Will you avoid buying gear made in China now?

There probably isn’t a lot we can do to put pressure on China, but buying gear made in countries not committing heinous crimes against humanity seems like a good idea to me.

I have gone a lot of my life trying my best to make consumer choices that aligned with my own beliefs about how humans should be treated and how the planet would be treated.  One of the big problems with large-scale boycotts of a country like China on humanitarian grounds is that right now, the only company I can think of that isn't producing in a country that's in the middle of a pretty bleak humanitarian crisis would be DMM.  

Rob D. wrote:the only company I can think of that isn't producing in a country that's in the middle of a pretty bleak humanitarian crisis would be DMM.  

Totems are made in Spain/Basque Country, and I believe that Omega Pacific manufactures in Washington

Rob D. wrote: I have gone a lot of my life trying my best to make consumer choices that aligned with my own beliefs about how humans should be treated and how the planet would be treated.  One of the big problems with large-scale boycotts of a country like China on humanitarian grounds is that right now, the only company I can think of that isn't producing in a country that's in the middle of a pretty bleak humanitarian crisis would be DMM.  

For humanitarian reasons, we’d have to include the US in our boycott. But for environmental sustainability, we should buy local. 

I think Metolius has always made their gear in Bend.  And I've had good experience with their customer service.

Scott Fagen wrote: There probably isn’t a lot we can do to put pressure on China, but buying gear made in countries not committing heinous crimes against humanity seems like a good idea to me.

Do you buy gear made in America? Because what we are doing to immigrants and asylum seekers in our country is heinous as well.

Edited for tone. 

Matt B wrote:

Do you buy gear made in America? Because what we are doing to immigrants and asylum seekers in our country is heinous as well.

Edited for tone. 

It's terrible for sure and needs to stop, but I would venture to say that at least we aren't forcefully harvesting their organs

Ross Goldberg wrote:

Totems are made in Spain/Basque Country, and I believe that Omega Pacific manufactures in Washington

It's pretty easy to argue that Spain ignoring of the Catalan Declaration of Independence to be at least problematic, but you are right they are definitely head and shoulders above countries like China or the US in terms of treatment of the people that live there. 

Rob D. wrote: It's pretty easy to argue that Spain ignoring of the Catalan Declaration of Independence to be at least problematic, but you are right they are definitely head and shoulders above countries like China or the US in terms of treatment of the people that live there. 

I don't think you can equate the crimes against humanity that China is currently committing to the prison camps in the U.S, see my link above

Or also China's dystopian social credit system, the mass surveillance, and the mass censorship and zero freedom of information  

As bad as the situation on the southern US border is, our government (currently) doesn't even come close to the brutality of the Chinese state. 

Anyways I know we have deviated from the subject.

Misty Mountain also manufactures in the U.S. and someone above mentioned Metolius.

I forget the name but there is a Russian company that makes ice gear, not sure what their current humanitarian situation is but it isn't China.

EDIT: and how can I forget, FISH is also a great U.S. gear manufacturer

EDIT 2: Sterling Ropes are made in the U.S. as well

I think that being okay with concentration camps in one place but not in another is a place that I just can't agree with you on. I am very happy people are starting to vote more with their wallets (whether on moral, environmental, or other issues) but would like to ask people making these choices to reevaluate the sort of moving-goal-line thinking that goes in to choosing which countries you are excited to back and which you aren't. 

I also think that the bigger issue to many of us on whether to buy local or not is how the manufacturing of those products (and it's delivery to the consumer) impacts the environment (which is very much an issue that I think a lot of climbers care about).  It's one of the reasons that I choose to buy local as much as possible.

I wasn't trying to derail and want to be clear that obviously news coming out of China is deplorable.  I do think that some people tend to put on "local blinders" that makes them believe their own country is acting "less bad" than others which makes their own moral choices easier to rationalize.  

Rob D. wrote: I think that being okay with concentration camps in one place but not in another is a place that I just can't agree with you on. I am very happy people are starting to vote more with their wallets (whether on moral, environmental, or other issues) but would like to ask people making these choices to reevaluate the sort of moving-goal-line thinking that goes in to choosing which countries you are excited to back and which you aren't. 

I'm not just talking about prisons. You are welcome to pretend that the US is just as bad as China, but you would be pretending. I'm not trying to justify the internment of migrants on the southern border, and I believe that a change in policy is necessary. If we were in China, this conversation would get shut down. It probably wouldn't have even happened. We still have some semblance of free speech here, even if some want to eliminate that protection....

You all finally getting angry that they invaded and assimilated Tibet (they call it China, Tibet is no more) and are still persecuting Tibetians? I can see that.

​https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=china+invades+tibet+and+persecuted&id=DCA3CEC805102C647097048635CA23353044ADC1&FORM=IQFRBA

"The rest of the world was preoccupied with events in Korea at the time, but the Chinese Communist regime had been announcing its intention of integrating Tibet with ‘the motherland’ for months. The Tibetan government in Lhasa, which had appealed for help in vain to both Britain and the United States, declined to receive Chinese emissaries, though a Tibetan delegation in India held inconclusive talks with the Chinese ambassador there. Back in January, Beijinghad released a telegram from the Panchen Lama to Chairman Mao. ‘On behalf of the Tibetan people, we respectfully plead for troops to be sent to liberate Tibet, to wipe out reactionaries, expel the imperialists …and liberate the Tibetan people.’ The Panchen Lama was traditionally one of the most important religious figures in Tibet. This one was twelve years old and living in China........."
 

Just because something is stamped "made in X" doesn't mean all the parts/pieces came from that place.   As a consumer you have very little control over what/where the products are coming from so I would suggest just making sure you agree with how the company does business and buy a lot less stuff.

Politics aside, almost everything that BD makes now in china is shit (cams and screws are the exceptions).

Matt B wrote:

Do you buy gear made in America? Because what we are doing to immigrants and asylum seekers in our country is heinous as well.

Edited for tone. 

I am a Open Borders guy and I loathe both Trump and Obama. But let's not conflate us with China just yet. Although we are certainly running that direction.

that is the only way to not consume a product made by a company that practices bad ethics ...

Oh and put in your will that you need to be cremated, but not professionally, because the equipment used would be made by a non-ethical company, so you must do it with natural wood, not harvested with the help of products made by non-ethical companies ..... you just can't win... change of plans, suicide in the ocean, but then that's more pollution unless your plan is to feed yourself to an animal ... maybe that's the solution?

Matt B wrote:

Do you buy gear made in America? Because what we are doing to immigrants and asylum seekers in our country is heinous as well.

Edited for tone. 

Cry me a river with your Boulder social justice soap opera....If you compare US to China you're out of your mind. And yes, I'm always trying to buy gear made in the US and EU (Grivel, Metolius, DMM, Simond, etc). I'm a first-generation immigrant by the way and if you're not breaking the law (arrive here legally), this country has a normal immigration process.

Yeah! I stopped buying that made in China unsafe shit. I make my own now