What's with all the hate for Chinese phones?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨elucubra@sopuli.xyz⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

I get that Huawei, or ZTE are not a good idea for network infrastructure, and that phones for people in governments, military, large corps and research environments, should be vetted, but for average Joe? Many Chinese manufacturers don’t have close ties to the government, and any non Chinese phone that you can buy has backdoors, and quite frankly, for average Joe, their local government may be scarier than the chinese gorvernment. Also, your data is being used by the Googles, Microsofts, Apples, etc… in vast quantities daily. We are the product generally.

Also, remember that most brands manufacture in China, and there are ways to substitute components where the brand would be unsuspecting of the switch.

I have been using Chinese high end phones for the last 6-7 years, and let me tell you, they can make some top notch kit.

Do you have a real, good reason to not buy Chinese phones?(I mean brand. Most likely you own a phone made in China, anyway).

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kitnaht@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Well, when Russia is killing people who say mean things about them in other nations and not just on their territory, and China has a similar history…

Then you’re talking about putting a device with questionable intentions that you can’t verify on your home network? On your work network?

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- elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Oh come oooon! Like all the western powers haven’t done those things for years!
  
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  - borf@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    The intelligence apparatus of the West has gotten up to some hinky things in the past, but 1. Not to the same degree by a long shot when it comes to end user devices (they’re far more likely to monitor communications from datacenters and cooperative platforms) and 2. Even if you’re already compromised by 1 nation state, why would you want to be compromised by 2?
    
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  - deegeese@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Why even ask if you’ve already made up your mind?
    
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  - BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    So because they do it I should trust China?
    
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Jackthelad@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

Many Chinese manufacturers don’t have close ties to the government

You sure about that? How do you think all these Chinese companies just magically appeared from without significant investment, most likely from the CCP?

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- elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I’m sure some companies were subsidized by the Chinese government, like Huawei, ZTE, etc, but I’m sure many aren’t. Remeber that in many ways the Chinese economy is savagely capitaliustic, and that there are tons of millionaires looking for investment opportunities
  
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  - ag10n@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Citation needed
    
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  - breadsmasher@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I can only assume you haven’t really looked into how china, the CCP, and large corporations exist together? Or followed the news over the last decade.
    
    Huawei, HONOR, and China’s Evolving State Capitalist Tool Kit
    
    Chinese State Capitalism
    
    A Concise Guide to Huawei’s Cybersecurity Risks and the Global Responses | The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR)
    
    State capitalism - Wikipedia
    
    Huawei: MPs claim ‘clear evidence of collusion’ with Chinese Communist Party - BBC News
    
    Has the Communist Party of China (CPC) increased its control over private corporations? | Fifteen Eighty Four | Cambridge University Press
    
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noodlejetski@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I don’t think I should be required to accept a privacy policy in order to use a clock or a local music player, the way Xiaomi phones do.

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- elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Pretty much any manufacturer will make you jump through those hoops. Try starting an iPhone without inputing any info
  
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  - noodlejetski@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    does an iPhone require you to accept privacy policy when you launch the clock app for the first time after having already set your phone up?
    
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orclev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

Many Chinese manufacturers don’t have close ties to the government,

Citation severely needed. Any company operating in China has close ties to the government, it’s literally a requirement to get a business license there.

and any non Chinese phone that you can buy also has backdoors, and quite frankly, for average Joe, their local government may be scarier than the chinese gorvernment.

Maybe, but it really shouldn’t and if it does that’s a problem. It’s a question of non-Chinese phone might have a backdoor, vs. Chinese phone that definitely has a backdoor. Either way saying “other options are just as bad” doesn’t make it a good option.

Also, your data is being used by the Googles, Microsofts, Apples, etc… in vast quantities daily. We are the product generally.

Yes, and that’s a major problem. It’s why there are various replacement firmwares to de-google your phone as well as other techniques to block or disable collection. Once again though, this doesn’t excuse Chinese phones doing this.

Also, remember that most brands manufacture in China, and there are ways to substitute components where the brand would be unsuspecting of the switch.

Sure, supply chain attacks are a thing. In theory there are ways to combat that but it’s a tricky problem. If a Chinese manufacturer got caught doing that though it would be a major international incident. Yet again though just because that might be a risk with any phone doesn’t mean you should just accept and use a phone that’s known to have a backdoor.

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- BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I’d also like the source on back doors with other phones.
  
  Not that I disagree, I don’t doubt they’re there, but it’s quite a sweeping claim.
  
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Shihali@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
There’s a real chance that my employer will abruptly ban Chinese-branded phones from their network.

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eldavi@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

Do you have a real, good reason to not buy Chinese phones?(I mean brand. Most likely you own a phone made in China, anyway).

i’ve bought a few chinese branded phones and i’ve consistently liked the build quality and specs; but the biggest reason why i don’t anymore is because they don’t work with android auto.

i’ve employed the workarounds that you can find online to get it to work; but they’re no where near as good full support you can get from a samsung or a motorola

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- elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Motorola is Chinese nowadays.
  
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  - sgibson5150@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I just learned this myself. Motorola Mobility is owned by Lenovo.
    
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  - eldavi@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    i think that they all are
    
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- elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  My 4 year old works fine. I use a lot of the car sharing schemes, so I’m constantly connecting to different cars, without a hitch.
  
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  - eldavi@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    what are you using?
    
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wildflower@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I have an old Huawei P7, and when it breaks, I will not buy a Chinese phone again, and it’s not because of price or quality.

I don’t like how China is helping Russia invade Ukraine, and for that alone, I won’t support a Chinese company, I used to buy a lot of components in china, now I get them local or from another EU country.

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Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
It’s sad that the line is getting thin enough between Chinese privacy abuses and everywhere else that this is a valid question. What brand do you recommend? Both xiaomi and Huawei have generated pretty legitimate sounding security concerns, and this is on top of the privacy you are already giving up running Android on these devices. I work in research and China has a terrible track record of stealing research data. For your average Joe I guess it probably wouldn’t be a huge deal, but these companies aren’t advertising to average American customers so just less likely to happen. Sample here on Lemmy is privacy leaning, so I would estimate most of the folks you are asking don’t think it’s worth what I would argue are legitimate additional security / privacy concerns.

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TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I want a Chinese phone so badly, but I live in the USA so I think I’m SOL.

My Note 20 5g Ultra is starting to break down in certain places and the economy isn’t what it used to be, so I’m not eager to spend another thousand plus dollars on a phone. There’s plenty of great looking Chinese phones that go for like £200 in the UK that I’d love to consider, but it’s just not an option here and the comparable Samsung device is a grand or more over that.

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- Draegur@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I’m still rocking a Galaxy Note 9 from 2018. Somehow still performs surprisingly well, holds a charge for longer than 24 hours, and I just don’t feel like the phones that came after it really offer that much of an advantage technologically. I don’t have any app slowdown or latency issues, really. I’m not about to drop several hundred dollars upwards of a thousand to get a meager incremental gain AND lose my treasured headphone jack which I still use on a weekly basis. I loved the note 8 and prior to that owned a note 4. I’m not sure what I even want to settle for from where I am right now. I know it’ll never happen, but I still ardently wish that the note 9 would just get a refresh, all the same features and structures (including the headphone jack!!!) but with newer versions OF the GPU, the CPU, the RAM, the solid state storage… The cameras were fine. Don’t even need better cameras. Oh well…
  
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