There is no alternate "Viable" option. Got to gulp it down and continue to order
I respectfully and fiercely disagree.
There is no alternate, viable or otherwise?
Most of us at this forum would only ever buy "lifestyle" items from China that are "not essential for daily life functioning". For everything on which life depends, is for sure available from non-Chinese sources.
There is no alternate for a cheap 75 inch TV? Sure there is - don't buy a 75 inch TV - stay happy with 55 inch you got. Would we still be craving for a 75 incher 10 years ago? In 10 short years a 75 inch TV has become such an "essential" item that we must buy it even from a source that (1) Spies on us (2) Compromises our privacy (3) Causes us national insult and rubs it in?
While China continues to be a double-faced dragon - saying one thing in press releases / media addresses and doing the bang opposite (vis-a-vis Covid supplies, border conflicts etc etc) - we continue to be meek sheeps saying we don't have alternative! We are merely hiding our own weakness that we can't compromise on our ego and can't ignore the peer pressure. I must get a 75 incher because "someone on a forum" got one too? Is it that hard to not visit a forum, or keep away from threads that keep causing us the upgraditis?
The only "essential" items these days are "Computers, entry to mid-level smartphones, basic networking hardware". Most of the rest of the Chinese products we buy are completely "non-essential". At least not important enough to make us "swallow" our social and personal pride. Particularly after being in full knowledge that Chinese openly taunt us Indians for being what we are being.
My intent is not to step over any sensitive toes, but seriously!
75 inch TVs, latest R2R DACs, or the Bluetooth receiver with the latest CODEC are not essential items. We should be, with a very little help from our inner self, able to avoid the greed and save us from falling in to the "but there is no alternative" trap. Because there is! We just don't want to leave our comfort zone and yet want to save every last Rupee we can, while still trying to be cool guy with the latest in gadgets.
If we could give up the greed of the latest and greatest at the cheapest possible price we can certainly beat the Coronavirus.
PS: I recommend reading up on how Japan put itself together from the ashes of nuclear attack and become the manufacturing hub of the world and 2nd largest economy in 4 short decades. Spoiler alert - they became staunch nationalists and said no to everything foreign for a very long time.