On Dec 5, 2021, at 2:11 am, Hans Summers <hans.summers@...> wrote:
Basically I source parts and boards according to quality, availability, and cost. Even some parts locally from Turkey sometimes. It would not be anywhere even close to possible to imagine avoiding China in that lineup, and neither would there be any particular reason to do so.
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In a broader context, there are serious reasons to fret about this heavy dependence on China. Do an Internet search for ¡°China bubble.¡± You¡¯ll find numerous articles from a wide variety of sources. The only real issue is whether the pending collapse in Chinese banking and real estate will impact manufacturing. I can¡¯t see how it could fail to do so. Factories need money and buildings. Issues about shipping will be as nothing if the factories that make those parts shut down.
And if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, there¡¯s the shoddy construction that the Chinese call Tofu-dreg. YouTube has video examples and some suspect it includes the many dams China has built in recent decades. Toss in the political, racial, ethnic, and religious tensions that are building up in the largest and most technologically repressive regime in human history and you have the potential for a global disaster like no other in human history.
Personal technology is far less an issue that many others. My aging Mac mini has chugged along for almost ten years and does everything I need. I don¡¯t have to replace it. But if I get sick, a disturbingly high percentage of the basic chemicals for our medicine comes from China. For that search for ¡°medicine made in China."
This cheaper is always better mindset in the corporate world has a major downside that goes far beyond electronic parts. All too much of we need in our daily lives comes not merely from one country but one that is extremely fragile and politically unstable. Worst of all, as the Freedom House report on China stresses, China¡¯s leaders brutally resist any effort to deal with those problems.
The Chinese are willing to endure suffering without demanding change because they accept a principle called the Mandate of Heaven. As long as broader events go well, they accept their rulers. But if matters turn bad, they believe that the Mandate of Heaven has been withdrawn and that the rulers must go. Some Chinese believe that Covid was an indication that the Mandate of Heaven was being withdrawn from China¡¯s leaders. Other disasters, natural or economic, would make that even more so.
It was also a common belief that natural disasters such as famine and flood were divine retributions bearing signs of Heaven's displeasure with the ruler, so there would often be revolts following major disasters as the people saw these calamities as signs that the Mandate of Heaven had been withdrawn.
I¡¯m currently reading a book about late 1930s Europe, _Appeasement_ by Tim Bouverie. In the sense that there are problems that seem to defy solution, there are disturbing parallels to today. In early 1938 when Lord Halifax replaced Anthony Eden as British Foreign minister he told his friends to offer condolences. He was taking on responsibilities that seemed impossible to fulfill. He was right. By the end of the year the seeds of war had been sown.
That is the world we¡¯re now living in. And yes, it is a world where little devices such as the QCX and QDX could prove quite handy. QRP Labs has a useful place in such a world.
¡ªMike Perry, WA4MP
On Dec 5, 2021, at 2:11 am, Hans Summers <hans.summers@...> wrote:
Basically I source parts and boards according to quality, availability, and cost. Even some parts locally from Turkey sometimes. It would not be anywhere even close to possible to imagine avoiding China in that lineup, and neither would there be any particular reason to do so.
Mike Perry, WA4MP