He also said that if Australia were to back the US, that missile strikes against military facilities in Australia would be likely. He didn't specify whether he thought those missiles would be nuclear or merely ballistics, but I think perhaps China would be loath to render Australia uninhabitable due to our great mineral reserves.

I think perhaps China would be loath to render Australia uninhabitable due to our great mineral reserves. — Janus

‘Kill me, and the iron mine gets it!’ :grimace:

The iron mine will have to get it first then. It's all pretty ugly stuff!

It’s bloody scary. What gives me some hope is that the Chinese up until now have never shown much of a tendency to try and subjugate through force so much as win through economics. If they can succeed by those means, well and good, but if push comes to shove it could be very ugly.

It’s completely unrealistic to avoid Chinese production altogether, they’re ‘the world’s factory’, but the campaign against their totalitarianism has to continue. — Wayfarer

No. That's shortsighted.

What we should campaign against is the desire to get more for less. Against greed. Against the desire to keep up the appearance of a rich or at least middle class person while not actually being one.

Countries that produce low or lower quality goods and export them cheaply to first world countries are feeding precisely these Western desires. If Westerners wouldn't be so damn greedy, those poor countries wouldn't ruin their own people and their own land, as there'd be no demand for those cheap low(er) quality goods and unethical means of production.

You can point out how dirty the industry in those mostly poor countries is, how unethical their means of production, how totalitarian their governments. But are you willing, and more importantly, are you able to live your current lifestyle without buying their products?

But are you willing, and more importantly, are you able to live your current lifestyle without buying their products? — baker

Probably not, to be honest. Just ordered a cheap drone from Amazon which is no doubt made in China

There you go. And by now, the issue has become systemic, so that for the individual person, it would often be socio-economic suicide to try to buy only ethically produced products and services.

As a society, we've lost the sense of both the worth of things and of the price of things.

which is no doubt made in China — Wayfarer

And of course there are good quality products made in China. It's just that they cost as much as those made in Switzerland.

as a society, we've lost the sense of both the worth of things and of the price of things. — baker

No argument from me! Only a vague sense of guilt .