Astounding to those of us who grew up in the post war era. Another sign that weāre heading into a new age. European criticism of Chinaās human rights record is likely to diminish even further.
Major European Nations amongst 58 nations have signed the Canada initiated against Chinaās diplomacy hostage initiative yesterday. And China is quick to condemn. I think such tense inter-dependence is here to stay.
Heard of a company in China that started to manufacture stainless steel cutlery. The production line making these knives, forks, spoons etc was housed inside the one massive purpose built factory.
Here is the twistā¦
They decided to name this factory complex Sheffield, so they could then stamp on these utensilsā¦ Made in Sheffield
I mean, Made in Sheffield is world renown and the watchword for top quality from top grade steel. So next time you wonder why your knives and forks are turning rusty on getting them out of the dishwasher, well now you know.
What chance have we mere mortals got, coming up against skulduggery like that eh. A lifetimes worth of good reputation wiped out and taken over in an instant within some brainstorming morning meeting.! 
At least thereās still something made in Sheffield, even if it is Sheffield China.
Thereās no reason their products will rust if they are made of stainless steel.
There are different grades of St/Steel Flobsā¦ Sheffield Yorkshire always used what is known as 18/8 grade. 18% Chrome + 8% Cadmium.
There are plenty of poorer grades of Stainless Steel, that unfortunately, will āspeckleā rust at some future pointā¦ Similar in a way to the old Chromium car bumpers or bicycle rims and spokes began to rust, because under a microscope, chrome coating has lots of miniscule holes (porous). The metal underneath, or mixed with, normally mild steel, will bring an āorangeā tint/rust.
You know I didnāt need to know that. 
Doesnāt matter my memory nerons will soon forget that information, just like everything else. 
things rust in the dishwasher when you mix your metals not because they were made in china.
regardless of that, speaks volumes about chinese production, not worried about producing a quality product, just imitate someone who already does.
when you see german writing on the side of an engineered product you generally immediately default think it will be qualityā¦when you see chinese writing, you assume it should be cheap.
that in itself creates a problem for the chinese.
I know you were only joking but in reply to this
We have got every chance
Just need to go back to what makes a free society a great place to live in.
Exercise your choice.
I know a lot of people in my immediate circle who are now wanting less āthingsā and are willing to pay more for responsibly made and resourced quality products. Whether thatās indicative of the larger population I donāt know, certainly feels like a groundswell though.
From food to engineered products.
If anything the blatant disregard for our intelligence has woken ( sorry, no reference intended) us up a bit.
For example, today I made my Sangas for lunch and noticed that the chicken was āmade in Australia out of 88% Australian productsā
Iāll look into that.
But Iāve already started to increasingly concern myself with what I am funding with my purchases
Iām not opposed to buying achinese product if it ticks boxes, infact itās probably not practically possible not to purchase something manufactured by Chinese, but Iāll know in principle not to buy a knife mark as āmade in sheffieldā if the price isnāt a āmade in sheffieldā price. Itās common sense some of it.
Edited.
Chinese manufacturing has Made it hard for itself by assuming westerners just want the label, short term maybe, but ultimately, we want the quality that goes with the label.
Now we just assume their products are compromised.
Good album that!
I am not sure of how many such knife factories out there in China but one particular one was setup or contracted by Amefa which is a Sheffield based company distributing cutleries and on the packaging it clearly said Made in China but Designed in Sheffield. Which to be honest are done by many companies all over the world. I have seen so many Made in China products but Inspired in EU, Designed in USA blah blah blahā¦ so I am guessing its not a Chinese company doing it rather a company in the UK outsourcing production for a much lower cost.
EDIT: I found pictures of the above I said Sheffield Stainless Steel Knife made in China
For Chinese Manufacturing, to be fair, it has come a long long way since the copying and bad quality times. I had been selling luxury 100% Made in USA furnishings from a brand that has been around for more than 150 years. Of course such brands always made it to China to the ultra rich at a a very high price. And with such, copies of the designs had been around in China for a long time. In the past the factories in Zhongshan made lousy low end copies of the designs but a couple of years back, I went to one of these factories in Zhongshan and firstly the setup of the factory was honestly even better than the one we had in the USA in terms of equipment and manpower process. They had a modern showroom to showcaseā¦these copies. And the copies were to a detail that it just is not easily noticeable with the naked eye. And all these at a price that is less than 1/4 of what I was selling. So while there are plenty of eeky squeaky made in china products out there, there are now really high quality ones and I will not be surprised they will only get betterā¦all still at a lower price than producing it in Europe or US. The only country that we are managing to get a cost that is higher but by not much is in Poland and Czech.
Chilling
I only got as far as reeducation camps. They like the fast route in China donāt they?
Anyway the west has done similar stuff in the past, some of that 3eme republic stuff in France was really out of line. China really is just a copycat.
Why donāt the Uighurs flee China??? Donāt think even a handful has managed to escape so far. Well, it doesnāt help when you have Chinese puppets or mountains on your borders.
This may be worse than the ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia, Israel/Palestine and Rakhine (Myanmar). What is this, ethnic extermination! ethnic conversion!
The point of history is to learn from it. The fact that some country or another made mistakes or committed crimes in the past, is no reason to excuse current cruelty. The Chinese will use the excuse that Europeans have done worse to continue the oppression, but itās still wrong.
Some of them have tried. There was a route through Thailand to Turkey that some were taking. The Chinese govt asked for some of them to be returned to China, which the Thai government did although I canāt remember on what grounds. I think the bombing in Bangkok was a reaction to that.
Japan and Korea had similar poor reputations.
25 years ago my dad use to work for Samsung. We had TVs, radios and computers and they were all crap and prone to breaking down. Almost disposable electronics. Today it is a mainstream brand, with a decent reputation.
Similar thing is happening in China. Not long ago people would have been weary buying a huawei and xiaomi. But today they have increasing acceptance. Huawei phones are arguably the best.
China maintains two types of production lines, sometimes in the same factory. One that makes quality copies for western and affluent markets and one that makes really shady copies.
I used to run a firm that imported mobile phones and accessories from China and we would often ask the supplier for a better product.
Most companies produce models for different markets sometimes itās just because norms are different but for example thereās models produced for Eastern europe and another for western europe for example. The Eastern european stuff is cheaper and gets onto the western european market quite easily. Often the electrical and electonics is the same itās just the box that differs (lower quality). Itās interesting as you can save a lot.
I do realise that the quality difference has been much greater for the far eastern markets however that gap should be falling rapidly. It really is just market practice.