this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2026
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[–] riskable@programming.dev 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (9 children)

As an American, I'm pleased with China's:

  • Renewable energy adoption
  • Electric vehicle progress
  • Battery technology advancement
  • Their willingness to subsidize shipping and other supply chain stuff so that I can order cheap parts and PCBs (Chinese citizens are paying for that in their taxes... Thanks!)

I'm disappointed and even appalled with China's:

  • Treatment of their own citizens (especially Uyghurs, people in Tibet)
  • Endless bullshit regarding Taiwan (just leave them alone already!)
  • Social credit system
  • Installing secret back doors in electronic products
  • Helping North Korea
  • What they did in Hong Kong
  • Allowing the same people to remain in charge for so long (that's never a good idea)
  • Lack of regulations (or enforcement) that protect their own people. Move to the 8 hour work day already! They need the equivalent of OSHA that actually does their job.
  • Completely untrustworthy government when it comes to negotiating in good faith

The last two are the reasons why no one trusts China or many entire product categories if they originate in China. Example: Who TF is going to buy Chinese baby formula‽

In the US we have a saying, "cheap Chinese junk." It's often said after some cheap Chinese product fails, often spectacularly (e.g. emits smoke or catches fire). There's so many examples of this in my own life it's kind of unreal:

  • Power supplies that have no moving parts yet fail completely within a year
  • Plastic stuff that just breaks for no good reason (presumably because they didn't add a UV stabilizer to the raw plastic? Just wild speculation on my part)
  • Anything with metal parts will rust or degrade so fast you wonder how it even made it to America without self destructing.

I can go on and on about the poor quality of tons of Chinese-made products but you get the idea. Having said that, there's plenty of great Chinese brands that make quality stuff. It's just that there's so much more cheap/generic stuff from China that competes with the good stuff it gets drowned out.

If I were in charge over there, the first thing I'd do is start real inspections of consumer goods. I mean, it shouldn't even be possible for a company to ship a children's product with lead in it! Mandatory inspections! Of everything. Also, if any of your inspectors are offered a bribe, give them a great big bonus for reporting it and make the person who tried to bribe them suffer. China ultimately executed the folks responsible for the baby formula thing... More of that! Show the world you're serious about reliability and safety.

I'd go even further and hire foreigners to inspect Chinese products, right there in China. Give them the authority to shut down assembly lines when products start showing signs of contamination. Be as open and transparent as possible!

Of course, the social credit system needs to go. Government should not be rating their people. That's just evil. Let the market do it with background checks and credit scores 🤣

(I admit that's not great either, but it's infinitely better than having the government do it)

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

My critique of China’s environmental policies will always be that it’s rooted in lessening the impact on the environment for human reasons first, never for the sake of the environment and the other life we share this planet with. It’s also one of my fundamental criticisms of ML theory itself; it still puts humans first. I get that we’re going to tend to default to that, but the amount of Western “leftists” willing to ignore the rape of the planet for human’s sake just to spite western methods disgusts me. Strip-mining for rare earth elements to make better batteries for solar power isn’t exactly a better trade off than burning coal, it just makes you feel better cus it sounds better. And let’s talk about the factory farms it takes to feed a billion people who’ve been moved out of subsistence farming and into a “middle class”.

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