Just to include it in gaming side of the board, is what I thought.
I work as a product designer in tech in the valley and have been at a couple of big, well known companies (and talk to folks at the others). This sadly is true (and in that light, it's hilarious that folks are running to non-Chinese made Android phones, as if Google has a much better stance on China. It doesn't, while simultaneously also being worse on privacy, so bravo). If you're thinking of getting an Android phone - including Samsung's versions or replacing an Apple laptop with say a Surface, maybe spend a little time on how those parent companies deal with China.
Given Google and Microsoft, and the number of people suggesting buying actual Chinese products to stick it to Apple, the thread seems to me more like an opportunity to shit on the company than some kind of response to what the company's actually done. I myself (as an Asian studies major back in the day) strongly support an independent Tibet and Xinjiang, an independent or British Hong Kong, and decry Chinese bullying of its SE Asian neighbors, the government's sniveling need to be seen as the "middle country," and its shady political and business practices, including ginning up conflicts with South Korea and Japan when it benefits the CCP, as well as its support for the terrorist, pariah state of North Korea. But I never, ever see that level of nuance or discourse when these things are posted, and instead they often come off as an opportunity to be racist against Chinese people or shit on companies against which some people already have an axe to grind (you're going to stick it to Apple by by buying Chinese-made phones? Are we being serious here?). (Edit: reading the comments before and after mine a lot of them are people posting to feel superior about Apple products).
I'm not saying you're a sucker for using android - I use a pixel phone for work, though I limit where I take it and what it can access. Rather, instead of just deciding to support its competitors, be knowledgeable about their stances and actions. I know Google and Microsoft have the same (or frankly worse) history of bowing down to CCP pressure and they are also usually worse on personal privacy (I'm not even dignifying the comments suggesting buying a device made by a Chinese company with an answer, other than that I would distrust both that hardware and software). This is precisely why I'm so extremely disappointed in Apple.
All that said, I hope we are actually turning a corner and American companies no longer get a free pass from consumers and governments of developed nations when they kowtow to the thin-skinned CCP. It'll change their calculus if they start suffering in their home markets because they're chasing China.
