Hey! The mine was in Kenya or something!

When capitalism. That’s when.

Edit: to clarify, it wasn’t much better before capitalism. But it was less all-encompassing. Feudalism was a shitty structure, worse even than capitalism tbh. But it was much easier to escape it. Not just in the “survivalist hippie camp” that still exists now. But even in everyday life. The system wasn’t shaping every facet of human existence. Only production relations (which is the big one yes). But capitalism has shaped everything around us. Our places of work, sure, but our personal lives. Our inner lives. Everything has been commodified. Mental health, religion, wellness, friendships, love and relationships, families, sickness, children etc. etc. etc… That is the main reason capitalism is worse than anything before it. No other system had the capacity to destroy the planet. None. To destroy all life in it. All in the name of profit. An immaterial, formless concept. Not even a real thing. And there’s not much we can do it seems. I mean there is, and I think it’s pretty clear. But I bet even that gets commodified soon. Bring on the politicians/capitalists death match reality game shows I guess…

Holy shit… bro please don’t be racist like this in public. You should keep this shit to your brain and feel deep shame for it. No one ever taught you that?

The Chinese didn’t break any laws or “steal” anything. China had different copyright laws, and western companies agreed to share technology as part of their agreements with the CPC to operate in the SEZs. If they didn’t want China to have the tech, they could’ve just not taken the deals and go build their factories in India, or Bangladesh, or Malaysia etc.

And what you describe as the “Chinese mentality” is just literally capitalist logic, aka, psychopathy. It’s projection. The Chinese are winning, so you assume they are the apex capitalists, the Patrick Batemans. But you couldn’t be more wrong. They are winning by finding a different game, and playing it better. The rest of the world is following their lead, and your place on the board is soon to be extinct. So you panic and turn to dumbass things like racism.

There sure are billionaires in China. But they don’t control the political structure like the billionaires do in the US. They are controlled by the political structure. When has it been the last time the US or EU executed a billionaire for harming the environment?

That’s because the Chinese experience was very peculiar. When American and European investors and industry giants went abroad to outsource manufacturing, they brought in the capital and left with the profits. But the capital, and technology or knowledge, never spread in the colonies or neo-colonies. When China “opened up”, they were real clever about it. They said: “sure, you can open your factories here where there is an abundance of cheap labor. But in exchange, we want the knowledge and technology”. And since opening up China to foreign capital has been the wet dream of capitalists and proto-capitalists for the past several hundreds of years, they accepted the deal. So China was left with the know-how to be able to set-up their own national industries. And the profits of exporting manufactured goods was used for strategic industries and infrastructure, unlike most colonial and neo-colonial experiences where the profits are just pocketed by a national bourgeoisie.

You’re right. There are no “leases” where I’m from, they’re just rental agreements, so the image I had of leases was indeed wrong lol

After the lease period you should be able to buy the product at a discount tho… so no, it’s not a lease.