No country would join the WTO if it required them to give up control of critical infrastructure.
Deciding not to strictly follow a trade agreement when the other party of that agreement is doing it all can to avoid the spirit and letter of the agreement is not whataboutism. That’s just a reasonable response.
(Article XXI on security exceptions: https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/gatt_ai_e/art21_e... )
No, it's not.
We moved past that so we have an (in theory) independent arbiter, in this case WTO.
I hear this claim often about China (particularly from Americans), but I think it's very far from being true.
China underwent massive, extremely painful reforms in order to join the WTO, on a scale that would be difficult for most Americans to imagine. For example, China basically built an entire intellectual property legal system from scratch. Or another example: China split up numerous large state-owned enterprises and forced the resulting companies to operate on a for-profit basis, which meant that tens of millions of workers lost their jobs and many more lost benefits.
I think most of the exaggerated statements about China not caring about WTO rules stem from a basic misunderstanding both of how the Chinese economy works and what WTO rules require.
Given the I-Soon leak I think it's incredibly naive to think that China isn't using data from the cranes for malicious purposes.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2024/02/22/chinese-...
There have been lots of hacker for hire companies from around the world. You want to embargo India because of Appin, Italy for Hacking Team, Israel for NSO Group? If you are worried about "state-backed hackers" I mean... what is the NSA again?
Things nobody has ever said.
It also produces more STEM PhDs than any other country, and now leads the world in rankings of high-quality research output.
> Chinese-made Toyota is still much lower quality than Japan-made Toyota
Yet Chinese-made and -designed automotive batteries are among the most advanced in the world, and China is quickly becoming a leader in the development and production of electric cars.
Again, it very much depends on which products we're talking about. China produces both cheap junk and world-leading products.
And the rest of the world still benefits from that output as much as China (emigration shot up during/after covid).
> Yet Chinese-made and -designed automotive batteries are among the most advanced in the world, and China is quickly becoming a leader in the development and production of electric cars.
Battery production isn't really something you can get villagers to do alone. Otherwise, the quality of Chinese cars is pretty consistent across brands (so so, China's chabuduo culture), but it doesn't matter much because auto shops/repairs are still pretty affordable.
You seem to think that China is still a backward agrarian society.
> Otherwise, the quality of Chinese cars is pretty consistent across brands
Quality varies immensely. China has never manufactured internationally competitive internal-combustion-engine cars. It basically leads the world now in electric cars.
> China's chabuduo culture
This is just getting into the realm of cultural stereotyping. Every country has its own version of "good enough" (which is all that 差不多 means), and China also has a long tradition of extremely fine craftsmanship (just think of the fact that fine porcelain dishes are referred to as "China").
> You seem to think that China is still a backward agrarian society.
No, the party wants people in jobs, but battery production doesn't allow for that, it has no choice but to be heavily automated. China optimizes for work, except that isn't possible, then they get quality through automation.
> Quality varies immensely. China has never manufactured internationally competitive internal-combustion-engine cars. It basically leads the world now in electric cars.
The bodies are similarly made in a BYD EV than a Toyota or Hyundai ICE built in China. Having ridden in a few, they felt just as flimsy.
> This is just getting into the realm of cultural stereotyping. Every country has its own version of "good enough" (which is all that 差不多 means), and China also has a long tradition of extremely fine craftsmanship (just think of the fact that fine porcelain dishes are referred to as "China").
I mean, I get it, you want to say this is a stereotype, except when it happens for real, then its just something I should accept and not comment on. China does have a long tradition of craftsmanship, for sure, but when people want to make money, they optimize for that heavily. They do what they must to produce at the price that will survive in a very competitive cost-sensitive market. For example, quality in a flat renovation suffer because you hired guys who low balled the price, and they cheaped out on materials and finish (chabuduo!), but you are already complicit in that because you went for the lowest price (and if you went for a higher price, you'd probably still get scammed anyways).
Chinese-produced cars are starting to achieve 5-star ratings in international crash tests, so your blanket statement is false.
> For example, quality in a flat renovation suffer because you hired guys who low balled the price, and they cheaped out on materials and finish (chabuduo!), but you are already complicit in that because you went for the lowest price (and if you went for a higher price, you'd probably still get scammed anyways).
This happens in literally every country on Earth. It's just that you don't know any catch phrase to apply to it: chabuduo. If you choose a contractor purely based on price, expect them to cut corners.