The scope of forced labor in Xinjiang is bigger than we knew | Hacker News Reader

The scope of forced labor in Xinjiang is bigger than we knew

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66 pointsAlupis16 comments

The craziest part is the news about Lens in Xinjiang (They polish the iPhone glass).

In perspective, millions of Americans are touching the front surface of the work of slaves every day.

I wonder how that percentage compares to ~200 years ago with American clothing being a product of slavery.

The only way you can have pushback against this is with coordinated leadership.

China will forever be able to hammer any nail that speaks alone, because they are so economically powerful now (because of mistaken centralization by the global manufacturing decision makers).

Not forever. Their economic growth will end due to demographic, technological, and geopolitical reasons. They are aging rapidly due to one child which makes their labor cost 8 times (inflation adjusted) what it cost in 2000 and most of the countries with any wealth who china would export to are post consumption because they are also rapidly aging. Automation has made it cheaper for many industries to produce goods closer to end markets rather than ship it half way around the world. Geopolitically countries like the us have lost interest in the doctrine of free trade and covid-19 in particular sped this up by exposing the vulnerabilities of long supply chains for critical supplies.

Not forever but long enough. Note that they are involved in numerous regions economically and politically, placing different debt-traps. The one child policy is also removed. Automation is good, yet it is not as cheap as slavery. I don't see anything like you described will happen anytime soon without major changes of political powers, policies across the globe.

Debt they can't collect on. Its already over. They may have had a few more years without covid but now its over. Just like with japan in the late 80s people haven't caught up to the situation on the ground yet.

Just released episode of Fresh Air on China's surveillance state: https://www.npr.org/2021/01/05/953515627/facial-recognition-...

Xinjiang is the laboratory for these new surveillance technologies.

Just in case anyone else wants to scare the shit out of themselves about the prospect of some sort of techno-totalitarian future for the Chinese people.

I've been trying to move away from purchasing Chinese manufactured products, recognizing that doing so is a microeconomic action that will not have an effect on the macroeconomic situation.

The most effective method I've found is to always buy used, does anyone else have other solutions?

You might like some of the suggestions on this subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/avoidchineseproducts

Awesome, thank you.

If that sub ever gets popular it will get shut down, seeing as china funds and controlals reddit.

In the near future, the world is going to look back at current China's behavior with embarrassment and sadness.

I mean, this isn't the first group the CPC has done this to. We only have to look back a bit to Tibet to see a proto version of what's happening now in Xinjiang. And no one really talks about that anymore. Heck, they're still "re-educating" Tibetans now [0].

So no, I don't think anyone will be looking back on any of this with embarrassment and sadness anytime soon.

I do hope I'm wrong, but history has made me a cynic.

[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54260732

Nothing will change here. We are too comfortable with cheap Chinese goods that we will just cast this out of our minds. Same thing happened with coffee as well. Its not like people werent aware that coffee used slave labour but oh well what about the quality of life. The great western values of democracy, freedom and human rights have a very cheap price tag.

I think it’ll be viewed with anger.

The type of blatant despotism and extreme, ubiquitous human rights violations will lead to tensions. Especially in light of something like coronavirus where they’ve been frantically secretive.

In the longer term, we'll say "That will never happen here!" while repeating exactly the chain of events that caused it this time.

"forced labor" more like Holocaust

I hate headlines like that. It is obvious. Almost everything is bigger than I know. If I know that 40% of everything I buy comes from China, it is not surprising that some of the remaining 60% also come from China. That means that the amount of things that I buy that comes from China is bigger than I know.

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