I am glad you raised this as it definitely makes me uncomfortable when it is brought up as it often is on the Stereophile comments.
I’ve been a hifi buff for over four decades and I remember when UK hifi had an awful reputation for build quality and reliability compared to Japanese equipment. The UK stuff was rightly praised for its sound quality over the Japanese stuff but the build quality was nowhere near as good. Things have changed since then and many of the high end UK ranges are particularly well made in the UK such as ATC and B&W with excellent support services. We have to face facts though. Much of what we buy including clothes, furniture, electronics, cameras, etc. are made in the Far East or in poorer nations because we wouldn’t be able to afford it if it was made locally. That’s capitalism for you. We want it cheap because we have the power to make it so. Exploitation is built into this model.
Also, China’s human rights record is terrible but then neither the UK nor the USA nor most western countries have a perfect record. All rich countries are exploiting others. There’s a whole host of fresh vegetables in supermarkets in Europe that import food from places such as Kenya and Thailand. It’s not great for the environment but we in the west want our cheap green beans and asparagus.
There’s a ton of stuff online about this:
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/massive-land-grabs-africa-us-hedge-funds-and-universities-0
https://www.brot-fuer-die-welt.de/blog/2021-human-rights-day-land-grabbing-in-africa/
Kraftwerk