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GoPro is a US company designed in U.S. with manufacturing in Thailand, China, and Mexico. Insta360 is a Chinese company designed in Shenzhen and built there, t
by Robotbeat 2mo ago
GoPro is a US company designed in U.S. with manufacturing in Thailand, China, and Mexico.
Insta360 is a Chinese company designed in Shenzhen and built there, too.
People think this doesn’t matter, but GoPros are used all over in aerospace. If we replaced the brand with Insta360, that puts a big attack vector all over the place.
A similar pattern happened with drones with DJI, intentionally killing all non-Chinese drone brands. And with BambuLabs (founded by ex-DJI) with 3D printers (the only good non-Chinese printer that doesn’t cost 10-100x as much is Prusa, and they’re facing extremely strong headwinds).
Legitimately better Chinese products (incredible engineering) that have massive industrial policy support, probably industrial espionage support (as in the case of DJI for certain), massive influencer marketing campaigns, and near zero cost of capital. When China wants to deindustrialize non-Chinese industries for strategic and/or natsec reasons, they are incredibly good at it. (And note it’s not US-only, China targets basically ANY brand that isn’t Chinese. China absolutely does this to Europe as well… and you can see them doing it in real-time with automotive.)
The only surprising thing to me is how people just act like it’s not happening. I guess for people who don’t have any experience working on federal government adjacent aerospace stuff, the idea of natsec considerations for IT hardware seems entirely abstract, but it’s incredibly real if you do.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- adrianN 2mo agoIf your country’s industrial and defense policy relies on individual consumers making choices that are worse for them on almost all metrics, it’s time to think about on worse payroll your politicians are.
- mlsu 2mo agoAbsolutely true. But China’s industrial dominance is also the government immiserating its people, just in a different way. Domestic consumption in China is famously low, work culture is famously bad (996,etc). And this is because of what their government, not the people of China, have chosen to do.
- lokar 2mo agoConsumption is not just low, it’s intentionally suppressed.
- coldtea 2mo ago>But China’s industrial dominance is also the government immiserating its people Didn't they bring hundreds of millions out of poverty, and built amazing cities and facilities in the past 30 years? >Domestic consumption in China is famously low Compared to what, the US? Compared to China is at a historical high, isn't it? And they're doing quite well even compared to like 70% of the world and rising.
- faitswulff 2mo ago> Didn't they bring hundreds of millions out of poverty, and built amazing cities and facilities in the past 30 years? Yes, but China-bad ideology demands that we ask ”at what cost?”
- UltraSane 2mo agoChina isn't bad, the CCP is.
- faitswulff 2mo agoThat simplistic characterization is still essentially "China-bad." The CCP is the same government responsible for lifting historically unprecedented numbers of people out of abject poverty. Does it make up for other human rights violations? No. But "CCP bad" flattens a complex and powerful political organization into a fairy tale boogeyman.
- UltraSane 2mo agoThe worst part of the CCP is it's hatred for free speech https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/16/hong-kong-bookstore-bookshop-raids-arrests https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/16/hong-kong-book... Five arrested in Hong Kong bookstore raids in ‘seditious’ materials crackdown Third round of arrests linked to independent bookshops widely regarded as clampdown on dissent in territory
- lostlogin 2mo ago> who’s payroll your politicians are on It doesn’t even have to be foreign - it can just be corrupt self interest. What other explanation is there for attacking Venezuela and Iran?
- zzzbra 2mo agoYou’re getting downvoted for this which is crazy.
- Robotbeat 2mo agoI don't even think it's corrupt self-interest. Just idiotic bravado and wanting to settle long held grudges.
- voicedYoda 2mo agoDistraction from the Epstein files
- jtavner 2mo ago[dead]
- nonethewiser 2mo agoIts more like lack of policy. To be clear, we are talking about China winning IoT hardware industry in this case. That’s not a policy. You could ban Chinese IoT devices. Or spur local industry. But we aren’t talking about the military relying on Chinese hardware or something.
- groundzeros2015 2mo agoThis is the idea behind a tariff
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoThe "idea" of Trump's tariffs (if there ever was one) is to subvert the US constitution which places taxation under the control of congress, not the president.
- spacewrangler 2mo agoFalse. Tariffs are a standard foreign policy tool used as an economic negotiating tactic.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoThe US government is literally refunding the tariffs because they were illegal.
- groundzeros2015 2mo agoThat doesn’t respond to this comment.
- spacewrangler 2mo agoTariffs still exist, some were ordered to stop, but there are plenty still being implemented today, and will be in the future; regardless of which party is in power.
- Brendinooo 2mo agoThe person you replied to did not mention a specific leader's policy.
- skitsofrandom 2mo agoIt's easy to get all high and mighty but there really doesn't have to be complex subterfuge behind "replacing the majority of our technical infrastructure with devices solely created within the borders of our primary military, industrial, and economic rival is not a good idea for security and sovereignty." We cast aside local manufacturing for cheaper prices in another country and are going to pay the price one way or another.
- wisty 2mo agoSo Trump was right to call for tariffs?
- romaaeterna 2mo agoThere's no real solution other than long-term tariffs. However the President doesn't have the power to do it and Congress doesn't have the willpower. 6-month flash-in-the-pan efforts can only cause chaos.
- handle584 2mo agoDoesn't this apply to China in the first place? Their GFW practically blocked such choices for decades already.
- tomaskafka 2mo agoSimon Wardley has been shouting this from the rooftops, including detailed per industry timelines when China will take over, in 2015.
- jaapz 2mo ago[flagged]
- tomhow 2mo ago> muh illegal aliens and muh christianity and muh identity politics Please don't post lame tropes like this on HN. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- gchamonlive 2mo agoReads to me like it's free market doing its job, if you think of countries as companies. US just needs to step up its game.
- jaapz 2mo agoIt's not really a free market when one country is heavily subsidizing it's industries
- nikisweeting 2mo agoand the US famously never subsidizes any of its industries...
- gruez 2mo agoWhich industries are the US leading in because of subsidies?
- greyb 2mo agoIf a country hands out enormous subsidies but yet isn't leading in anything, then maybe it's time to consider what structural reasons are causing these subsidies to be squandered and whose bottom lines are being padded.
- sarchertech 2mo agoWhat US industries get anywhere near Chinese level subsidies.
- baby 2mo agoI heard that when some country wants to pay in a different currency than USD for oil, a coup suddenly happens, or a helicopter comes and the president gets kidnapped
- computerex 2mo agoPeople know it’s happening. What do you expect an average consumer to do about it? Pay more out of pocket due to the potential national security risks?
- sylos 2mo agoIn today's environment people can't even make the choice to pay more. The productn are just priced out of reach!
- bambax 2mo agoYou can't pay more to get a better drone than DJI's. You can pay more (although it's difficult) to get a worse drone. Much worse.
- ErroneousBosh 2mo agoNext year you'll have a fair old choice of drones from Ukrainian manufacturers though, when they're no longer needed to defeat Putin.
- shmeeed 2mo agoI like that thought
- Scroll_Swe 2mo agoAnd remember dear readers, China and Iran openly helps Russia in their invasion of Ukraine. It is like the cold war never ended. China's covert military training of Russian forces last year was personally approved by President Vladimir Putin's defence minister and directly involved at least four Russian and Chinese generals, according to two European officials and documents seen by Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russia-approved-secret-china-military-training-top-level-sources-say-2026-07-01/ https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russia-ap... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Support_for_Russia_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Support_for_Russia_in_the_Russ... One of EUs biggest trading partners wants Ukraine to lose to Russia... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3316875/china-tells-eu-it-cannot-afford-russian-loss-ukraine-war-sources-say https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3316875/ch... Iran helps with Shaeed Drones as known https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Shahed_136#Geran-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Shahed_136#Geran-2 With Chinese parts btw. North Korea is in too with 10k troops at least and massive ammo. Traded for food and wheat from Ukraine.
- xorcist 2mo ago> the only good non-Chinese printer that doesn’t cost 10-100x as much is Prusa They hardly have time to compete, busy as they are with foot-shooting practice.
- dismalaf 2mo agoDunno, Prusa seems to have mostly forgotten about consumers as their industrial business is booming. Stuff like this: https://sensofusion.com/dronefactory/ https://sensofusion.com/dronefactory/
- rasz 2mo agoThis is of course beyond stupid considering the pace of 3d printer vs one PET bottle blow molding machine that can produce same shape shells at thousand units /hour.
- dismalaf 2mo agoIs it? With a 3d printer you can print any piece on demand, change design without changing tooling and make pieces that are semi-hollow inside for lightness. Edit - should add, early in the war Ukraine was crowd-sourcing drone parts from citizens with 3D printers at home. This likely grew from that.
- rasz 2mo agoThis isnt endurance contest, interceptor drones are half battery half explosive with miniscule weight taken by motors electronics and packaging. We are talking 10KW power draw for around a minute. You can rapid manufacture moulds too, cnc alu is good for 1K shots easily.
- inigyou 2mo agoThey're completely different niches. Blow molding helps you make a million of a thing, 3D printing helps you make a million different things. There's great for low volume items without significant strength requirements. That includes prototypes but also anything niche - like parts for blow molding machines.
- dismalaf 2mo agoAs someone with both an Insta360 camera and a Bambu printer, I feel it, would love to buy GoPro and Prusa, but the value just isn't there. For one, I had a GoPro whose sensor broke after about 20 minutes of recorded. I ended up getting 3 different replacements, all of which also broke. In the end I just forgot about it when my home burnt down in a wildfire. I got an Insta360 with better picture quality that's also been more reliable for a similar cost. And I would have loved to buy a Prusa printer but I got a Bambu P1S combo for $600, an equivalent Prusa plus the $300 shipping to Canada would have been ~$2500 CAD. For making trinkets for my 3 year old son plus the few random other things I'd make it's not worth it to pay 4x the money. Maybe it'll forever be this way due to the differences in cost of living but I do feel as though there's a million barriers to entry to building a business in North America, at least a business that's not fully online.
- sarchertech 2mo agoUnless Canadian prices are much much higher than US, the only Prusa that costs that much is a Core One L or a Prusa XL. Neither one of those are equivalent to a P1S. They’re 2 tiers above it. Equivalent Bambu printers sell for about the same price. I have printers from both companies. There are tradeoffs for each, but Prusa isn’t 4x more for an equivalent printer.
- dismalaf 2mo agoCore One+ is $1899 CAD, the MMU3 for the Core One+ is $579 CAD and shipping was quoted over $300 since they ship from Europe and not the US to Canada. Just put these into their shopping cart on their site, right now quoting $2887 (including shipping and duties). I did get a particularly good deal on the P1S combo apparently, the price on their website already higher than what I paid and it's significantly less in Canada than the US with exchange rate. Are they exactly equivalent, dunno, but both are the cheapest Core XY models with enclosure + colour changer that either sell. Prusa is also cheaper in the US and EU than Canada.
- sarchertech 2mo ago
- TheArcane 2mo agoboo hoo china bad, buy my more expensive and shitty american product
- a34729t 2mo ago100%. It would strongly behoove the US to encourage domestic 3d printer manufacture (or friendly countries like Japan), to the point of bannning Bambu and Chinese companies. Obviously we are doing fine for industrial 3d printers, but the small scale consumer stuff is very important too. If and when AI commiditizes professional services, it would be good to have modern industry to fall back on. With 3d printing the gap isnt insurmountable yet. However, our country is run by lawyers, not engineers, so I dont have too much hope. At least a lot of our billionaires started out as engineers...
- Hammershaft 2mo agoThe cost of your proposed policies to consumers, to the Americans who can create because of cheap great Chinese printers and wouldn't be able to create under your policy... is much greater than the abstract industrial policy benefit.
- slim 2mo agoChina does not want to deindustrialize any country. Why do you think of everything in terms of war and domination ? China has built a industry capable of taking any product and make it better and cheaper. There is no psycho strategy behind it. They will do it till every chinese will live a comfortable life equal to an american. At that point america will be able to compete again.
- lokar 2mo agoThe CCP has publicly explained that their strategy is indeed to dominate key sectors via gov subsidies, de-industrialize other nations and gain strategic leverage in the process.
- inigyou 2mo agoWhy doesn't America do that too? It seems to work really really well.
- lokar 2mo agoTwo main reasons. It requires taking a lot of freedom / agency away from individuals, and redirecting much of the profits of successful enterprises to subsidies (and suppressing individual consumption and standard of living).
- hdgvhicv 2mo agoIf you’ve spent a life and the market being supreme then it’s a shock. China’s economic system is wiping the floor with the west. The U.K. has just nationalised a steel plant which had been bought by China to stop it from being destroyed, and of course the economic right wing hate this as steel is far cheaper to import.
- lostlogin 2mo agoBritain is on a hell of a trajectory. First Brexit then the rise of Reform. If that scam of a man wins the next election, it’ll be quite the show.
- inigyou 2mo agoIt's basically the same past trajectory of Germany, no? Many countries are on it right now.
- lostlogin 2mo agoBailing out the EU was a big hit to the economy and not many countries have taken hits like that. There are estimates as high as 10% of GDP, though 6-8% seem more agreed upon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_effects_of_Brexit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_effects_of_Brexit
- hdgvhicv 2mo agoReform reached 31% in the polls and have slipped to 26%. there’s a (slim) chance Farage will be beaten by a comedian in a bin. Trump reached 55% and became president. Twice. Pot. Kettle.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoYou're not wrong. But unlike the USA, at least Britons realized Brexit was a mistake. And that Johnson was corrupt and a liar. I am a citizen of both the UK and USA. It is astonishing to me that Trump could be voted back in after attempting a coup.
- vitaflo 2mo agoAlso on Avinox motors on e-mtn bikes. Originally made by DJI, then spun off into their own company, and they are starting to eat the competition on all e-mtn bikes at this point. Bosch, TQ, Shimano, et al just can't compete, especially because Avinox is iterating at startup pace and all the rest are iterating at bike pace (slowly).
- bob778 2mo agoThis is the key though: it’s not just supposed subsidies, because the Chinese companies are fundamentally just faster and more efficient
- throwaway2037 2mo agoI would argue the real answer is world class supply chain for high tech manufacturing. And that supply chain is heavily subsidised.
- theshrike79 2mo agoNot just subsidised, but the supply chain is literally in the same block. That's the thing Chinese do where other countries can't compete. If you're making product X, all of your suppliers are within walking distance around your assembly line. In Europe they might be 4 countries over.
- darksim905 2mo agoI'm not sure what stops some of these industries from essentially being more nationalist like China, but more centrist as a company like Palantir. If these risks are as big as you claim, a centralized authority should reverse engineer the things that work done in China or where-ever and use open source/build a better software stack that supplants what's out on the market currently.
- nonethewiser 2mo agoI think the engineering is actually pretty irrelevant in terms of the competitiveness
- ckemere 2mo agoPerhaps a huge tell about national strategy is the fact that the owner has $10s of millions to loan to the company? US economic structure in post WWII era has increasingly focused on return on capital (and value extraction). How can that compete in long term with an economy which prioritizes reinvestment *in industry*?
- tyre 2mo agoOne would presume that the founder is investing their money into something, probably equities, that is an investment in industry. They could be either selling those equities for a loan here or taking a loan against those equities to loan to GoPro (if the cost of capital is lower for them than GoPro, which seems plausible.) I generally agree with your point about value extraction vs. re-investment.
- inigyou 2mo agoEquities aren't investment in industry except when there's an IPO or SPO. The rest of the time, it's zero-sum.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoWhat you just said makes no sense. How can equities come into existence except via an IPO or similar mechanism? Equities are literally investments in business. Equity is a line in the balance sheet for every corporation.
- inigyou 2mo agoExactly. How can they come into existence except via an IPO or similar mechanism? At that moment, investment happens. The rest of the time, it does not. The stock market rising does not increase investment in industry. When you buy stocks at a stock exchange, you aren't investing in industry
- t0mpr1c3 2mo ago
- thih9 2mo ago> GoPros are used all over in aerospace. If we replaced the brand with Insta360, that puts a big attack vector all over the place. What would the attack vector be? I’m not saying there isn’t any, I don’t know much about aerospace and this sounds interesting.
- lostlogin 2mo ago> What would the attack vector be? The cameras. But quite how, I don’t know.
- kevin_thibedeau 2mo agoAny backdoored camera with wireless networking can take pictures remotely.
- fwn 2mo agoCloud risks are very true - for both GoPro and DJI. About a year ago, I was looking for an action camera. I found a good DJI product, but then I learned that you have to link the camera to an app in order to use it. I am fundamentally opposed to that idea, so I looked up the equivalent GoPro camera. Turns out GoPro also requires you to activate the camera with a smartphone app. I don't want to send my data to a company for something as trivial as an action cam. I was surprised to find that the US model had such an evil requirement, mirroring the Chinese model. In the end, I bought the DJI action cam (cheaper, better) and activated it in a public location using a burner phone. You only need to use the app once to free the device and take it offline, after which you can delete the surveillance app. I have found no fingerprinting in the created media yet. GoPro would have made an easy sale with me, if they had been more privacy/power aware.
- TheCondor 2mo agoMy Insta360s have wifi builtin, you have to connect to it with their phone app to do some of the processing. It's kind of nice, especially away from home but I wouldn't know how you'd know if it connected to something else or something else connected to it. I don't know how you'd get devices like that certified for certain higher security applications.
- samiv 2mo agoThe western countries deindustrialized themselves though. That's just capitalism chasing ever increasing profits and moving production to where it's cheaper, i.e.from west to China. In fact this was cherished because it increased share holder profits.
- coldtea 2mo ago>People think this doesn’t matter, but GoPros are used all over in aerospace. If we replaced the brand with Insta360, that puts a big attack vector all over the place. In what way exactly? The camera will magically communicate to the mothership?
- msie 2mo agoIf GoPro is manufactured in China then it’s no more secure than Insta360.
- RiggedEconomy 2mo agoThe biggest attack vector against the world is is Israel and Zionism, not China. Stop bashing China. Its getting silly and infantile.
- pvaldes 2mo agoYou have a point here. China vs USA is just a part of the whole thing. If we discuss the problem of China doing industrial spying and applying subsides to destroy non-chinese companies, we should mention also that countries like Israel had been stealing tirelessly for decades every US army and US industrial secrets that they could grab. They had been caught later selling this secrets for money to third countries like Russia. And the cherry on top is that all was subsidized, but with US money this time. Denying North Korean or Chinese people access to places with industrial secrets, while at the same time granting Israeli people free VIP access just because... "white people" (so they can sell it to Russia, and Russians can sell it later to China and NK) does not really make any sense.
- throwaway2037 2mo ago> GoPros are used all over in aerospace What percent of GoPro sales are used by aerospace? My guess: It is tiny. Not enough to keep GoPro alive.
- foxes 2mo agoLol your country and your capitalism helped build China. Wasn't that the thing like ~30 years ago? All the western companies pushing manufacturing into China for increased profit? Capitalism and the west gave all that power away :), you deindustrialised yourselves.
- worik 2mo ago> China wants to deindustrialize non-Chinese industries for strategic and/or natsec reasons, No. Not even close China wants its place at the table. With Erope and USA People seem to think a developed China is a threat. But they are not staying in rural poverty for ever for our sake. That is not a threat. They are not trying to "deindustrialise" anybody, just finding a place amongst equals
- ajsnigrutin 2mo agoFor us living in "the rest of the world", we only have a choice of being spied on by chinese or american companies, and american ones can do a lot more damage to us than chinese. So if we're getting spied on anyway, why not buy a better product?
- Robotbeat 2mo agoSo long as you don’t live in India, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, South Korea… or maybe even the countries Russia their ally is antagonistic with, like Ukraine, Turkey, all of Europe.
- mvdtnz 2mo agoSounds like a problem for America. And totally irrelevant to the state of GoPro the company. It sounds like you're advocating for corporate welfare on the basis that a failing company is "based in" USA, even though their most impactful operations are overseas.
- browningstreet 2mo agoGoPro has been “in trouble” for years and years. All of that may be true but they just haven’t justified their survival. They may well be better off selling to Garmin or another domestic air defense vendor and be done in the consumer market. FWIW current administration wants to play this same game, but they def won’t do it as well.
- starky 2mo ago>People think this doesn’t matter, but GoPros are used all over in aerospace. If we replaced the brand with Insta360, that puts a big attack vector all over the place. I'm actually surprised to hear that GoPro is used in aerospace applications. I assumed that they would use cameras from companies like Teledyne that have a more industrial/military customer base. That is to say, there are almost certainly options for domestic camera manufacturers if required. You are right about China. The West (especially Apple) taught China how to manufacture while losing the ability ourselves and for some reason didn't consider that they would figure out how to design products themselves and bring the entire product chain within the country. Individuals at the end of the day mostly care about buying the cheapest thing that does the job. They don't consider where it comes from. Even those that do care have limits in how they will compromise (there is a reason why I bought Bambu Labs 3D printer even though I would have preferred a Prusa).
- traceroute66 2mo ago> If we replaced the brand with Insta360, that puts a big attack vector all over the place Oh right, because the US has never done that ? Its public knowledge the US does supply-chain interdiction, see the infamous NSA “upgrade” factories as just one example. The US is also just as capable of writing buggy code full of security holes as everyone else. Even more so today with the advent of "vibe code it and ship it". It is only an attack vector if you allow it to be so, defence in depth and all that ... > I guess for people who don’t have any experience working on federal government adjacent aerospace stuff, the idea of natsec considerations for IT hardware seems entirely abstract But its all magically ok if its got a "designed in the USA" and/or "made in the USA" badge on it ? The problem I see here is a desire to use COTS stuff out-of-the-box in natsec environments led by a desire to save money and/or save time. Seems to me like one of those "pick two" moments where the "security" option was thrown in the trash.
- thephyber 2mo agoThis is written like an American who is both ignorant of cybersecurity, American politics, and of the advantages that the US has benefitted from since at least WW2. The core points are: - we can't trust a connected GoPro device any more than a connected DJI device - Just because a device is developed in China doesn't make it a vulnerability. - Just because a device is made in the US doesn't make it resistant to vulnerabilities. - US politicians don't have any incentive to tell us the truth. Because of the nature of national security, they could completely lie about any accusations of Chinese involvement and we would never know, especially now that the US president fired anyone who resists his demands for fealty. - GoPro was first to market but stopped adding value once they IPOed. US public companies depending on IP protections / rent seeking rather than cutthroat competition is the core reason DJI is beating GoPro, not Chinese government subsidies to the sector. - China's middle and upper classes are far larger than the US's. Similarly, they are training more college grads. China also has more companies being created and more creative destruction than the US. It doesn't matter if we build a better v1.0 product because their innovation engine is moving at least as fast as ours. - the US has had a 70 year head start on "a near zero cost of capital". Being the west's financier after WW2 and later the world's reserve currency. I don't pity a US company because it chose not to compete with a Chinese company despite starting from an advantage.
- belowavgiq 2mo agoHis point wasn't that chinese-made products have more vulnerabilities, what? what are these reading skills. GoPro has probably never been in a patent litigation in their favor. His point wasn't limited to GoPro either. The main driving force isn't anything but the simple fact that they can undercut everyone. Some of it is innovation in production methods, some of it subsidies, some of it is the low salaries, some of it is the 12hour shifts seen as normal. Is it deserved? Sure. They let western companies unintentionally ship their entire know-how to China. Is it OK from a US perspective, does it mean that they can't do anything now, and should just source Chinese products for everything? Hell no. Thanks for making HN as braindead as Reddit! Thanks to people like you, I'm becoming a master at translating Chinese socials!
- TooSmugToFail 2mo agoGoPro was outcompeted on the market. Simple as that. They were made irrelevant by Insta360 and DJI, both with legitimately better products. In my view, the only entity to blame for that is GoPro. And I believe that the shortfall was not only in matters of technology. My limited interactions with them painted a picture of an organisation with some super clever people, but paralysed by slow bureaucracy and high risk aversion. By contrast, Insta360 was much more aggressive and enterprising, while DJI just did what DJI does: build amazing products. Trying to blame this on some arcane Chinese plot to destroy the West is just a weak attempt to cope with reality: in China today there is simply much higher number of hard working, highly intelligent, highly educated people that are hungry for success then there are in the West. One thing we forget is that the two great Chinese companies in this space (Insta and DJI) had first to compete against hundreds (thousands?) of other Chinese camera companies before they could come out on the top and compete globally. They are not a product of a CCP plot. They are a result of a ruthlessly competitive and capable local ecosystem, itself a result of decades of consistent industrial and innovation policy. Nothing is stopping us in the EU and US to do the same.
- PunchyHamster 2mo agoI'm not sure what attack vectors are there if you don't connect your camera to company wifi, I guess it could technically put a payload on SD card but... eh ? > When China wants to deindustrialize non-Chinese industries for strategic and/or natsec reasons, they are incredibly good at it. (And note it’s not US-only, China targets basically ANY brand that isn’t Chinese. China absolutely does this to Europe as well… and you can see them doing it in real-time with automotive.) First, Gopros are made and assembled in China (with I think some in Mexico now to avoid tariffs). And absolutely nothing stops them from just sending potentially malicious firmware to the non-china made ones too Second China didn't make Gopros fucking overheat, shoddy engineering did. They rested on their laurels while competition worked hard on making better product. If it was just production costs the top end GoPros would be the best in the niche, just more expensive, but no they are both more expensive and worse product. Third, it is not "Chinese govt. doing it" (tho they are certainly helping), it is west constantly sending their tech advantage away just to get some cheap production there. Whether directly like Apple or Tesla, or indirectly, by allowing chinese capital to buy western car companies and instantly get all the tech then just apply their more integrated production to make same stuff cheaper. West gave China their advantage willingly, for a short term profits, and continue to do so, then try to mask it as some kind of malicious push (not saying it isn't happening, just saying the western companies are complicit in it) rather than corporate greed ruining everything yet again.