This thread is hilarious.
I don't know whats more far fetched China invading the USA or them being a commie/capitalist fascist monopoly hahahaha.
China's relationship with the west is more complex than something that can be summed up in a single paragraph. It is very complex and China has a much different relationship with Canada than it does with the US. Canada and China are going to be BFF for a long time now that we are going to be selling them our energy. We can act all morally superior to them but they are sitting at the other end of the table doing the same thing. The biggest thing arm chair experts can do, is try and examine the perspective at play. We are so brainwashed by the USA that we are actually looking at positive things for us (Canada) in a negative light. According to USA, CHINA = BAD... and that is simply not the case. In fact without China, the USA would be a lot worse off right now than they already are. Canada has to realize that just like China, sometimes US foreign policy will negatively affect us. As the US pursues their own interests it will come at a cost to our country.
China and the west have a complex relationship by all accounts. China does want to be a friend to Canada, we have many things they need (natural resources) and no, our oil and natural gas will not be drying up in our life times.
On "slave" labor: I assume Leiber means low wage, horrible, unsafe, dirty working conditions... well Canada was built on that type of "slave" labor. The Chinese built our railroads, our miners and loggers were poor immigrants who were essentially exploited... shall I keep going? This still takes place TODAY despite what many would like to believe. Canada is famous for exploiting TFW's and there have been many articles written about this over the last few years. Most are migrant workers, but that doesn't make it right particularly if we are going to condemn China for it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/01/21/canada-migrant-workers-abuse_n_1210725.html
On Unions: They played a pivotal role in developing workers rights and laws governing all aspects of industrial relations over the past decades. Minimum wage laws, breaks, vacation, sick leave, maternity leave, workers comp, safer work environments, employer accountability, labor boards and etc etc are all the result of unions.
They had a time and a place. Now that we have dedicated laws to the protection of workers and modern labor markets that essentially self regulate we no longer need them. They have contributed significantly to the demise of modern manufacturing in North America. Unions now have become a real problem to the economy and to capitalism as a whole. I really don't want to get into a long winded explanation about why unions are obsolete and contribute nothing of value to society any more but I will if need be.
China saw the emergence of its first labor unions two years ago. It was historical. China is a few decades behind us "workers rights" wise, but that is changing with the advent of strikes and employers caving to the workers demands. This is simply the evolution of their labor, we went through this as well. Canada didn't just start as a mecca of fair trade, good working environments and other nonsense. If people think China is so horrible, you should read up on the unions in Canada where police officers paid off by employers actually murdered people at protests.
Anyway I will continue to buy what I want, what meets my needs and not base my buying decisions on a flawed BUY AMERICAN campaign that to many Canadians are inadvertently being roped into. My norinco works well, and despite it being a sample of 1... well they probably produce more guns in a month than KAC, LMT and DD do combined in a year. If their products sucked that badly, third world dictators would be buying from the USA, France or Russia instead.
