Every Friday, I present a topic or question for our merry band of thinkers, leaders, and pirates to discuss in an open thread. Here is this week’s conversation starter:
An investigation by The Information asserts that seven of Apple’s suppliers use forced labor from China’s Xinjiang Province. These suppliers, according to the report, participate in labor programs that are a part of China’s genocide against Uyghur Muslims — directly contradicting the company’s previous statements and findings.
Question: If proven true, how would you like Apple to respond? Would it change your willingness to buy Apple products if no changes were made?
Truly amazes me (ok... not really) how Apple and others promote environmentalism and "convenient-socialist-garbage-du-jour" in the US while simultaneously supporting - i.e., promoting - human rights abuses in China. I suppose we're not supposed to see and question the reprehensible and blatant hypocrisy. I'm in the market for a new tablet and phone & this makes me think twice about buying Apple - I'll be researching the alternatives where I would have previously stayed with what I know.
Apple should be fined/taxed at 200% for reparations here in the US until it moves its factories out of China. This is binary: either you support slavery or you don't.
All dissidents, all those who conform to conscience, are subject to genocide, execution by organ harvesting while the victim lives, and is conscious. That is what the CCP does willingly and in an organized regimented fashion. I have for many years avoided as best as I can big tech and the latest electronics. Cook, Dorsey, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and all others like them are amoral, self serving, megalomaniacs. The control billions of people!!! For them and those like them, morality is not a concern. I am forever amazed at how readily so many people signed on to what these reprobates were selling. They literally monetized all things about us!! And they enthusiastically do business with the murderous CCP who wish to subsume our country, who want every piece of information about everybody, including DNA., who continue to pursue bio weapons to eradicate specific populations. SARS was first. COVID was second. There's more in the pipeline. And then there's Fauci, the architect of COVID19, funding (tax payer money) and collaborating with the CCP. It is time to divest ourselves of big tech and find other ways. And to divest of the CCP and its associates. PJ Troia MD
I’m not a fan of tying my personal buying decisions to greater causes. It’s too easy to get caught up in a fad.
For example, why Apple? Are they the only company manufacturing in China? Are the Android alternatives manufactured elsewhere? Since China is all about surveillance, why would we ha,per a company fighting for privacy?
I am appalled for specifically two reasons: that Apple charges the most for its technology & yet employs a communist Country who pays its workers for pennies a day.
Learning that Apple was incorrect in their statement wouldn't change my view of Apple or my willingness to buy their products (which I like). Learning that Apple intentionally misled (i.e. they lied) would, however, give me concerns. In either case Apple needs to address the root issue. Either clean up the source of misinformation and put practices in place to prevent recurrence, or address whatever aspect of their culture that accepts lying (if that occurred).
I already boycott all Apple products because of their policies (as well as the sexual preferences of their leader) so, no, it would not change my attitudes or actions regarding Apple,
I’m not at all surprised as tech companies and others disregard Chinese slave labor and other inhumane labor practices. I see that many large companies choose profit over people and in the case of many tech companies I’d argue profit over patriotism as well. As I type this on an Apple device I can say this doesn’t influence me. Their politics influenced me already to move away from their company the next time I upgrade. Struggling to find a comparable device though.
This may be another example of globalization downside. While I strongly oppose Chinese social control policies, I do not think applying damaging pressure on Apple or any other US company is viable.
Chinese social policies are just that, Chinese, and our insistence that they change is not in our interest either as a nation or in the business world.
If true, Apple should announce to the world that the Chinese are involved with using forced labor. This is important because many people do not know about it. They should then cancel all contracts known to be involved with this practice. I do not purchase Apple products so there is little I can personally do about it. No doubt there are many other manufacturers using forced Chinese labor.
If proven true then I would no longer buy Apple products unless they committed, and quickly moved in a direction, to stop using the suppliers involved using forced labor.
I'd like to see Apple try and find a way to force those suppliers to quit using ANY forced labor, because forced labor is a crime. If a government, ANY government, such as that of China, uses forced labor, that's a crime of a higher degree. Whether such effort by Apple succeeds or not, I'd like to see it drop those suppliers totally and get new, non-criminal suppliers who get supplies from outside China.
China develops and (ab)uses a social score on it's people while secretly(?) committing genocide against others... The epitome of hypocrisy... The US has import/export compliance requirements that prohibit commerce with foreign entities that make, for example, nuclear weapons... That should be expanded to include prohibiting commerce with foreign entities that commit genocide and other atrocities... (Of course, having said that, it may ultimately bubble down to social scores, or simply controlling behavior, on individuals, just like China...) For Apple, I stopped using their products many years ago because I didn't like being forced within their ecosystem... I think they should be fined $1T (or more?) to pay down the US debt that we rack up paying to the UN (and others) who are supposed to be speaking out on this kind of behavior...
I don't buy Apple products anyway but... If proven true Apple should be corporately responsible enough to just shutter the buildings and go out of business to show their brokenness and contriteness.
If there is solid evidence I would expect Apple to immediately look for an alternative location to source their components. Perhaps Latin America or elsewhere. Meanwhile, I would not favor Apple with my business.
Time for Apple to move its manufacturing out of China. Might need to rethink the old saying “as American as Apple pie” and change it to strawberry rhubarb or peach!
Apple needs to do the right think. If true, they should pull production out of China. It’s unfortunate that China is ruled by the CCP rather than the people. The Chinese people deserve better than a communist government ruling them. I will still buy Apple products unless a better product is available, but will buy less of them, less often.
I have been an Apple Mac and iPhone user for almost 20 years, but if these allegations are true and Apple does not cease using these suppliers, I will switch to their competitors.
Apple should switch to Central America. And yes if proven true I would no longer buy from them.
Truly amazes me (ok... not really) how Apple and others promote environmentalism and "convenient-socialist-garbage-du-jour" in the US while simultaneously supporting - i.e., promoting - human rights abuses in China. I suppose we're not supposed to see and question the reprehensible and blatant hypocrisy. I'm in the market for a new tablet and phone & this makes me think twice about buying Apple - I'll be researching the alternatives where I would have previously stayed with what I know.
Apple should be fined/taxed at 200% for reparations here in the US until it moves its factories out of China. This is binary: either you support slavery or you don't.
All dissidents, all those who conform to conscience, are subject to genocide, execution by organ harvesting while the victim lives, and is conscious. That is what the CCP does willingly and in an organized regimented fashion. I have for many years avoided as best as I can big tech and the latest electronics. Cook, Dorsey, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and all others like them are amoral, self serving, megalomaniacs. The control billions of people!!! For them and those like them, morality is not a concern. I am forever amazed at how readily so many people signed on to what these reprobates were selling. They literally monetized all things about us!! And they enthusiastically do business with the murderous CCP who wish to subsume our country, who want every piece of information about everybody, including DNA., who continue to pursue bio weapons to eradicate specific populations. SARS was first. COVID was second. There's more in the pipeline. And then there's Fauci, the architect of COVID19, funding (tax payer money) and collaborating with the CCP. It is time to divest ourselves of big tech and find other ways. And to divest of the CCP and its associates. PJ Troia MD
I’m not a fan of tying my personal buying decisions to greater causes. It’s too easy to get caught up in a fad.
For example, why Apple? Are they the only company manufacturing in China? Are the Android alternatives manufactured elsewhere? Since China is all about surveillance, why would we ha,per a company fighting for privacy?
I am appalled for specifically two reasons: that Apple charges the most for its technology & yet employs a communist Country who pays its workers for pennies a day.
Learning that Apple was incorrect in their statement wouldn't change my view of Apple or my willingness to buy their products (which I like). Learning that Apple intentionally misled (i.e. they lied) would, however, give me concerns. In either case Apple needs to address the root issue. Either clean up the source of misinformation and put practices in place to prevent recurrence, or address whatever aspect of their culture that accepts lying (if that occurred).
I already boycott all Apple products because of their policies (as well as the sexual preferences of their leader) so, no, it would not change my attitudes or actions regarding Apple,
I’m not at all surprised as tech companies and others disregard Chinese slave labor and other inhumane labor practices. I see that many large companies choose profit over people and in the case of many tech companies I’d argue profit over patriotism as well. As I type this on an Apple device I can say this doesn’t influence me. Their politics influenced me already to move away from their company the next time I upgrade. Struggling to find a comparable device though.
This may be another example of globalization downside. While I strongly oppose Chinese social control policies, I do not think applying damaging pressure on Apple or any other US company is viable.
Chinese social policies are just that, Chinese, and our insistence that they change is not in our interest either as a nation or in the business world.
I would drop Apple if true.
If true, Apple should announce to the world that the Chinese are involved with using forced labor. This is important because many people do not know about it. They should then cancel all contracts known to be involved with this practice. I do not purchase Apple products so there is little I can personally do about it. No doubt there are many other manufacturers using forced Chinese labor.
If proven true then I would no longer buy Apple products unless they committed, and quickly moved in a direction, to stop using the suppliers involved using forced labor.
I'd like to see Apple try and find a way to force those suppliers to quit using ANY forced labor, because forced labor is a crime. If a government, ANY government, such as that of China, uses forced labor, that's a crime of a higher degree. Whether such effort by Apple succeeds or not, I'd like to see it drop those suppliers totally and get new, non-criminal suppliers who get supplies from outside China.
China develops and (ab)uses a social score on it's people while secretly(?) committing genocide against others... The epitome of hypocrisy... The US has import/export compliance requirements that prohibit commerce with foreign entities that make, for example, nuclear weapons... That should be expanded to include prohibiting commerce with foreign entities that commit genocide and other atrocities... (Of course, having said that, it may ultimately bubble down to social scores, or simply controlling behavior, on individuals, just like China...) For Apple, I stopped using their products many years ago because I didn't like being forced within their ecosystem... I think they should be fined $1T (or more?) to pay down the US debt that we rack up paying to the UN (and others) who are supposed to be speaking out on this kind of behavior...
I don't buy Apple products anyway but... If proven true Apple should be corporately responsible enough to just shutter the buildings and go out of business to show their brokenness and contriteness.
If there is solid evidence I would expect Apple to immediately look for an alternative location to source their components. Perhaps Latin America or elsewhere. Meanwhile, I would not favor Apple with my business.
Time for Apple to move its manufacturing out of China. Might need to rethink the old saying “as American as Apple pie” and change it to strawberry rhubarb or peach!
Apple needs to do the right think. If true, they should pull production out of China. It’s unfortunate that China is ruled by the CCP rather than the people. The Chinese people deserve better than a communist government ruling them. I will still buy Apple products unless a better product is available, but will buy less of them, less often.
I have been an Apple Mac and iPhone user for almost 20 years, but if these allegations are true and Apple does not cease using these suppliers, I will switch to their competitors.