How to sustain a boycott of Japan's goods?

[ThatDamnGood]

I would say calls for boycotts of Japanese goods in China have not been very successfully. Why?

Well, its not that Chinese don't or cannot grasp psychology but in certain areas, their understanding of psychology is quite unsophisticated. To be surprised that Taiwanese would be defiant after shootings missiles overhead is such an example. China after is still a developing country. Big but still very much a work in progress. Other manifestations of poor grasp of psychology can be seen in marketing by indigenous corporations, poor effectiveness of state PR, etc.

Now to learn how to sustain a boycott, we shall use an excellent "recent" example.

Buy British Last Policy from Dictionary of the Modern Politics of South-East Asia | BookRags.com

The Buy British Last campaign in Malaysia.
The former Malaysia’s prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a very shrewd man. Besides being legendary for implementing capital controls, he crafted a boycott scheme that would be easy to psychologically sustain by the average man or woman in the street.

‘We will buy British when it is absolutely necessary, when your prices and services are way ahead, but otherwise I think we will show a definite preference for non-British sources."

It was sustained effectively for over a year.

Why is this boycott protocol more effective?
1. Does not cut off your nose to spite the other situations which will cause one to drop out of the campaign.
2. A person may chose to partially boycott Japanese goods and still remain in psychological cohesion with the campaign and hence will remain consistent with it longer.
3. Allows for lapses by someone who is seeking to personally implement a more aggressive boycott to remain in psychological cohesion with the campaign after a lapse occurs and hence remain in the campaign longer.
4. It does not feel like one is being "feng". Some people enjoy the "feng" feeling but most don't. Being 'qin' is important but so is being NOT 'feng'.

There's a smart way to do things and there is dumb way to do things. And so far, the dumb way has been chosen. Hopefully, this will be disseminated widely and the smart way will come to prevail.

And off course, it can be applied to South Korean products too.


***
I welcome any questioning or corrections to my statements if they can be shown to be wrong with evidence.

 

[cloneman]

I think pepole could personally choose to boycott the Japanese stuff.For example I wont buy a Japanese car or camera or dress.But also I dont think anybody has the right to burn other pepoles Japanese car or attack the Japanese shops in China.I would say it is a personal choice,no personal could force other pepole to boycott the Japanese stuff.

 

[dingyibvs]

Boycotting Japan doesn't work because it's Chinese workers who make most of the stuff Japan sells in China.

 

[Hafizzz]

The only reason why Chinese boycott of Japanese Goods won't work is because the Chinese people are not good at unity.

I have visited a few Korean friends living in Canada and when I stepped
inside their houses I noticed all the electronics Goods were of Korean Brand. I hardly saw a Japanese electronic Good in a Korean home.

If Chinese can be like Korean then boycotting of Japanese products will see bright light.

 

[notsuperstitious]

'The world's factory should not start a game they can't win.' - Sun Tzu

 

[Brotherhood]

The only reason why Chinese boycott of Japanese Goods won't work is because the Chinese people are not good at unity.

I have visited a few Korean friends living in Canada and when I stepped
inside their houses I noticed all the electronics Goods were of Korean Brand. I hardly saw a Japanese electronic Good in a Korean home.

If Chinese can be like Korean then boycotting of Japanese products will see bright light.

Good observation, "Unity" always remain the soft belly of Chinese people, actually you could notice it even in a small comminity like this forum. Sad but true.
On topic, I doubt it will ever work to boycott Japanese goods in China unless a war broke out with Japan.

 

[ThatDamnGood]

Boycotting Japan doesn't work because it's Chinese workers who make most of the stuff Japan sells in China.

If Toyota leaves China, guess who benefits?
Think of Google and Baidu.
What we want to see is greater amounts of the profits from the domestic markets gets channel to Chinese hands.
Toyota will not leave China. But there must be "innovative" ways to constraint its market share.

 

[Peacefulll]

In today's globalized world, supply chains span entire continents. Very often, a few parts for a product are manufactured in country A, a few in country B, the R&D and design in country C, and the brand name belongs to country D.

Goods boycott is not an effective mechanism any longer in today's scenario.

 

[ThatDamnGood]

Good observation, "Unity" always remain the soft belly of Chinese people, actually you could notice it even in a small comminity like this forum. Sad but true.
On topic, I doubt it will ever work to boycott Japanese goods in China unless a war broke out with Japan.

The homogenity of koreans and japanese are their weakness. Koreans and japanese who live abroad, they don't consider as zhi ji ren.

However, as Chinese, this apparent dis-unity, I don't even feel it. There has to be differences because we Chinese are different province from province, mainland and overseas. But nonetheless, they are still zhi ji ren to me. And when the need arises, all band together.

At the present stage of development, going on a Buy Chinese Only does not makes sense. I don't have this expectation.

The point I was trying to make however has not been successfully communicated by me. It is probably the title. As given in the example, "Buy British Last" was not really about a boycott but a reprioritising. Sort of like when the rare earth exporters voluntarily adopted a "Serve Japan Last" posture.

What I am saying is that if the demand is ABSOLUTELY no purchase of japanese products, then people will feel unable to meet such expectations. And therefore will not feel able to participate.

I am trying to say here, such demands are unreasonable. So instead, ask for something smaller, see how you can reduce the number of japanese products. That would be the effect of "Buy Japan Last". No a boycott. A boycott would be "Don't Buy Anything Japanese"

Again.

1. Buy Japan Last

vs

2. Don't Buy Anything Japanese

The psychological posture with #1 is easier to sustain.

This way of thinking is quite new because there is a lot of reverting to the concept of boycott. But again it is my fault because I went and title it "sustain a boycott".

Again, I appreciate the comments as it highlights gaps in what I am trying to communicate.

 

[ThatDamnGood]

In today's globalized world, supply chains span entire continents. Very often, a few parts for a product are manufactured in country A, a few in country B, the R&D and design in country C, and the brand name belongs to country D.

Goods boycott is not an effective mechanism any longer in today's scenario.

You are thinking in terms of a chess game where the objective is elimination. I am leaning towards Go or Othello if you will. I just want to see more White (Chinese) pieces than Black (non Chinese).
The objective is not to eliminate the presence of non Chinese companies but to maximize the profits of Chinese owned companies in the Chinese domestic market
IN INSTANCES WHERE THEY ARE SUITABLE SUBSTITUTES.

Yes, sales of iPhones, part of the amount of the sales goes to Chinese. But it is miniscule.

 

[ThatDamnGood]

The only reason why Chinese boycott of Japanese Goods won't work is because the Chinese people are not good at unity.

I have visited a few Korean friends living in Canada and when I stepped
inside their houses I noticed all the electronics Goods were of Korean Brand. I hardly saw a Japanese electronic Good in a Korean home.

If Chinese can be like Korean then boycotting of Japanese products will see bright light.

At the moment, its is over reached to expect the same from Chinese because Chinese manufacturers have to improve their standards quite a bit. But there are, here and there, some that have achieved world standards. And hence there must be a campaign to encourage support for SUCH Chinese manufacturers products.

Getting to fengqin to stop calling for Boycott Japanese products to Buy Japan Last instead is a step in this direction.

A journey of a thousand mile begins with small steps.

Another thing about Korean products. With the financing schemes the chaebols have access to, they are very very price competitive and in their local market, there are a lot of "protection" afforded to local products so that they will be price competitive.

Do you realise that most Japanese expatriates will tend to shop first from an overseas Japenese retailer?

What I am here about is not unreasonable. In fact, it can be said that I am asking Chinese to emulate certain aspects of their practices. You emulate what is good no? So how can it be said I am biased against Japanese or Koreans. Yangbian's Korean are zhi ji ren too you know.

 

[ThatDamnGood]

With Google sidelined, Baidu blossoms.

http://www.defence.pk/forums/china-defence/73223-chinese-economy-development-thread-updated-regularly-12.html#post1256957

 

[Hafizzz]

Good observation, "Unity" always remain the soft belly of Chinese people, actually you could notice it even in a small comminity like this forum. Sad but true.
On topic, I doubt it will ever work to boycott Japanese goods in China unless a war broke out with Japan.

The only reason it will not work is because Chinese people are not united at all and worst of all Chinese people love to give their own people hard time.

From what I have observed, Jewish people are the world's most united people and it is part of their religion to look after each other. Of course white people and Japanese people are also very united.