Are you comfortable with this ?

Barleyfield If you are buying tools or parts for anything it is almost impossible not to buy Chinese made items.

I have been on ebay and scrolled through pages of specific items I require and failed to find a single site offering me other than goods made in China.

I wouldn't say I was exactly 'comfortable' with it, but I have bought from Shein (and Primark) before and it certainly wouldn't stop me buying from them again. Even some of the high end brands are made in China, so price isn't necessarily an indicator that something has been ethically sourced.

I’ve never bought from Shein or Temu , but these days it’s very hard to find a product , whether it’s clothing , tools or media such as phones or tvs , which aren’t made in China .
My dd works for a high street fashion company and has been to China and visited the factories which supply her company , and didn’t find any issues . However she’s aware they show what they want to show .

M0nica

Barleyfield If you are buying tools or parts for anything it is almost impossible not to buy Chinese made items.

I have been on ebay and scrolled through pages of specific items I require and failed to find a single site offering me other than goods made in China.

What are you looking for exactly? I’m not surprised that you find Chinese products on eBay, same with Amazon. Cast your net wider and be prepared to pay more.

Well, it mainly DH looking for specialised small tools for repairing odd bits of machinery and maintaining our aged cars where many parts are no longer available and he has to work out and decide what alternative to look for. If you are looking for a right-handed pinion wrangler, or some such arcane tool, you buy them where you can find them -and when you find it, it is Chinese.

Various descriptions like "designed in UK" and "assembled in UK" disguise the fact that components, materials etc are manufactured anywhere but UK, commonly China.

Has anybody else had an advert for Temu pop up on the right side of the page?

On GN I mean.

Louella12

But so much of what we buy is from China. Look at your smartphone. Car. White goods. Medical equipment. Parts from China are everywhere.

Lots of complaints about how the workers are treated in many factories, not just Shein and Temu.

And in other parts of the world, let's not forget the horrendous conditions cobalt mining. For our clean batteries for electric cars.

This.

This is my dilemma too.

There are many high street brands which also use Far Eastern and even some Caribbean countries to help make goods.

My car (petrol) is German. So are all my white goods. My husband’s car (diesel) is British. I rarely buy clothes but I research very carefully before I buy. I would rather pay more or go without than knowingly buy something made in China. Yes, sometimes you unexpectedly end up with something from China especially if you buy from Amazon (battery tea lights in my case recently) but if you’re careful you can minimise what you buy from China.

My car, my white goods all come from South Korea (DH is an engineer and insists that everything we buy in that line come from countries with high standing as engineers and he reckons that South Korea and German are the best.) My phone was not made in China, I think it was made in Vietnam. I know I checked.

It is very hard indeed not to buy anything made in China - and I am aware that many high street brands who claim to inspect thoroughly the conditions in their supply chain can have no real idea what is going on when they are not there.