Your calls and texts can be monitored by China

[Vulture]

I assume everything made in China (even from major tech companies) are spying on us on a hardware level.  No amount of wiping and reinstalling helps.

This is also why I prefer older tech.  For all my extremely personal information I use PDA's from the 90's that have no ability to connect to the web.

But until we move away from Chinese manufacturing this is just something we have to live with.

[quintessentone]

I assume everything made in China (even from major tech companies) are spying on us on a hardware level.  No amount of wiping and reinstalling helps.

This is also why I prefer older tech.  For all my extremely personal information I use PDA's from the 90's that have no ability to connect to the web.

But until we move away from Chinese manufacturing this is just something we have to live with.

Moving away from Chinese manufactured items apparently is an impossible pipe dream.

"No, the West cannot currently function without Chinese manufactured items due to China’s unparalleled dominance in global supply chains, specialized infrastructure, and access to critical raw materials.  While there is a trend toward "de-risking" and diversifying production to countries like Vietnam, India, and Mexico, completely decoupling is considered economically and practically impossible in the near future by most industry experts. 
Key Barriers to Decoupling

• Supply Chain Ecosystem: China has spent decades building an integrated manufacturing hub with dense clusters of suppliers, logistics networks, and skilled labor. As noted by Apple CEO Tim Cook, the depth of technical skill and tooling in China far exceeds that of the US or Europe, making it difficult to replicate this environment elsewhere. 
  
• Critical Raw Materials: China controls significant portions of the mining and refining for critical materials like rare earth elements, lithium, and cobalt, which are essential for electronics, electric vehicles, and defense technologies.
  
• Cost and Scale: Although labor costs in China have risen, the efficiency of its mass production, combined with economies of scale, keeps overall costs competitive. Replacing China’s output would require decades of massive investment and would likely result in significantly higher prices for consumers in the West. 
  

Current Trends and Alternatives

• Diversification, Not Replacement: Companies are shifting some low-margin, labor-intensive industries (like textiles) to Southeast Asia or South Asia, but high-tech and complex manufacturing remains heavily concentrated in China. 
  
• Near-shoring Efforts: There is increased manufacturing in Mexico and Central America for the US market, particularly in automotive and medical devices, but these regions lack the comprehensive supply chain depth of China. 
  
• Geopolitical Risks: Concerns over national security, intellectual property theft, and potential supply chain disruptions (exposed during the pandemic) are driving efforts to reduce dependency, but a complete exit is not feasible without severe economic disruption. 
  

In summary, while the West is actively working to reduce its reliance on China through diversification and reshoring, a total cessation of Chinese manufactured goods is not viable given the current state of global industrial capacity and infrastructure. " (LLM)

[andy06shake]

Moving away from Chinese manufactured items apparently is an impossible pipe dream.

"No, the West cannot currently function without Chinese manufactured items due to China’s unparalleled dominance in global supply chains, specialized infrastructure, and access to critical raw materials.  While there is a trend toward "de-risking" and diversifying production to countries like Vietnam, India, and Mexico, completely decoupling is considered economically and practically impossible in the near future by most industry experts. 
Key Barriers to Decoupling

• Supply Chain Ecosystem: China has spent decades building an integrated manufacturing hub with dense clusters of suppliers, logistics networks, and skilled labor. As noted by Apple CEO Tim Cook, the depth of technical skill and tooling in China far exceeds that of the US or Europe, making it difficult to replicate this environment elsewhere. 
  
• Critical Raw Materials: China controls significant portions of the mining and refining for critical materials like rare earth elements, lithium, and cobalt, which are essential for electronics, electric vehicles, and defense technologies.
  
• Cost and Scale: Although labor costs in China have risen, the efficiency of its mass production, combined with economies of scale, keeps overall costs competitive. Replacing China’s output would require decades of massive investment and would likely result in significantly higher prices for consumers in the West. 
  

Current Trends and Alternatives

• Diversification, Not Replacement: Companies are shifting some low-margin, labor-intensive industries (like textiles) to Southeast Asia or South Asia, but high-tech and complex manufacturing remains heavily concentrated in China. 
  
• Near-shoring Efforts: There is increased manufacturing in Mexico and Central America for the US market, particularly in automotive and medical devices, but these regions lack the comprehensive supply chain depth of China. 
  
• Geopolitical Risks: Concerns over national security, intellectual property theft, and potential supply chain disruptions (exposed during the pandemic) are driving efforts to reduce dependency, but a complete exit is not feasible without severe economic disruption. 
  

In summary, while the West is actively working to reduce its reliance on China through diversification and reshoring, a total cessation of Chinese manufactured goods is not viable given the current state of global industrial capacity and infrastructure. " (LLM)

Most first-world nations are addicted to cheap Chinese products(sometimes not so cheap) in a similar manner they are addicted to oil.

[quintessentone]

Most first-world nations are addicted to cheap Chinese products(sometimes not so cheap) in a similar manner they are addicted to oil.

Well I'd say our governments are partly to blame for not producing and providing their own people with cheaper made at home energy and/or products. My daughter and I were just questioning why our government exports oil/gas but can't refine it for us to use at a cheaper cost. Questions that remain unanswered.

[andy06shake]

Well I'd say our governments are partly to blame for not producing and providing their own people with cheaper made at home energy and/or products. My daughter and I were just questioning why our government exports oil/gas but can't refine it for us to use at a cheaper cost. Questions that remain unanswered.

I say thats a valid argument considering the record profits energy companies are experiencing.

While the customer gets bent over the proverbial barrel and sh@fted good and proper.

The problem with UK oil, is that the crude is the wrong type for our refineries.

So it's exported while the types we do need are imported.

The answer is obvious, build new refineries, but thats expensive, or what they are doing.

Quite the opposite in point of fact with the closures of Grangemouth/Lindsey.

[quintessentone]

I say thats a valid argument considering the record profits energy companies are experiencing.

While the customer gets bent over the proverbial barrel and sh@fted good and proper.

The problem with UK oil, is that the crude is the wrong type for our refineries.

So it's exported while the types we do need are imported.

The answer is obvious, build new refineries, but thats expensive, or what they are doing.

Quite the opposite in point of fact with the closures of Grangemouth/Lindsey.

Exactly, government not spending taxpayer dollar to become self-sufficient in critical resources needed by the people, for the people.