No, it's about the poor record of the Chinese Government over human rights abuses.
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I take it that this is the next stage - boycott Chinese products and you're hurting the Chinese Governement. Of course you're not, you're hurting the factory workers, the very people you're trying to help, so such boycotting is misguided.
Basically, people on the forum who propose we as collectors impose informal trade sanctions against China are using the forum for political advocacy.
Also, judging from threads I've read, many advocates overstate conditions in China, depicting it as a gulag and death camp. The conditions of France's unemployable Algerian immigrants and Germany's large swathes of Turkish unemployment are not so far removed from the plight of China's low-income labor force (and it is the rural farmers who are not benefitting from China's boom--the factory workers who people advocate we stonewall are the ones moving up in life).
I'm married to a Chinese woman and have been to China many times. China has a vibrant, upwardly mobile urban population like any so-called Western country (Japan is a "Western" country, right?). It is the farmers who are getting the shaft. The state owns their land, so they can't use their property to secure bank loans. Without capital, they have few means to invest in business ventures or otherwise improve their lot. Worse, corruption in the provinces, less publicized than urban problems where an increasingly prosperous population has more clout, makes the lot of farmers even harder.
I see the anti-Chinese bashing on the forum as racism because my experiences have taught me that whites have a general distrust of Asians, who we have a tradition of regarding in a derogatory fashion--ie. images of old Shanghai with its pidgin-yapping Chinese servants; we have a general perception of associating Asia with lower quality (until the 1980s, Japan was also regarded as a source for cheap junk).
Even the reference to WWII Richard light-heartedly mentioned is somewhat telling (even though I realize he intended it as a joke)--we also fought the Germans in WWII, but most of that old animosity has run its course--why? Because we're all the same ethnic group. We think of ourselves as a single culture. Whereas the Asians are "foreigners" and easily identified by their physical appearance.
For its political ends, American congress is getting its money-worth out of the recent toy-scare from China. Labor unions, who regard China as a competitor, also have an interest in stirring anti-Chinese sentiments. That, coupled again with the likely fact that whites regard Asians as outsiders, makes the temptation to China-bash very enticing.
Anyway, this is clearly me standing on a soapbox, but--
If we intend to use the forum for political advocacy, we have to assume those with counter-political views will push back with their own messages.
-Tim
