Boycott Chinese goods - Is it possible

Hari Iyer

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There are lot of news floating around suggesting fellow citizens to boycott Chinese origin products. So i presume they also apply to AV gear.

IME, its now become very difficult to trace the origin of goods until you bought them. For instance, the Marantz BR player purchased 1.5 years ago was made in China. I last year also purchased washing machine (LG) which was manufactured in Pune and a Hitachi window AC which was also manufactured in India (as per label). But so called Indian brands like VU TV (Hi-sense) and Bluestar AC, Godrej AC (China Sourced) are directly sourced from China and had manufactured in China labels. Last week i bought a Altec Lansing Bluetooth sound box assuming that they are a US/French brand will not be manufactured in China. But after it landed it was manufactured in P.R.C.

So even if we want to avoid anything manufactured in China, unless the dealers/ distributors themselves declare the origin of the goods, it become next to impossible for consumers to boycott Chinese made goods. Even most Indian brands are re-branded and sourced from China and is not a good indicator.

Will like FMs inputs / tips for how to avoid Chinese products given the state of affairs

PS: This post is not for those who are okay with buying goods from Chinese origin and can skip this post without commenting.
 
Thanks for starting a relevant discussion. At present some people are protesting against China products in social media. But today it is very difficult to know which one is of China made or origin unless the seller or dealer/ distributer declares it. IMO our govt.should come forward , encourage the Indian manufacturers to make Indian brands and then only we can buy purely Indian products. We buy China products only for the cheap or pocket friendly price. Besides, we don't get Indian brands in market. Think about mobile phones. There are so many Chinese brands available but is there any India made mobile phone? Years ago there was one Indian brand but today I don't find it and even I forget the name of that company. Again before Diwali our Kolkata market and even the shops in the suburbs are flooded with Chinese items! What should we do? After about more than 70 years of independence we have very less Indian brands. Who is to be blamed? Either we or the political leaders? So I think ,if we are keen on Indian brands then we can buy those . If we just avoid Chinese brands then we should buy some products made in the USA, the UK, France etc and make sure that those are not associated with China. But it seems that we have no choice at present until manufacturers of our country make some good products, sell them at a competitive price and last but not the least we shall have a good after sale service.
Regards
 
Premise:
I am no defense analyst or such but current situation seems to be the eastern country wants to start a little war or give perception of that and stop at certain time or threaten us to bring our country to negotiating table for their own nationalistic agenda. Their thinking may be to sap our military resources on three front western and eastern with n epal in future. Due to corona situation they already have little trade with other countries compared to earlier normal situation. So economically they have very little to loose atleast for a year. If this is the case a normal person would definitely think why to strengthen our enemy ? Lets ban their products. So does banning help ? I would say no or would help very little. So am I saying buy them. Again no. Read following.

Thoughts :
Overall their strategy has been to flood the market with cheap stuff even at making loss. This destroys the local manufacturers. Then Slowly increase the prices and totally be dependent on them. So when some person says ban chinese he may be meaning that not to rely so much on them that they have TOTAL CONTROL of things. Today we are dependent on them for even small tools, and silly items and what not. So Idea is not to nationalist jingoistic ban chinese. Atleast start as much as possible. If not now then when ? This brings to question of quality at affordable price. We gujjus have a saying. You can not buy almonds at price of peanuts. I have read/seen well reputed companies made in china speakers with bad finish. Brand new veeners peeling off. Tweeters hanging loose in side the cabinet. Now compare that to our individual Sadik or Bibin speaker work. I would say they are top class finish. So if single person can do it why cant we or our companies do it.
Now if anyone wants to buy chnese. please do so. Nothing terribly wrong in that. We are free country not prc. But do make conscious effort to buy local.
Point I am making is buy from our own. Avoide as much as possible from them unless desperate or really necessary. Let our industry and people grow. Will take time and tremendous hardwork. But if people throw hands and give up.....well cant help you.....BUT atleast dont discourage others or derisively comment on them.
Regards.
 
If a boycott was really needed, it would have been implemented by the government itself. Right now it's all just posturing and propaganda, while multiple firms have received fresh funding from Chinese investors. No ban on that?
 
Under law Govt. can not ban any country products. People can. I forsee this thread turning in to political. Please avoid that. Post on what can be done on electronics purchase and future strategy to make indian products. .

There are so many Chinese brands available but is there any India made mobile phone?
I am sorry to say we dont have 100% indian mobile. Mostly 'made in india' phones are assembled. But atleast the indian dealer and people get some money out of it compared to complete import.
Regards.

. . . See basically point I am making is. There are atleast three amplifier designers in the forum. There are couple of Indian amplifier manufactures listed in a forum thread. I am not saying buy even if you dont want to. but If we dont give them support base to carry on how can one grow ?
 
I think a lot of value is there for ultimately owns the brand. For example, even if a brand like VU or even micromax outsources intermediate products from different countries the final ownership decides where the profit lies and which country benefits. I remember seeing this in Australia, where it was mandated to see labels saying where it was made as well as the country ownership of the brand. In the end, its still an open market and people will buy what they will buy but atleast its giving information so people can take their decisions.

A bit like Sivakasi and fireworks, if you make a concious effort, you could buy fireworks for Diwali crackers made in India or take a concious decision of saving the environment for a day and light lights made from a different country. Its all our choice.
 
Few years back, I came across a discussion in an online American audio forum where the participants were looking down upon products manufactured in Asia altogether (surprisingly, including those manufactured in Japan). There were mainly praising American brands like McIntosh. Then one old man raised a valid point. Almost all solid state components are manufactured in Asia. Even many of the passive components are sourced from Asia. So, any product using solid state devices cannot truly be called American. He then explained how far he went to get a custom made, purely American audio chain - which only uses tubes and other components manufactured in America.

So, when we say made in China, are we just referring to 'Made in China' badge and or are we talking about products with not even a single strand of Chinese DNA? I sincerely hope it is the former, because the latter definition will disqualify any useful electronic product available today.

Even for the former case, the Chinese may come up with a solution. The can sell the product through other countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Japan or even India, by re-badging and slap the additional cost incurred on Indian customers itself. And we would happily oblige, considering this as a "Boycott China" premium.
 
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Its all a foolish propaganda and not at all practical.
If the Chinese are banned, the whole industry in India will collapse. Its not practical, its not possible.
Plus, why would i spend more on a Indian product when i can get the same, Chinese make for far cheap ?
Indian companies should compete. If not, they will all die.

All in all, think of yourself first, then comes the society, then comes the country.
If you benefit from a Chinese product, why not buy it ? Its foolish to boycott them.
Also, not all money goes to China. The Chinese themselves dont come here and sell the stuff. There are dealers, there are retailers, there are employees who get a job and who are Indians.

With all the unemployment, economy crisis, do people really want to take this illogical step ?
 
As far as Electronic products are concerned India is very much dependent on China. Even "Made in India" electronic products are not 100% made in India as Indian brands still depend on the parts imported from China and other countries.
You may ask how the heck we can eliminate this dependency..? It is definitely possible but can't be done in a single day. But onething is Sure, it can't be done by the Public. Only the Govt cam make it possible in a phase by phase manner. Instead of providing Tasks and circulating propagandas, they can simply pass a G.O to make it happen. Sometimes I wonder in which dept we are falling short of China. We have all the resources to become better in Trade than China. Only difference I can understand is "economic/Trade independency" policy. China has been restricting every foreign brands that became indispensable in rest of the world but has provided their own solution to it. Google, Youtube, facebook, Twitter, Instagram are all blocked in China but they implemented their own solution in Baidu, Youku, Renren, Weibo. So, almost each & every software, service & hardware they use are Made in their Own country But they export all over the world. All the revenues generated by local brands helps in positining China as one one of the Leaders in World Trade.

Why would we go to a foreign brand in the first place if we can get same Quality & Price from a local brand.
Whose fault is this..? Its not the public's but the Govt as they have failed to implement Economic/trade independency policy.
 
Premise:
I am no defense analyst or such but current situation seems to be the eastern country wants to start a little war or give perception of that and stop at certain time or threaten us to bring our country to negotiating table for their own nationalistic agenda. Their thinking may be to sap our military resources on three front western and eastern with n epal in future. Due to corona situation they already have little trade with other countries compared to earlier normal situation. So economically they have very little to loose atleast for a year. If this is the case a normal person would definitely think why to strengthen our enemy ? Lets ban their products. So does banning help ? I would say no or would help very little. So am I saying buy them. Again no. Read following.

Thoughts :
Overall their strategy has been to flood the market with cheap stuff even at making loss. This destroys the local manufacturers. Then Slowly increase the prices and totally be dependent on them. So when some person says ban chinese he may be meaning that not to rely so much on them that they have TOTAL CONTROL of things. Today we are dependent on them for even small tools, and silly items and what not. So Idea is not to nationalist jingoistic ban chinese. Atleast start as much as possible. If not now then when ? This brings to question of quality at affordable price. We gujjus have a saying. You can not buy almonds at price of peanuts. I have read/seen well reputed companies made in china speakers with bad finish. Brand new veeners peeling off. Tweeters hanging loose in side the cabinet. Now compare that to our individual Sadik or Bibin speaker work. I would say they are top class finish. So if single person can do it why cant we or our companies do it.
Now if anyone wants to buy chnese. please do so. Nothing terribly wrong in that. We are free country not prc. But do make conscious effort to buy local.
Point I am making is buy from our own. Avoide as much as possible from them unless desperate or really necessary. Let our industry and people grow. Will take time and tremendous hardwork. But if people throw hands and give up.....well cant help you.....BUT atleast dont discourage others or derisively comment on them.
Regards.

I agree completely.. We can try and replace whenever possible the goods made in China with made in India or any other country.. We can't replace all but if we try and reduce even by 10% when and wherever possible, it reduces the trade deficit.. I am sure we can stop buying religious idols, unnecessary electronic equipment, adaptors, firecrackers, cheap plastic goods, toys which seem cheap etc etc... We can't expect businesses to stop buying capital goods but the small not important articles can easily be boycotted... We should all do our part...
 
Is there any truth that Chinese products have barcode starting in the 600s and Indian made products have barcode in the 800s
 
It's very hard to beat china in pricing and technology they have. China sells for cheap because it has cheapest labor and more labor exploitation. Because of this their production cost is low. 95% of all Made in India gadgets have parts made in China. To get 100% Made in India product there is no proper infrastructure or facility available.

The overall goal of Ban Made in China products is that If there is no need then don't buy. There is a nice YouTube video made by Sonam Wangchuk explain this phenomenon in a layman terms.
 
India accounts for only 3% of China exports and China is 5.4% share of India's goods imports. Chinese capital is the biggest import of relevance. If we stop that we hurt ourselves, unless we can find substitutes. Now even domestic capital is hard for companies to access, such is the business environment.
 
China accounted for 11.8% of India’s total imports as of February 2020.
However, in India’s total exports, its share was a mere 3%.
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Guys and gals.
please understand this. No one is saying you to not buy chinese. No one is forcing you to buy only Indian. It is not a switch to be turned off and get results immediately. The reason why chin proliferation took place I have explained in my post. Point is if not now then when ? Do we want them to be completely roll over us product wise. we are already seeing household stuff to tools to what not in indian market. What would our labours, mfrs. do. ? I think western countries are also having same problem. So I hope we agree that time for action is now. And lets be realistic even if we all unite and take some action dont think there would be immediate results. This takes decades.
Sivakasi fireworks is good example. I have grown up using them. Why didn't they changed. So old company should be an export oriented co. by diversifying or changing tracks. But if sales are low how would they grow ? that is where chinese come in they flood the markets and make them redundant. I hope you all understand. cant explain it more or further.I have covered almost all points in first post. If there are made in India Labeled phones. assembled in india. But some indian company with 100 people labour is assembling them putting on lable. Buy them. One has to be clever, alert and belief that a small action will help the future of the country.
Regards.
 
The Chinese manufacturers also get a 10% export subsidy at the end of every year.. Which is why they sell at 5% margins as they know they will get an additional 10% later.. The result of this is that they beat all manufacturers around the world in pricing and those manufacturers shut down giving them a long term monopoly.. Exactly the same business model followed by Amazon - drive out all the competition and become a monopoly...

As Hiten mentioned above, every bit helps and when it starts happening around the world, it will start to show...
 
hee hee .... a little lighter note.
there are our respected and loved soldiers dying on border (my genuine respect). All you have to do on online purchase is 'Click the right button' on your PC. Your children will say 'My dad's click did the trick'. -or- 'My mom's click gave 'em the kick'.

Jara try to karo dosto . . . shuru shuru me hi kidhar hathiyaar (sorry mouse) daal dete ho. :)
Regards.

The Chinese manufacturers also get a 10% export subsidy at the end of every year..
not only that their govt. helps them in logistics road, air etc. and they transport massively.
10/15 years a go manufactures used to get subsidised electricity. (Which they hae changed these days) And most important no labour law and authortarian rule.
regards.
 
A few thoughts from my side
As a country we must try and wean ourselves away from Chinese imports as much as possible for two reasons
1) It will make good business sense in the long run by reviving manufacturing in India(Govt's role is most important for this) and strengthen
our economy.

2) Whether we like it or not China is an enemy state, even if they don't attack us directly they do it through Pakistan.

But, this will not happen overnight and will take a long time with sustained efforts by the Govt. and the private sector.
India must stop imports from China of strategic importance like telecommunications, API, etc. at all cost immediately.
We as Indians must avoid Chinese brands wherever possible, like instead of buying Vivo, Oppo, etc. buy Samsung, Asus, etc.
Not possible to avoid made in China as almost all the electronics are made in China, We must differentiate between a Chinese owned brand and
say a German brand but made in China, even the ones which are made in India are basically just assembled here with very little local components.
 
Asus and Samsung are very good alternatives even though quite a few products of theirs are made in China.. However by giving them sales, we can encourage them to open manufacturing in India...
 
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