Discussion of Moving Production Outside of China

[LittleWalter]

I think this discussion has gone a bit off the rails.

Please resume practical aspects of multi-sourcing, instead of political, cultural or other reasons.

For example, practical aspects of multi-sourcing:

• Is that if weather were to delay manufacturing or shipments from one location, another location may be un-affected.
  
• Same can apply with local holidays affecting one location and not another.
  

Further, if a discussion were to involve moving to another location that was able to produce the items:

• Faster, or
  
• Cheaper, or
  
• More reliable, or
  
• Reduced shipping delays
  

This aspect of the discussion would be okay.

I should have noted to try to watch out for getting too emotional when it comes to discussion, not to mention being anti-CCP != anti-Chinese people in general.  Always keep in mind your own biases and how you tend to lean, etc.  Honestly, because of this, I'm hesitant to even bring controversial topics like this up.

However, I would strongly argue that ethics are very important in computing and oft neglected by people in this industry chasing the cheapest, fastest, outsourcing, etc.  I believe the CCP to be a problematic long-term partner.  And any company/organization with sufficient size and influence must have CCP representation; though I'm not sure how big in terms of headcount Pine64's production company/org is.  Now there are problems in my own country but at least we can voice our concerns; sorry "whatabouters."  There is no 1st Amendment in China; in fact, you can speak your mind until you become visibly problematic and then it's "tea time" with the cops.  (Don't get me started on the creepy social credit scoring system and ethnic cleansing of Muslim minorities.)



Not to get too preachy, and I'm by no means perfect, but if ethics aren't much of a concern I should probably spend more time thinking about and using competitor's products like ASUS, RPi, and HardKernel.  I'm not personally too invested in Pine64 products, so I can easily exit.  I just wanted to take the temp here and see what the waters are like.

I mean, isn't choosing FOSS-based products an ethical choice that a lot of people have around here and not just one out of pure practicality?  But sourcing hardware from an authoritarian regime isn't problematic?  Or do the people around here not really care about these issues or find it easy to rationalize?