LEGO CEO suggests Chinese inspired sets

[LEGO Historian]

On 3/6/2019 at 10:05 AM, Mylenium said:

No need to get worked up. We all are just exchanging views and opinions here. The rest is utterly beside the point. Can't exactly blame me for bad timing of what I intended to be a harmless joke. Sorry for your loss, but that's life. And since we're already here, allow me to go back to your other reply:

That no longer may be the case at all, if reporting about this week's Chinese people's counsil congreggation is to be believed. Mr. Keqiang's report sounded rather disastrous. The Chinese economy seems to be in more trouble than we all were led to believe and that alleged middle class may not be as big at all and the prospects for LEGO not as rosy, either, though arguably it's of course still a big enough market. My 2 Cents.

Mylenium

Sorry for my outburst... had a really bad winter... besides losing my 93 year old aunt, I lost 2 other dear friends, both to cancer... and then the adult son of one of them committed suicide... so it was really bad timing.  Those that know me, know that I don't have outbursts.  My apologies.  

[Pdaitabird]

I'm all for producing sets inspired by elements of Chinese culture, but I have to wonder if Lego will be welcome in China for very long. As a brand, Lego fosters individuality and self-expression, values that are antithetical to the practices of China's current tyrannical government. In a nation where, for example, over one million Uighur people are being held in "re-education" camps for the crime of being born into an ethnic minority, will a company like Lego even be allowed to do business there for long? Should they even operate a factory in a country with such an opressive government?

Super Omnia Libertas

[TeriXeri]

1 hour ago, Pdaitabird said:

Should they even operate a factory in a country with such an opressive government?

China economy is simply way too large to ignore, combined with a population of 1.400.000.000 people.

Easier to directly compete with "Clone Brands" as well when established within China itself.

Edited March 13, 2019 by TeriXeri

[Aanchir]

@Pdaitabird For what it's worth, the United States forcibly "re-educated" Native American people for centuries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_boarding_schools

I'm not saying that some of the actions of the Chinese government does aren't outrageous in their own right, but I do think that the United States in particular has a really bad reputation of framing government overreach or unequal societal norms overseas (particularly in Asia and the Middle East) in such a way as to gloss over both historic and present-day issues of corruption, oppression, mass surveillance, injustice, etc. within our OWN government and society.

Sometimes it's even used as a form of "whataboutism" to belittle American reform, advocacy, or protest movements — for example, comments like "If you really cared about fighting (sexism/homophobia/religious intolerance/pollution/poverty/corruption/whatever), you'd be protesting the government of (insert Asian or Middle Eastern country)! Clearly you just hate America!"

 

[Peppermint_M]

So there is no place on the forum for political discussion, it is in the guidelines and has always been a rule (in fact, it is so divisive a subject I am sure it is a blanket rule for most forums on the web).

So, as much as things may be true and accurate, we don't want this discussion to continue on this line. Something long time members should be well aware of also.

[MAB]

A lot of the more interesting molded parts came from China, from both normal sets and CMF, before LEGO had its own factory too.