Ethics of purchasing scintillation crystals from China

[jack123]

I am thinking about purchasing a scintillation crystal for a gamma spectrometer that I want to build and after looking on the Internet, it seems that the only companies I can find who are geared up to selling scintillation crystals to hobbyists like us are Chinese. This worries me because I am worried that slavery may be involved in their production. I would therefore be very grateful for any comments about this.

[Sesselmann]

Jack,

Political propaganda and reality are sometimes completely different things, mostly motivated by money. China is becoming a modern country and peoples living standards have been improving faster than most western countries. Although there might still be some sweat shops with underpaid workers in some areas these are certainly not in the high tech crystal growing industries in Shanghai. My wife is from Shanghai and her parents who were just ordinary workers retired early and enjoy a generous pension with enough money for international travel.

I believe the best way to avoid conflict with China is mutual trade, the Chinese people are honest hardworking and diligent, my experience has only been positive.

Steven

[jack123]

Thank you for your reply.

What do you think of the following article?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-56535822

[Sesselmann]

Jack,

I guess one becomes more cynical as one gets older, but my first thought when seeing that article is...."who made the press release?"

If you dig a little deeper and follow some of the links, guess what.... fashion brands who don't use Xinjiang cotton 😉

In any case the problem in Xinjiang has nothing to do with cotton, it is the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) who do not recognise the muslim separatists in the area, that's a whole different problem.

News agencies don't have the funds to do all their own investigative journalism, so they rely on press releases and articles from freelance and sponsored journalists. Often stuff gets published as infill material without thorough investigation, especially if the companies/brands in question are also advertising clients. For this reason I rarely watch the news and feel much more comfortable in the company of scientists, as they are primarily concerned with finding the truth.


Steven

[MartinM]

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