This is not a Chinese issue, or for that matter, any other nation that is being taken advantage of for their cheap labor force and lack of regulations around not only workers and their environment/pay/conditions/etc, but also manufacturing without any real care for how it effects the environments we/they live in.
I can't stand these American "multinationals" and I do my best to support American small business.
Multinational Corporations employ the cheapest labor force possible, pay zero tax in the countries where they actually sell their product, and have no regard for the social and environmental effects of their profit ahead of EVERYTHING else mentality.
Small business, that's the future we need to save right now.
I would be more than happy to purchase a product from any country in the world as long as there is transparency in how/who actually made it.
Fair trade and not "free" trade. Free trade benefits 20 people....
I once worked for an "American small business", that business employed around a dozen people (Americans), and that business stayed in business by buying and selling products made in China. Without those products, there wouldn't have been a business, and no jobs for those dozen employees.
This is very common. Many small businesses in America operate on a razor-thin profit margin and exist only because of cheap, outsourced labor costs. If they had to pay to have their products, or the parts they need for their products, made in the US, the costs would be prohibitive, they wouldn't be able to stay in business, and they wouldn't be able to employ any Americans.
It's simple economics- the more you have to pay to produce your product, the more you have to charge the consumer in order to make a profit, pay your employees, and stay in business. But if your products are too expensive, people won't buy them, and you go out of business. So naturally business owners look to cut costs wherever possible.
Buying from small businesses in the US is great, but don't be surprised if the products they sell, or parts of those products, are made using cheap foreign labor, and in countries that care nothing about the environment, because it's quite common. And "Made in the USA", doesn't always mean that every part of an item was made in the USA, it could mean that parts were made outside the US, and then finished and/or assembled in the US.
Welcome to the "Global Economy". Small businesses in the US are often just as dependent on cheap foreign labor as the big corporations.