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Made in China: What Upsets You the Most?

  • Toxic ingredients: Everything from lead to cadmium winds up in products for overseas consumption. (14% people answered this)
  • Environmental desecration: Mining displaces nomadic residents, pollution from manufacturing enters the world's ecosystems. (10% people answered this)
  • Human rights violations: From persecution of Falun Gong to military rule and genocide in Tibet to use of prison labor through the Laogi system. (51% people answered this)
  • Unfair trading policies and currency devaluation: trading policies that result in colonialization of mineral rich/cash poor countries. (2% people answered this)

119 people voted.

Built on Respect is identifying different communities that are working towards sustainability, and educating people to do for themselves. Built on Respect is identifying different communities that are working towards sustainability, and educating people to do for themselves as well as human rights awareness. Built on Respect's current project is Tattoos of Tibetan Refugees and Ex-Political Prisoners (in association with Rutger's University Center for Human Rights, Genocide and Conflict Resolution) Some of the groups Built On Respect supports include: PLEASE NOTE: THE BENEFICIARY LISTED IS THE SOLO FOUNDATION, OUR FISCAL SPONSOR. ALL DONATIONS WILL COME TO BUILT ON RESPECT! 1. 2. Educating people and community groups to self sustainability.

China's economic boom has been built on the back of suffering. Workers work for low pay in long shifts (and as evidenced by the suicides as FoxConn, are literally committing suicide in protest.) Substandard materials are used in manufacturing. From fake malaria medicines being sold in countries such as Cambodia and Thailand, to jewelry at Walmart and even in Sesame Street toys. China colonizes mineral and resource-rich areas, such as Tibet, for the purposes of capitalizing on their land's wealth, while ignoring and destroying local people, and their cultures. China has fixed their currencies value to give them an unfair trading advantage. Unlike other economies, whose currency fluctuates with the markets, China maintains a set exchange rate. Human rights abuses abound. Dissidents against China's totalitarian regime are put into 'Laogai' - labor camps based on Russia's Gulag system. Workers here manufacture everything from steel to semi-conductors, that find their way into the production chain. Though illegal to import products made by prison labor, the presence of middlemen makes tracing these origins virtually impossible. Domestic job loss: Workers globally have lost their jobs as they are outsourced to China. Companies who bring their businesses to China are also required to bring their 'research and development' teams to China as well, effectively neutering their prospective domestic growth. Which issue is most important to you? What would make you choose to not buy 'Made in China'?
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