Lego in China

[CTTT]

https://www.cbr.com/legos-efforts-in...cal-activists/

I don't know why these companies want to tap in a market where the government commits such atrocities against their people. All to make a quick buck. What happened to integrity?

The U.S. didn't need this market 20 30 years ago and now they want to sell out? I say send nothing to the CCP

[CSTowle]

Well, a few things. One, kids building with legos in China (and adult nerds with their Star Wars sets/etc.) aren't atrocity-committing communist dictators. They're kids, who like to play with toys. Two, heck yeah they want to make a buck. Every company does. It's the reason businesses shipped most of the manufacturing over there in the first place, and started doing so at the height of the East vs West/Capitalist vs Communist Cold War. That's the problem when you back the capitalist side, at the end of the day (or at the bottom line, if you like) it's about everyone looking out for themselves. Think back on all of the horrible regimes we've backed/funded/supplied weapons to for petty reasons or for temporary gains, usually blowing up in our faces or causing new problems down the line. Giving kids toys to play with (that, by the way, are almost certainly manufactured in their country anyway) seems like a zero by comparison.

Third, what do you mean we don't need their market? We are their market, not the other way around. Maybe for IP like movies/music/TV/etc., but for anything involving items you can hold in your hand it's mostly a one-way street. They also loan us a great deal of money, that we then turn around and use to buy things from them. We've been doing this for over 30 years. We aren't sending them anything (other than product orders and IOUs), they're sending it to us. If you have a way to turn that around and bring the 1950s/60s back I'm all ears. In the meantime I'd say leave the kids alone to enjoy their legos, they're not hurting anyone.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

Well, a few things. One, kids building with legos in China (and adult nerds with their Star Wars sets/etc.) aren't atrocity-committing communist dictators. They're kids, who like to play with toys.

This .

[batnbreakfast]

This .

Yup. Seconded.

[Kirby101]

American corporations have never had integrity about who they do business with. In many places they were responsible for the despots in power.

[MajorHoy]

. . . The U.S. didn't need this market 20 30 years ago and now they want to sell out? I say send nothing to the CCP

So, you don't think there's a possibility that future generations in China might be more open to change if they discover the joy of playing with Legos when they're children?

[achilles]

Plus, think of all the CCP officials who will step on loose pieces in bare feet! Agony for them! And the new set they have for building an entire compound meant to hold a large number of people in a small area, a concentrated area. It comes complete with Lego barbed wire fences, guard towers, spotlights, and machine guns.

[achilles]

So, you don't think there's a possibility that future generations in China might be more open to change if they discover the joy of playing with Legos when they're children?

Er, no. Not from all observations so far.

[Captain Nostalgia]

https://www.cbr.com/legos-efforts-in...cal-activists/

I don't know why these companies want to tap in a market where the government commits such atrocities against their people. All to make a quick buck. What happened to integrity?

The U.S. didn't need this market 20 30 years ago and now they want to sell out? I say send nothing to the CCP

In an ideal world all American & western companies would pack up and leave China for India, as their primary marketplace, but realistically....

US corporations have always done business in evil regimes.

They didn't do business with the Soviet Union, because it wasn't possible, but they had their nose in Nazi Germany, the Ford motor plant had their fingerprints all over it, and big financial institutions like Goldman Sachs provided Hitler with loans in the early years....and than it became to late.

It is a concern....essentially US corporations are feeding the totalitarian beast....and enabling to it pass western nations as the world's primary economic power, as the U.S. and European Union continue to rack up debt.

The Trans Pacific Partnership was a good idea, it was a mistake for the Trump administration to cancel it. I don't think many jobs would have been lost to Vietnam, but it would essentially put that country in our sphere, and made a rigorous trading block with India and all our Pan Pacific allies, which could effectively shut China out if desired.

With the growth and power of China were already seeing democracy being undermined in the region....

they didn't honour the Hong Kong agreement of one country/two systems, ensuring democracy in Hong Kong for at least 50 years after the transfer, (so I don't feel we need to honour the agreement on Taiwan now)...

and they are believed to be largely behind supporting the military coup in Myanmar (Burma) that put the lights out for democracy in that country....so we'll see how it all plays out in 20 years or so.

Ps; as a sidenote, Lego isn't an American company, it's Danish.

[Scott Taylor]

Because I don't really think the US is in a position to enable or prevent China from doing what it wants to do, either socially or politically, I don't see this Lego thing as a way for the Danes to do that either. Lego has been successful since last year, with special Chinese-themed Lego sets in stores in key locations. And there are plans for tons more stores. This is just a natural outgrowth of that. The people buying Lego sets are simply consumers, they are not the ones out there committing atrocities unless you count chickens and fish as potential victims.

I'd love for the US to have some more sway economically as has been said, just in terms of trade agreements with other countries, and put more pressure on China. There are a few key allies in the region that the US has been courting in order to try and put some economic pressure on Bejing. But that doesn't translate to political pressure very well and man that is an uphill struggle. Much like the US, China also believes that one of the best ways to secure economic prosperity is to spread its political philosophy within its sphere of influence. And they have been fairly successful at it.

As was said earlier, we are a lot of the market for China. Their goods are cheap enough that its cheaper for us to import them than it is to make the same goods right here in the US. And people here love buying cheap stuff because our standard of living is so crappy high right now and getting higher all the time. Cheap goods are so important to the general American public that our own government turns a blind eye to the moral dilemmas involved in supporting a country that likes to torture its workers, hates racial diversity, wrote the book on totalitarian dictatorship and does this all the while laughing at the "American way." Always has. Look to yourselves, America!

[JackDaw]

https://www.cbr.com/legos-efforts-in...cal-activists/

I don't know why these companies want to tap in a market where the government commits such atrocities against their people. All to make a quick buck. What happened to integrity?

The U.S. didn't need this market 20 30 years ago and now they want to sell out? I say send nothing to the CCP

Lego is surely a Danish company?

So you can rest easy the US will not be involved in this dangerous trade...though some eccentrics worry more about exports of arms all over the world rather than get stressed about toys.

[PwrdOn]

Surely this unspoken assumption that America should have the power to set the terms of trade between ANY two countries, which it isn't doing in this case but absolutely does in plenty of other places through secondary sanctions and effective control of international organizations, causes far more actual harm to people than whatever cartoonishly evil things we imagine China to be doing? Shouldn't companies be refusing to do business in America as well, given that it bombs civilians in every corner of the globe, murders people on the streets for selling cigarettes, and locks up kids in cages at the border?

[Zauriel]

US, Danish and other companies don't care what China is doing to the minorities. They care about their customers' interests. If the customers cared about the human rights issue in China, they should boycott and stop buying Chinese goods.

[babyblob]

Being an American I love the outrage from other Americans directed at companies who deal with China and Russia as if we do not do bad things in foreign lands and with in our own boarders or involve ourselves in other peoples elections and effect other governments and get shocked when a company who is in the business of making money doing something that may make them money.

[PwrdOn]

US, Danish and other companies don't care what China is doing to the minorities. They care about their customers' interests. If the customers cared about the human rights issue in China, they should boycott and stop buying Chinese goods.

If people cared about human rights, they should speak out against abuses at home, which they might have some power to actually fix. Feigned concern for the plight of people living in foreign countries is in every case just a tool that the military industrial complex uses to justify its expansionist aims.