How the Hell can China Ship for Free to your Door??!?

[@serpentza]

Thank you to each and every one of you for watching my videos and a massive thank you to Guardio for sponsoring today's show! Protect yourself online with Guardio - guard.io/serpentza Oh, and Stay Awesome!

[@Nickle314]

The threat of removing the subsidy is a major weapon the US can use. Look at these items, its items with low value, but a large labour input because labour is cheap. Remove that, and you get a lot of unemployment, and so unrest, in China.

[@scottdoesntmatter4409]

If free shipping from China is so very bad for our economies, why can't our govt negate said agreements that made it possible in the first place? I'd vote for whoever who tried to do it.

[@Nickle314]

@@scottdoesntmatter4409 Trump was going to do that. My view, its quite a big stick.

[@Will_Smith_Slapping_Xi_Jinping]

Hey @Serpentza brother, I've noticed Wumao targeting Spanish language channels in a more pernicious way than is normal. We have to correct course and cease the CCP false narratives, man!

[@georgehollingsworth2428]

I am REALLY getting sick of your sponsored ads appearing in your presentations. They seem to be getting longer with time. I pay extra for KZbin to not send me regular ads, and I hope that they come up with something where I can do away with this new plague of "Sponsors" as well.

[@paulmills6189]

This is a much bigger problem than anyone realizes, but Amazon has benefitted from this loophole just as much as TEMU. Tons of listings on Amazon ship strait from China. Most of this stuff infringes our patents, copyrights, and trademarks.

[@5aitama638]

True but Amazon ships like 70% of the products itself thats how they pay the drivers and such.

[@NoBodysGamer]

No, whats shipped from china re 3rd party sellers, its not amazon

[@MamaMOB]

And yet we do nothing about it. You know we can't really do anything about China since there are different country with their own laws but we can actually do something about here in the US. We could actually make it illegal to import knockoffs. But we don't. Wonder why that is?

[@ronaldellis4662]

​@@MamaMOBmaybe because of bezos and his chinese cronies!?!

[@SargeScum]

It seems like we need a new video on this topic.

[@garyradley5694]

I remember watching a news program a few years ago about a family in the US that invented an excellent rat trap. They had it patented at considerable cost and they started producing it in their garage, but as sales increased they had to rent a small factory. Sales continued to increase, then all of a sudden their sales dropped considerably. On investigation they found a Chinese company had made a direct copy of their rat trap and were selling to the USA at around 25% of their price, mainly due to their reduced shipping cost from China to the USA. The small family business soon went out of business as they could not afford to enforce their patent in China and prevent the rat trap being sold into the USA.

[@sheilacoulton775]

They could have stopped china from selling it outside of china

[@robertrada4783]

@@sheilacoulton775 That costs a lot of money.

[@kennywang7082]

On my newly released home patent on my remote control light switch was approved by the USPTO yesterday do I license the invention to a Chinese factory or legally can they just steal it and sell it inside of Chinese mainland?

[@TheWebstaff]

@@kennywang7082 its china so you can't do anything in China. You can only enforce things once they arrive at counties who enforce patents that you own. So if it's a us patent that's the US. Your patent would even apply in Europe to be fair. But Europe wouldn't even try to sell to the US because they would be made to pay if the did break a US patent.

[@cybersechs1368]

@@kennywang7082 Get a chinese trademark/patent on it that's recognised in CN. They wont recognise US

[@ERMADELL]

I was an EBAY seller of Sterling silver bracelet beads and did this for eleven years. I was just a small-time seller, but managed to keep my head above water until the Chinese sellers entered the market, selling the beads at an impossible price. 1. Counterfeit merchandise, hallmarked as solid sterling, but just silver plated and 2. free shipping that costs Chinese vendors nothing. It became impossible for me to continue because I could not compete under those conditions.

[@alexandera.1411]

Governments should impose sanctions and embargoes upon Chinese goods. The communists are set to capture and destroy fair markets through various devious means.

[@MrWuzey]

We are a lot in this situation. When they came also to amazon using the fba thing, it was the nail in the coffin.

[@breakaway2x]

But it's not China's fault. It's Americans who are buying it up because it's cheaper. Tell Americans to pay more money for american made products. Simple as that.@@MrWuzey

[@yty1941]

@@breakaway2x "for american made products" Chinese vendors proceed to mark their products as "American" 🗿 (just like how you blur the boundary between genuine and counterfeit ones)

[@jamesjonnes]

The shipping is free because of the US government.

[@psklpt8412]

This is probably one of the most important videos ever posted on KZbin. It easily summarises both the geopolitical and economical entanglements that rule the world and that directly affect our daily life. Watching and sharing this video is a civic duty Hats off to @serpentza

[@sallybrite1530]

But it's disingenuous, to say the least, to place the responsibility for this system on the person buying a backscratcher from Chinese websites. The issue is much bigger and beyond the control of the public. It benefits corporations and stockholders of the big businesses who are importing everything from China and selling it to us here at ten times the price, while not giving back enough to the local economy. My local garden store is selling huge garden tables and benches made of literal tons of solid concrete, which are shipped from China. That should not be possible.

[@zw.drawing]

I am a foreigner who has been to China many times and if you have been to China you will not believe this video blogger's content China is said to be broken by the West for 30 years but they are getting better and better with their own space station, 5G, Beidou GPS, best transportation system... TikTok lets the world see more truth... The Chinese environment under the lens of the BBC is gray like a filter from hell, without blue sky and white clouds, which is the most obvious bias!

[@Kunfucious577]

Yeah. I always wondered how.

[@alaskandar]

@@sallybrite1530Absolutely

[@VVayVVard]

@@sallybrite1530 You can contact your local representative and ask them to put more of an effort into removing China's privileges within the Universal Postal Union Treaty. That's where the main imbalance ultimately stems from.

[@EliJon378]

What makes me mad is the lies. I have friends in Africa, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, and others, and they tell me that sending something to China costs a fortune, but getting something from China is incredibly cheap. So while they say this is to help developing nations it's actually a lie, try and get someone to send a package from an African nation to China and see how much it costs. There something else going on here, and it has nothing to do with "developing nation" status. They're lying about this.

[@BorealMushroomms]

Yeah the other part of the scam is that damaged products from China you will be told you need to ship it back for refund.. well shipping back is always so much more expensive than how much the product cost in the first place, so its never worth it to ship it back.

[@sheilacoulton775]

Any country that has its own space program is not a developing country

[@EliJon378]

@@sheilacoulton775 Even if that space program is just propaganda for the Chinese people. 🤣 But you make a good point.

[@waixingren4198]

the tragic thing is that even if finally some preferential treatments were given to Africans, it would mean that mostly their terrible corrupted leaders would enrich themselves. or they would create hostile Frankenstein countries just like China is right now.

[@EliJon378]

@@waixingren4198 Ye, African corruption is very different to Chinese Communist corruption. One thing's for sure about Africa, it's out in the open for everybody to see, China lies and hides behind the façade that they're wonderful, developed and still need WTO protections, they hide the corruption very well, in Africa the corruption is not hidden at all and they have never developed outside of colonization. Communism could never work in Africa, it would be disastrous for the continent, look at Angola with oil, gas and diamonds, total disaster.

[@user-uw3fi2zg4t]

The problem is that if you buy something from your local store all they do is buy it from China and overcharge you

[@Frankonero12]

This exactly. Most of the stuff on Amazon too. It's the same chinese stuff with a different name on it (and a different price tag of course).

[@nitro8529]

Finally someone that got the point... Its even more sinister than that, they buy cheap parts in china, assemble it in your country, put a "made in USA/Germany/Europe" or whatever sticker on it, and than overcharge you. So theyre also lying straight into your face...

[@DeadStawker]

I came looking for this exact comment. Local commerce is literally the same product but with an inflated price

[@Crocalu]

I think that really depends on the store. You can always ask a clerk where a product is from. If you're just looking for the cheapest product it's more likely to have been made in china

[@keithb6717]

At least part of the money supports local workers truckers etc. Don’t you pay attention? Maybe people who don’t pay attention are the problem!

[@terrancenorris9992]

How the hell does a nation with a space program, nuclear weapons with delivery mechanisms, high speed rail, and is likely the second largest economy considered a "developing" nation?

[@shushup6557]

They aren't but it suits them to say they are.

[@coutou5302]

Pollution covering skies, water toxic enough to cause cancer, rock plantation, painting the hills green to pass fiscalization, rat head in my food is duck head according to the government, uniformized urban bullies, rural uniformized bullies, graduates working on the field, social credit score, trapping people inside their houses during quarantine, concentration camps, and the list goes on... This is how they manage to finance all these things, by slaving their own citizens.

[@hansbass8119]

Because for all their bluster about progress and uplifting poor people, the majority of chinese in china is still poor as dirt. When they say they "uplifted" poor people, they actually just lower their standard of poverty (i think to 1,2 dollar per day) when compared to other country (US is $35, UK £6.67, India $7,5, etc)

[@OneAdam12Adam]

Because China is still a trailer park with leaders who have sinister intentions.

[@A-Milkdromeda-Laniakea-Hominid]

Well.. let's not forget their 2 Billion people. That's a lot of mouths. Seriously. They take advantage of the fact that they have millions upon millions of poor people. The cities have everything, the nation has a space station, but the rural peasants live hand to mouth. It's BS but it's also truth. China is the land of facades after all.

[@Tom_-]

I'm endeavouring to avoid all Chinese made products, but it's almost impossible due to companies not being made to be totally transparent.

[@jessicafoley1435]

It’s hard because a lot of things are made in China nowadays

[@brooklyn5755]

@@jessicafoley1435exactly!!

[@VVayVVard]

I just try to avoid consumption, and whenever I need to buy something, I try to find durable products (usually Western / Japanese etc brands with quality assurances and long warranties) and buy second-hand if possible.

[@peterlongprong7521]

There's a video here on YT where a pro-American family took a test to ONLY use American-made products - the TV show emptied out their entire house except for some silly lamp they got on a road trip - all appliances, furniture, clothing, beds, computers, sockets, anything stamped as foreign-made was removed = the house was unlivable and they were left naked. - pretty shocking episode as to how reliant the US on others in daily life.

[@VVayVVard]

@@peterlongprong7521 It's not so much a matter of reliance as it is a matter of cost. People who gravitate heavily toward cheap prices without considering quality will naturally tend to fill their homes with Chinese products. This is partly explained by the advantages China has due to its 'developing' status as well, the topic of the video, but lack of regulations on toxins (found in high quantities in many Chinese clothes articles) as well as lack of quality control are also major factors.

[@senianns9522]

I was in SE Asia manufacturing machinery. My American CEO wanted to sell to China. I didn't like it as I knew they would strip our product and reverse engineer it and copy it! We had spent a lot of design and engineering time on the units we were wanting to sell. It was a market leader. We obtained patents for our products. I still advised the CEO against sending units to China. Well guess what, we did send units and shortly the Chinese were trying to sell to our customers! The CEO left the company afterwards!

[@harperproduction3935]

I bet he still got his check, right?

[@watchingitallhere]

Story checks out.

[@syarifairlangga4608]

they sell it cheaper lmao

[@stephenhensley5631]

Straight out thieves in so many ways.

[@SuccessforLifester]

Now that the design is out, what product was it ?

[@puya2878]

One experience i had is that i needed a very niche and specific cable which cost $1 on Aliexpress and all sellers on Ebay and Amazon (who probably procured the product from Aliexpress) were selling it for upwards of $10. In a situation like this I can't find a way to justify paying 10 times more for the exact same product when China wins either way.

[@MehmetMehmet-y8c]

I agree. Also lets not act like angels when it comes to usa's position in the world. 50% problems directly or indirectly caused by usa for profit. Like if they were in china's position, they wouldn't use this cheathole to destroy other country's economy? I dont think so.

[@Frankonero12]

And you shouldn't. There are a lot of lazy ass resellers all over the world who would happily sell you the same chinese stuff for a big markup. What you can do is find out if someone in your country actually produces the thing you were looking for and buy from them to support your local economy. If you can't find one in your country, then buy from china.

[@LukkiSkywalker]

It can be 10x better 😂😂😂

[@thefreedomguyuk]

You do get crappy quality. Look for better, non-chinese products.

[@peterlongprong7521]

its like these YT content providers that show how they go into their local Dollar-Tree and buy out products, then mark up the untouched products for x10 to sell on eBay and Amazon. - just ripping people off, its disgusting. - they are like that jerk who bought out all the hand sanitizer in his city during Covid and stored it in his garage so he could price-gouge.

[@Silverfox8668]

You are right, I get bombarded daily by these Temu junk ads. They should regulate and put a brake on it. So irritating. Thanks for bringing this up.

[@johnhoward5954]

People buy Chinese products only because they are cheap. Most of them are dupes and hardly last. In this way, China fools others.

[@cubonefan3]

It’s not illegal for Temu to buy ad space. 🙄 If you don’t want to see ads then buy KZbin premium , it’s like $60 a year or something. (That’s what I do)

[@rolandnemeth3982]

Just get an adblocker for your browser - no ads anyore.

[@TheDragonSeer]

@@cubonefan3 lol buying to block ads

[@conceptcs]

Capitalism

[@clmn6712]

True. A dashcam from USA (that's listed as Made In China) was $45, shipping $15, plus sales tax of $2.75. The exact same dashcam from China was $8.73 with free shipping and no sales tax. So I have a choice of paying $8.73 or $62.75? That's not really a choice, $54 is a tank of gas now

[@xminusone1]

I make à point to never use products that are made or are from China I'm an electronic technician and sometimes my customers are annoyed because the parts cost à little more BUT when I explain why I do this and why I only put high quality parts in their devices, they are happy to pay a little more to have high quality parts from Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and India in their expensive devices. (I repair and restore high-end sound systems and amplifiers, from 1000$ to 50K$ of markets value) I give them 2 years of guarantee on the work AND parts. I do this since the lates 80's and never had to re-do a job because of defective parts or anything else for that matter.

[@cmlee58]

🙏@xminuson… Good for you!! Big Thanks!🙏

[@midbc1midbc199]

Chinese audio has never been good 200W x 5 head unit....... weighs 2 grams in total

[@DarthAwar]

China is great at Assembling Items and making plastic parts but suck at anything Electronic SoC's, Capacitors, Resistors, Chokes, GPU's, CPU's etc etc are super bad quality

[@OkieDokieSmokie]

I would stop buying products from China but idk who else exports lo mein noodles 😂

[@user-yx9ns1sc9l]

@@peterseth3296 things made in evil china doesnt work, it will just wear off or break down. You have a rock for your head

[@BorealMushroomms]

Paid $22 to ship a small item 1/2 inch wide and 4 inches long in a padded envelope from Canada to the USA. Took 3 weeks to get to the destination. At the same time I bought a diesel heater that weighs 40kg from china and it was free shipping, took 3 weeks to get from China to Canada. The game is rigged.

[@rronaldreagan]

According to winston thats fair. You live in a rich countru, thus ypu are assumed to be rich and forced to pay more so africans can pay less with the extra money they steal from you. What a clown

[@User-718_]

Why would you lie about that. 40KG and it was free shipping? that's dogshit.

[@ricksworlddereaux2397]

No because they calculated it all before,and still got profits,because its cheap produced in china..🤣👍🇨🇳🇪🇺and thats why china is rich..cheap.stuff selling to the west..

[@web3wizard381]

That just means that China cares more about their country getting ahead then yours does. You should ask yourself why Canada has people freezing to death in Winter due to homelessness when China supports the profits of their producers.

[@ricksworlddereaux2397]

@@web3wizard381 You must be insane just to compare Canada a free Country with autocratic China.🤣🤣🇨🇦🇨🇳

[@NightpireVideos]

Sold something small on ebay and had to pay 17€ shipping fee to send from one EU country to the next. By postal rule, any non-document for the past years has to be labled as package, no matter how small it is. I was deeply upset, that I am punished like this, when I decide to trade with someone within the EU-zone, the place where we should have better deals and work together. Meanwhile I can get anything from alibaba getting shipped for almost free. This was the last time I sold something to a foreign country, it's just too expensive.

[@olafschermann1592]

I have the same pain. €16 for 400km

[@OracleTarotBenji]

@@olafschermann1592 ur rich tho so thats y u have to pay more

[@theRPGmaster]

The EU is terrible for everyone in it. It uses the influence-grabbing tactics of the Soviet Union, aggressively silencing any oppositon. Politically it seems to take a lot of inspiration from the CCP too, but run by even more incompetent people. I have many examples of EU policies screwing over regular citizens, but nobody really listens or even believes me. Most Europeans seem completely ignorant to all of this, and that's scary.

[@anavik6214]

​@@OracleTarotBenjinot everybody in the EU is rich 😂

[@TheGeoDaddy]

I found a couple of chairs via Etsy for $200 but the cost of shipping was $250 from Florida to Delaware… our Giverments kept telling us “we cannot compete with with Chinese Labor” but the fact is WHO can compete when the TAX PAYER picks up the shipping from Shanghai to your door!

[@codymcginnis7837]

That’s not a fact that’s a question

[@jussikankinen9409]

Save nature

[@HaRacycEBLErAtIng]

@@jussikankinen9409 from where, which one!

[@Sparky_D]

I always wondered how i could buy fully working electronic circuit boards from China for less than i can send an empty envelope across my country.

[@thefreedomguyuk]

The sending of an envelope in our country is steep because we at the same time are sponsoring all that crap from Chinastan !

[@mikestewart4752]

I wish more people would hurry up and realize this Winston. Keep spreading the word brother👍.

[@billpetersen298]

He is doing his best. The rest is up to us. Message your politicians.

[@seekthetruth1478]

@@billpetersen298 ^THIS. 100%

[@prazofficial]

@@billpetersen298 ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆FACTS⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆

[@seapirate65]

@Holy Butterfly I agree Gardio is not worth my money, piece of crap Service..Bad on Serpentze for allowing.

[@seapirate65]

@@holybutterfly8495 I also am Anti China..100%

[@OkieDokieSmokie]

I worked in a UPS store for far too long. I’ve always wondered how they could possibly ship a product from china for $5 total let alone $5 shipping. We would quote shipping a package to china and it would never be less than $150.

[@Leshic2]

Wow! That's a much bigger difference than I expected!

[@stuart3712]

So basically a 40lb or more box?

[@dkolendo]

no not a 40lb box. this’s is not china, but as an example: for a private carrier (ups or fedex) to mail a 8oz package to brazil for me was 80$ a few weeks ago. usps did it for 15.

[@franssvensson5828]

Worked for the swedish Mail service in a smaller town of 20000 people, at it’s peak at 2016 we sorted over 3000 as we called them, ”China Pufs” parcel each morning for a while before the swedish government put in a extra tax for this parcels 😂😂😂 and then it died out

[@tiktok_life4tech]

The Chinese seller rent a warehouse in the US and ship the mass Chinese products from the US warehouse to the local Americans

[@ravioli6394]

We should reverse the subsidy so it’s cheaper to ship within your own country. The issue is that Amazon sells the exact same products as Temu but at a markup, and with a yearly member cost

[@sallybrite1530]

Exactly. It's a matter of corrupt governments being in the corporations' pockets, not some everyday customer buying a mug from a website.

[@misfitsailor]

I paid about $5 postage for something from Hong Kong, it cost $42 in US postage to send it back for warranty repair!

[@DatsWhatHeSaid]

Repair it yourself. Google is your friend in such matters.

[@projektleiterin]

The thing is, a lot of stuff that sells in local shops, is also just stuff from China, just much more expensive. I'm all for supporting local shops and better quality, I'd be so willing to pay more for long lasting quality products, but I slowly realized, the stuff they sell in the shops, is the same stuff that you can order from China via eBay or Amazon, but it's way cheaper there.

[@brianmiller5444]

Every single item, bottom level to high end, in the local housewares big box, is made in China. Or sometimes Vietnam as the always profit maximizing ceos are seeking cheaper labor.

[@mapesdhs597]

I ran into the same problem years ago, looking for a particular niche computer part. Locally where I am (UK) they could be as much as 30 UKP each, but on ebay (from China) or from Aliexpress they were typically 95% cheaper, and indeed they were the exact same item, infact they had the same factory mark on them. Something else which goes on aswell is Chinese companies understate the value of the items they export. The recipient likely doesn't mind as it means reduced or zero import duty, but as Winston says it adds to the anticompetitive edge. What's frustrating though is that some of the stuff sold on Aliexpress, at least in the tech space anyway, is actually quite good (such as new design PC motherboards using recycled/repurposed old chipsets, adding functionality that wasn't originally available), but no western company has tried to replicate such things probably because of the ludicrously strict rules that exist in the West (in the UK for example it's now almost impossible to find any high street charity shop or 2nd-hand shop which sells electronic goods of any kind, because they don't want to bother with the hassle of PAT testing and other rules).

[@projektleiterin]

@@mapesdhs597 If the price difference is too high, it really makes it hard to justify paying so much more without any additional benefit except for supporting your local business. At one point, it doesn't feel like supporting anymore, but getting ripped off. To be honest, I'm always kind of afraid to by tech stuff directly from China on eBay or websites like Aliexpress. I'm not that tech savvy and am always afraid that they will spy on me. 😅I also wouldn't mind using a used smartphone, but it's the data protection aspect that prevents me from buying one. You just never know who owned it before you and what they installed on the phone.

[@mapesdhs597]

@@projektleiterin Exactly, why feed the middleman when one can effectively buy direct? I've used ebay a lot, Aliexpress sometimes too, though I would not remotely equate the two, ebay is a far more reliable and decent site, one just has to be sensible like with anything else, follow the old saying, if an offer looks too good to be true then it probably is. And so far I've not had any problems with Aliexpress, infact I found the shipping bizarrely fast, which is of course the competitive problem Winston is talking about; I bought a CPU, motherboard and RAM from Ali and it arrived quicker than if I'd ordered it locally using 'free standard shipping'. Re phones, the simple key there is just to do a factory reset, wipe any non-default memory card left behind in the phone (secure erase - use a card reader in a PC or something), and replace the SIM with a new one, it'll be fine. Honestly though if one cared about such issues to any genuine degree then using any kind of modern phone at all is unwise, because all of them have continuous geolocation, etc. Or just use an older type dumb phone which doesn't have the fancy functions which make the data spying viable.

[@curlyhairdudeify]

Same. I don't buy the "it's cheap and lie quality from China". All BS. It's good quality.

[@jublywubly]

That was extremely well put. It's a very important issue. We all need to stop buying junk from China.

[@superstarjohnnyecko]

​@Allan Casas but not impossible?

[@idizzzful]

LOL all your "branded" stuff is made in China.

[@markojelenek7841]

your iphones are made in china :)

[@OracleTarotBenji]

@@markojelenek7841 these ppl are dumb so is winston lol

[@tenavrisen9279]

@pizazif lmao 🤣 😂 😆

[@ohne_zwiebeln]

Many times buying on Amazon you actually buy directly from sellers located in China (Amazon marketplace). So you pay 5x the price, but the package is shipped from China anyway, using the same loophole you mentioned.

[@Kunfucious577]

Yeah but you get it on time and can push a button for a refund. If you buy it from over there, it looks like a child wrapped and kicked it to the shipping office. Then they put it on the slowest boat they can find and when you finally get it, it’s the wrong item or broken and the company is not there anymore.

[@alejandrovargas7592]

Wow, ... I never realized that our US postal service was getting bled dry financially by having to handle the countless tens of millions of packages from China !

[@cyan_oxy6734]

I mean a Postal service shouldn't need to have to make money. In general it's not a bad system china is just abusing it.

[@Mobin92]

Packages that are shipped to people in the US. If the postal service is funded with taxes, that's still roughly fair.

[@Ziegfried82]

@@cyan_oxy6734 anything that is not profitable needs to be subsidized, so actually yes the postal service needs to make money unless you want to pay top dollar to subsidize stupid crap. The "free" shipping needs to stop.

[@apostate6849]

@@cyan_oxy6734 It's a terrible system, literally billions of dollars subsidizing China and the 3rd world

[@apostate6849]

@@Mobin92 That's not how it works. Government is stealing my money to subsidize Chinese companies and giving them an unfair advantage

[@MegaLag]

As someone who has extensively researched the postal industry, I have to point out that your video contains a lot of incorrect and outdated information. The subsidised shipping rates you're referencing are referred to as terminal dues. Terminal dues are never free (for obvious reasons) and are only subsidised for developing countries. The UPU does not allow its members to self-declare their economic status (as you've implied) to benefit from cheaper terminal dues. The economic status for member countries is based on two things - their GDP and their Human Development Index (HDI). This doesn't mean to say this is always a fair representation of their actual economic status. Additionally, you failed to point out that the trump administration already took action to stop China from benefiting from subsidised terminal dues when he threatened to leave the UPU. This prompted an emergency meeting and forced the UPU to make changes (which was definitely a good thing for the American tax payer). Countries with high international shipment volumes, such as the USA, can now self declare there own terminal due rates. With this change, the Trump administration agreed to remain a member of the UPU. One last point - there is no such thing a "free" shipping for e-commerce companies - even before the aforementioned changes to the UPU took place. Companies like Temu have to ship its parcels via China Post to receive any subsidised terminal dues (if any) as China Post is the designated operator (DO) for China. And China Post does not allow companies like Temu to ship for free. If China Post did that, it would come at the cost of the Chinese tax payer. Additionally, once China post has processed a parcel, they then need to pay for a company for the airfreight or sea-freight. The cost for this is not footed by the American tax payer. China's postal system is highly advanced, with automation that provides a significant advantage in terms of economies of scale. This, combined with low labor costs and a relatively less stringent regulatory environment, has enabled China to offer cost-competitive shipping solutions.

[@billyje4726]

It doesnt change the deceit that China does all the time! China is purposely not helping their own poor ppl and change their situation to keep the developing country status! They have no interest to change this. Lawmakers in the west need to change the regulations and rules on which this calculation is based, so China can be taken off that list. It cannot be, that they buy part of the American state (treasury bonds) and still are viewed as poor. China is destroying all economy.

[@pcbjunkie1]

Small business owner here in Canada that manufactures electonics and ships directly to their customers. Winston's assessment of the situation is 100% correct. We are willingly exploiting local and Chinese workers by buying their cheaply made stuff from literal sweatshops, and subsidising their unfair trade practices. Lucky for us we stll have an amazing and very loyal customer base. Thank you for making this video!.

[@buatlastshelter5319]

Its just capitalism 101. But now, its the east bites the west

[@pcbjunkie1]

@@buatlastshelter5319 When the goverment intervenes to prop up a market, you can be sure it's not capitalism.

[@buatlastshelter5319]

@@pcbjunkie1 oh sure they can. There wont be ultra capitalistic banana republic, or the american california without the US government's intervention to creat said market, they have a price, wether power, ideology, or money. Now all they need to do is to find the right loophole to exploit.

[@jimhabsfan]

I'm a Canadian living in the Philippines. Do you have a need for a distributor here ?

[@peekaboopeekaboo1165]

Winston has no love for the Chinese people...by saying their products are "junk".

[@michelleallen2294]

Thank you for saying what I have been thinking for over 20 years. I work with a lot of people from China, they've worked so hard and paid tens of thousands of dollars to live the kind of life I was granted by circumstance. It makes me so mad even their hard earned dollars often go back home where some of them barely escaped alive. It's actually not hard to buy local in Australia. When I was on minimum wage (pre aged care mandatory wage increase) I'd at times buy a few extra tshirts online, but now I'm a couple hundred bucks more comfortable per fortnight I save up and choose wisely. Never trusted shein or temu purely because of how much they push their ads. Don't tell me what to do or what to buy, thanks! I'll get it when I need it. I just wish people waited until they needed things, even a tad more often. Above all, think of the bloody landfill. It's disgusting. Where I live, our recycling rubbish is not even being recycled.

[@stoyanbalev184]

In UK we pay more shipping sometimes than the actual product, but returning is free from" Wish". Few years ago I bought a tablet for £50. It was very poor quality and it had 1 dead pixel in the middle. When I wanted to return it they told me to keep it and refunded me.

[@turdfurgeson8769]

You and laowhy are the best. I really appreciate your work.

[@UsmanBello]

I am an American living in Germany and I have noticed that shippers from China have several advantages over nearer-shore shippers when I have stuff sent to my German residence. One such is that all of the shipping labels have no visible handling mark or postage franking on the envelope; usually, the shipper is someone in China yet the item came from someone in the same country I'm (or another EU) country ... often without a postal Customs Declaration CN-22 form attached. On the other hand, if I order something from Switzerland over a certain amount, Deutsche Post will immediately want to tack on 15% import tax on items valued declared over CHF100 in Euros plus an additional €7.00 administrative cost for handling. How is that fair? 😕

[@ChristianDeutinger]

haven't shipping costs from china increased a lot recently. Importing to EU is anyway a pain in the A... had ordered 3D-printing in China i needed urgently tehrfore i was recommended to use direct express shipping with DHL. But actually the custom messed so long around that it took over one week. The next time then i choose the much cheaper relay shipping option and it arrived already after 3 Days. 🤯 I always eel that the authority wants to prohibit import, but actually inside the EU there are no people they wants to do the jobs.

[@binal-flecki2387]

ask your government lmao

[@gladiammgtow4092]

I hope climate change destroys China.

[@rockyBalboa6699]

Life is not fair friend! This is some sick game played by china on the rest of the world!

[@aileen9266]

This is because some sellers from China have warehouses in EU countries. So it will be shipped from there if available. If you payed the VAT you also don’t have to pay any additional import tax. Import tax is usually 19% (depending on the item) if there is no VAT. The cost for handling also depends on the carrier that brings it to you. DHL is a lot more expensive than FED Ex for example.

[@lukecat3825]

I have adamantly refused to buy anything from Temu or any other direct sales company from China. It’s impossible to not buy Chinese made products but I try to find a alternate whenever possible. It’s not that hard to at least try. Keep spreading the word.

[@NeonTrapperKeeper]

My wife bought me a pack of green pickleballs from Temu as part of a Xmas gift. The pickleballs were not even close to regulation size and dexterity. They were unplayable because the softness stunted the ball’s bounce. They were totally useless. That’s straight up fraud. It was a sham product.

[@Will_Smith_Slapping_Xi_Jinping]

Made in China, meng. Go figure.

[@artyjnrii]

Wtf is a pickleball

[@michelealdworth9297]

@@artyjnrii hi there. I just found out what it is. It is a sport that looks like table tennis but is played with bigger paddles on a downsized tennis court. Look it up on KZbin and you will see. They were talking about the balls used to play the sport called pickleball. Stay safe out there. Take care and God bless

[@bumfist88]

your fault for buying it knowing that you were going to get screwed over

[@kananeesh7900]

What’s with the HUGE push of Chinese Ads and products on KZbin. Such garbage products and tags like, “they don’t want you to know this” “so satisfying”

[@cliftonixs]

In the US, I try to buy domestically all the time. But there are certain useful items that I can only get from China. Domestic businesses can make the same items, but choose not to because they could never turn a profit. Unfortunate that these subsidies for free shipping adds fuel to that fire.

[@andrew_koala2974]

THE CORPORATE elite - because of their greed and the Economic model - has killed most Domestic manufacturing by sending manufacturing to China -- Yet the people are stupid enough to keep buying it - Making CORPORATE executives fabulously wealthy and themself poor and some in poverty. And you continue to vote for and wave your miniature flags at your Slave Masters in Government who work for the CORPORATIONS and not the people. The people are blind - insane and destroying themselves and agree to be Slaves

[@Chuck8541]

yeah, I like electronics, and camera equipment. Pretty much ALL of it is manufactured there. It's sad.

[@tiktok_life4tech]

the Chinese sellers rent a warehouse in the US and ship the mass Chinese products from China with cheap shipping costs on each item, they send the products to the Local customers from the US warehouse.

[@Leshic2]

@@tiktok_life4tech Why are you even sharing this and spamming the comments with this worthless distraction.. It has nothing to do with the point.

[@bohdanked]

This whole postage situation is ridiculous. I'm selling things on eBay, and it's just impossible to compete with China. Just the postage alone costs me more than stuff delivered from damn china. The last mile delivery is the most expensive part and the USPS eats all the costs and raises postage prices for US citizens. I'm really sick of this.

[@pontiacg445]

You probably just sell chinese junk anyway like 99% of people on ebay any longer. Who are you to complain that they cut the middleman out?

[@chrisakaschulbus4903]

Well if the lands start flooding, maybe the farmer should look into the contruction of boats. The world isn't just gonna stay frozen so your life can tick along at its own pace.

[@ronnielittle6573]

WTF ?​@@chrisakaschulbus4903

[@Kunfucious577]

⁠@@chrisakaschulbus4903this isn’t a flood. It’s the other guy shooting holes in your boat and the officials watching them do it.

[@chrisakaschulbus4903]

@@Kunfucious577 Better defenses for the boat? I don't think undermining the official will do much.

[@jimsmith556]

This should be shown to every child, every teenager as part of their education on life. We're in a greedy selfish world, and the Chinese government is taking advantage of it. Wonderful explanation Winston.

[@darkerfox6246]

Ok, so tell me, if you aren't buying crap, and what you are buying is taxed by your contry, how is it smarter to get something also bought from china with 200% profit margin. you are supporting china either way, but you as a person are getting screwed over twice. profit.

[@ghsu5357]

You forgot the point: US consumers are enjoying the cheap prices.

[@eddiepeng3445]

Companies like Temu also do not pay tariff if the order is under $800 (another loophole), which is 99.99% of the order. Importers like Walmart, Target, Amazon and etc have to pay tariff. Temu will even put them out of business at this rate. Many will lose jobs and US retailer will lose b/c of our OWN doing. It is ridiculous that our government is allowing this.

[@caesaraugustus3749]

It's China government now baby

[@CerealforProtein]

The UPU based in Switzerland, as noted in the video, is just socialism at its core. No one is OWED sending postage across borders, let alone having it subsidized! It is not an elected governing body by the contributors, yet it acts like one effectively. The scam happy companies as you dutifully noted, find these loopholes and exploit it. This UPU, without any accountability, picks winners and losers at its own discretion. As that happens, they can bet on any undeserved winners and subsidize the program with someone else's money! Lastly, without accountability, who is to say they cannot be bought off? As Winston often states, how is China considered a "developing" nation when it has the second largest GDP and an active space program? Its so clear as day there is something fishy with the UPU and countless other organizations with "altruistic" motives - not all but a discernable pattern can be observed.

[@jamesrecknor6752]

Chairman Biden and The Party will save us

[@brianmiller5444]

@@jamesrecknor6752 I think your Chinese made MAGA hat is cutting off the circulation to your brain, Skippy. Better buy another flag or two to festoon your mega-pickup truck. That will make your happy.

[@TheMissingDislikeButton]

They won't be able to take over them ... 2 days shipping is just too good ...

[@giannishen]

This is terrible! You did a really great job, thanks a lot for sharing！👍😄👏

[@giannishen]

Thanks a lot for the red heart! 😄🙏

[@MartinaValla]

I've never bought off Temu and such, but unfortunately I have to admit there are things (mainly stationery and organizing items) that are otherwise not available anywhere else in your country, let alone at a cheap price. Also, when available, the same items on amazon - though still coming from China - cost 3 or 4 times the price, so I can see why someone would decide to go that way. Same things goes for local small businesses that buy in bulk from the same Chinese producers and sell for 4 or 5 times the price. I avoid buying both, but sometimes you just get pissed thet you get the very same item of clothing at 40€, sold as one of a kind selected fashion that's on Shein for 15 or Temu for 8.

[@claytonno2571]

only way to really solve this to painstakingly either looking to where its from or buy from a reputable in-country producer.

[@MartinaValla]

true. I really wish it was easier@@claytonno2571

[@AFGautonompunk]

i don't even recall how i found you, but i'm very grateful for your truly surprising, if not different perspective or insight on something interesting and relevant if not important. thanks for keeping your drive in producing your videos!

[@CzlowiekDrzewo]

Good message, Winston! This is the time we should be cutting down on buying useless tat, that will inevitably end up in a land fill, or in the ocean.

[@jonahn1841]

I think Sweden (and perhaps other European nations) removed China as postal exemptions around 5-6 years ago. I remember Swedes could order single electronic components (resistors etc) for around USD 5-10 cents in total back then. Absolutely insane

[@swissee2]

This is the only way that will work: Remove postal exemptions for China!

[@als8627]

We can still ship perfectly to Sweden from China. DDP. We pay tax and Sweden collects. Delivery times are quite fast within 1 week you can have it. Comes with a tracknumber too !!

[@Vandebilt]

@@als8627 Maybe you can but you won't. The shipping with AliExpress to Sweden is redicilous high and if I order one item for 1 USD and the shipping is 1.50USD then two items is doubled up with shipping 3USD four items 9USD aso. Chinese companies try to do anything to try to fool us. They still offer "free shipping" but adds the shipping cost (and more than that) on the item, and upon that 30-90 days delivery. Sick! Most Amazon Prime items are 10-40% higher cost than in the local store.

[@MikeBrown-xh2nm]

@@Vandebilt You can always not buy😀

[@numberoneduchess]

A few months ago I ordered a kitchen tool from TEMU that was said to be a fruit juice squeezer. It looked like a potato masher with a bowl large enough to place an orange in, and a handle with a masher to squeeze the juice out. The picture showed it as silver gray and looked like it was made of stainless steel. The price was very low with free shipping, and would have cost me $18.00 at Walmart, not counting tax. I was so pleased with the price that I immediately went to my payment account and ordered. The package arrived 2 weeks later and I could hardly ait to open it. The item was made of light green plastic with a handle that broke the first time I used it. It was a piece of junk. I will never buy anything coming directly from China again since there is no way to send it back, plus the cost of shipping, and I would never get a refund. That was my first and last time dealing with China.

[@biteofdog]

I see great quality potato mashers at the thrift stores for a few bucks.

[@Woodman-Spare-that-tree]

I bought a very nice change purse from China. They shipped it all the way to my door in the UK. The price was £3 including shipping and it’s great quality, it’s lasted for years. But I’d never ever buy anything electrical from China, for safety reasons. And I’d never spend any money with China that I couldn’t afford to lose.

[@andrewjamez]

Chinas manufacturing economy would collapse if we had to pay true freight cost.

[@prazofficial]

Yeah and that would be a good thing

[@diegoyanesholtz212]

It wouldn't last a day.

[@cheesecake7159]

I'm from indonesia, when my country raised and slapped tariff for electronics, shoe and some trash if you buy from china on online marketplace, the garbage products reduce alot after that. Nowadays they find partner who want to store their products and send it in bulk, if you buy Chinese garbage in my country it will send from local warehouse, they always can find loopholes

[@Sharp931]

@Cheese Cake This how they do it in EU. Most of their warehouses are in Netherlands or Poland.

[@MegaLag]

You're already paying the true freight cost. The trump administration fix the subsidised terminal dues issues in 2020 ;)

[@Otaku155]

As someone in the USA who has been directly affected by recession after recession after recession, I am forced to wonder; why the hell are we still subsidizing these other countries?

[@marty13612]

Foreign aid is immoral

[@cubonefan3]

American economy currently is reliant on sending low wage work to third world countries. If we can’t get third world people to manufacture our items then the prices of manufactured items, technology, and cars will shoot up exponentially. It’s not that hard to understand. We live in a global society.

[@dfredankey]

@@cubonefan3 we abuse the poor that are citizens and imagine the lowballing for immigrants

[@SeekingPleroma]

Because our "leaders" are corrupt, and don't care about you, they care about the money they make from their role in this.

[@smokeyrobin7881]

The kickbacks.

[@JDMSwervo2001]

I work at a usps mail processing facility and we get Temu by the literal truckload. It’s been overwhelming our mail processing machines since November

[@amicaaranearum]

Even at those cheap prices, I don’t get why there is such demand for that junk.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

Toss it in the dumpster. I consider it a patriotic act.

[@pauldeddens5349]

At UPS its constant. They sell everything in huge fucking bags with labels poorly slapped on the side. They dont scan because the bags warp the label, so every label has to be manually reprinted for any of it to go anywhere.

[@thinkingallowed7042]

@@amicaaranearum It isn't necessarily junk. I say that as a happy customer. What about you?

[@716_ハディくん]

​@@thinkingallowed7042 they will never understand that not everyone can afford every thing, some times chinese alternative is all we have

[@lottodesu]

Sara AI is from my home country, Thailand. It's a comedic take on the current state of technology. Not an actual ai just so if anyone curious

[@canadaphil6068]

Thank you for bringing this to light for everyone!... This is actually something I dug into years ago and became aware of one of the main ways this used to occur. I will not get into the exact details, but it relates the International Postal Agreement. THAT is how (and probably still screw us to this day!) The main point for everyone to understand is that the agreement in a nutshell is that the Postal service of the "Destination" Country is OBLIGATED to complete the end of the delivery process or journey if you will, once the item makes landfall. For Canada, this usually means once hits Vancouver. It doesnt matter if the final destination is still 1,000's of km away in Newfoundland, the TREATY obligates Canada Post to use all of its required resources to deliver that parcel. Period! OK..sorry about the ramble.. In my research into this "AIR MAIL" was the easiest way for this to happen... All it took was to have corrupt Airtransport worker and ground staff in on it. They are essentially simply paid BRIBES to have their crews on the take mix in small parcels and packets into the cargo marked as AIR MAIL to be placed into the cargo bays of passenger Airlines (again.. this is in the POSTAL TREATY) These small parcels simply have faked CHINA POST stamps on them and sometimes fake franking marks that imply a Chinese firm actually paid their local Postal Service for this.. THEY HAVE NOT!.. All the labels and printed marks are completely made up ... The reason is simple.. They were NEVER actually processed in a Chinese Postal facility and were simply loaded into bulk bins by the corrupt handlers and these uninspected bulk bins are then passed through Airport sercurity by the bribed ground crews who then make sure the items are placed onto the appropriate Air Carrier for the destination country. Does anyone recall the rash of .99c items on EBAY with Free Shipping to Canada and the US years ago when it started?.. This is how they did it and do it still.. Its simply theft of legitimate Postal services and this has gone on for YEARS!

[@picketf]

It's actually much simpler than that, Chinese Post made a multi million agreement with Singapore to send small packages destined for international locations through their postal service. You can google it. It's actually a few hundred tons a year of postage goods that are leaving China to Singapore to then be distributed world wide. Most postal services charge companies in China in bulk. Even here in Europe I have been working for a sports clothes factory that also had monthly fixed price agreement. We could issue our own barcode stamps directly on the parcel and the post guy would pick up a palette or however many boxes we had to ship once every few days or daily during top season. I calculated the bulk price to be about 30-40% less than a normal person would have to pay to ship using the same postal service over the counter. These barcode stamps were only separated by EU and NON-EU stickers whereas at the post office NON-EU is subdivided into zones with different price tags.

[@juliasutton8634]

I strongly agree with you that Temu and similar companies are selling tons of junk that's totally unnecessary and downright wasteful, but I purchased some things from Temu because I can't afford to buy much locally. As important as it is to be aware of what companies are doing, I think it's really important to acknowledge the limited options the average consumer has, this vicious cycle has most people stuck with no options aside from fast-fashion and cheap imports because we can't afford to buy locally. The blame lies with the inspectors and lawmakers and whoever else is in charge of regulating these things! I've spent so much time cleaning and sorting my recycling only to find out there aren't enough recycling plants to handle the job, so full truckloads go to landfill, I worked at McDonald's and the "recycling" bins all went to the same garbage compactor. Corporations should be held accountable BEFORE the consumer

[@kimbo99]

Somethings are only available from TEMU. 2 computer plugs dollars from China $40 from western country. And they are chinese made anyway. Likely India will go thru the same process.

[@juliasutton8634]

@@kimbo99 SO TRUE they're often the same product!

[@MicheIIePucca]

Aliexpress used to have "predominantly" free shipping (To Canada)... now, its harder to find free now. So I am not sure if China is just starting to charge more (to increase profits), or if our postal service has stopped subsidizing Chinese shipments. I found this comment from 2017 when the problem got way worse in Canada: "CANADA POST is sitting on thousands of containers and trailers are piled up at every major CPC processing plant. They say they make no money from delivering the tiny packets and parcels they get from China."

[@SvPVids]

Not only that, now when you open a dispute its almost impossible to win now. They used to take the buyers side.

[@MicheIIePucca]

@@SvPVids I agree.. they purposely make it a P.I.T.A. This is why I'd use Ebay over Aliexpress any day.

[@Waverlyduli]

Say or write 'CCP', not the other way around. The China dictatorship doesn't want people easily researching its historical atrocities so it doesn't want you to write or say 'CCP'. Burning books, covering up and lying about its past is the CCP's M.O. Let's not make it our problem. Let's not co operate with fascists and never forget the millions of souls left to starve or murdered or tortured by the CCP autocracy.

[@TeaBurn]

One more reason to hate Canada Post, who insist on only delivering when I'm at work at noon, and runs away to the post office immediately after pressing the doorbell (sometimes not pressing it at all, as I see on my smart doorbell cam) without waiting for someone else to answer the door, while also insisting they need a signature with no option to have a signature release like other couriers have. I can't even count the number of times they've "lost" my lettermail or parcels.

[@MeiinUK]

Isn't FB and the likes and things.. are banned from China ? So how come... China can do this kind of junk ???... Oh right.. so basically... KZbin belongs to Google.. and Google.. can indeed.. what... sell... advertising as well ??....

[@mrPauljacob]

I don't buy junk products from china... But now I'm gonna be seriously diligent about not supporting them at any cost. I'll spend the extra money to support my country.

[@Anhonime]

I've been getting Huelwear recently to avoid unethical clothing (not a promo, just a trustworthy company I found, looking for more cos while their clothing is really good quality and ethical, it's also super minimalistic and basic)

[@Comradpetito]

Bourgeois

[@CyanideOwl]

You cannot get fun stuff from your country at a good price.

[@kraljazvonimira5448]

MAGA my Friend

[@hexoroid]

especially stuff u give to kids. they play with items that are Disaster for health and they do it on purpose to send their waste. its all poisoned like test it and find how much led ir has etc

[@yobentley7274]

I bought a $1.21 pencil sharpener from the big "A" (that turned out to be really good) shipped to me from China for free. I was surprised too. Took about 2 weeks to get, but I got it and it is great. It also cost me $90.00 US dollars to send a shoe box size package to my relatives in China two months ago. I get it.

[@raven4k998]

you monster your part of the problem buying this crap

[@yobentley7274]

@@raven4k998 "you're"

[@raven4k998]

@@yobentley7274 yes call me Daddy🤣🤣🤣

[@yobentley7274]

@@raven4k998 Hi Daddy. I hope you're having a good day.🙂

[@raven4k998]

@@yobentley7274 yes Daddy is having a great day now do your chores🤣🤣🤣

[@KelmutHool]

Once I worked in a big warehouse that got shipments of cheap junk from China every single day. When unloading the containers we always had to sort out tons of wares that have been broken (or entirely destroyed in case of glassware) during transit. So about only two thirds of every shipment went into storage, the rest went right to the dump yard. I always wondered how any company can order broken trash and have it shipped around the world and still make a profit. Now I know.

[@peterjohansson1328]

In Sweden, they solved the "problem" with cheap junk from China with a special fee (tax) of $8-15. The problem is that this tax applies to the whole world except the EU, so if any developing country needs help with the postal fees... it is also ruined.

[@PierreMiniggio]

Even removing China from the equation, that doesn't seem like a bad decision, it might incentivize more companies to make more stuff again in Sweden or in Europe in general

[@joakimmelander]

The Chinese small packages flooded our postal infrastructure and constipated it. The tax + handling fee limited the damage.

[@Siegetower]

If it was just from China the Chinese companies would find a small country (through force or debt slavery) that would accept stuff being redirected through them, appearing to be domesticly from that country. So instead of being flooded with Chinese junk direct from China, you'd be flooded with Chinese junk that says it comes from Niue or Palau.

[@trinitrang2932]

How come you didn’t get a love heart from the snake ? Hahahah!

[@islandwills2778]

I sell to Sweden, I had no idea you had to pay a tax on top of my fees. I wish I could find a way to game the system so my Swedish customers did not have to pay even more ..

[@nextinstitute7824]

Incredibly insightful. Often wondered about this. You did not even mention the environmental damage these products cause.... Container transport and plastics/toxic contamination.

[@zeusthecatrh]

I have wondered this for years, how China sends things to us at low cost shipping this needs to be brought up at the government level. No wonder our manufacturing is so low. I would love to see you talk about this on The Jimmy Dore Show or the Joe Rogan experience. This is so important for out economy and security.

[@masterlight7058]

This loophole probably benefits the billionaires who have all their factories in China as well, and the billionaires probably lobby politicians to keep the shipment cost low.

[@bradcavanagh3092]

President Trump talked about it

[@TJGermany]

Government knows about this very well for years.

[@lainiwakura1776]

Domestic manufacturing is low because Chinese manufacturing plants are sweatshops, meaning cheaper prices.

[@alwyn626]

Trump was in the process of fixing that wasn't he ?? Then Biden shuts it all down. Biden likes doing business with China.

[@lynettecarter9887]

I have a few friends who got undercut and really had to just use local buyer's to keep afloat then lockdown and lost everything 👍well done my friend for shining it a bit for folk

[@angelbabies7]

Frightening. And eye opening. I mean, of course it makes sense. Its something you KNOW you know, but you don't really think about it. Absolutely sharing this with family members and friends.

[@bkhustler]

stop buying rubbish

[@bobzzo9041]

Bloody hell, been asking myself this question multiple times. Thanks for the answer now.

[@ALEXFVHS]

Well nothing is free. You pay for it one way or the other, Amazon does it too

[@unconventionalideas5683]

Amazon does not use the postal service.

[@ALEXFVHS]

@@unconventionalideas5683 amazon provides free shipping that isn't really free dum dum

[@michellebarnhill5130]

Horray! Love it when Serpentza drops another video!

[@kiloman191]

This is a huge problem. Thank you for covering it.

[@bkhustler]

huge

[@pfever]

The funniest thing is that I get a Temu app adverticement just below this video 😂

[@SudiTV]

13:06 Ironically, most of the products you show there came from Alibaba, Taobao etc. but are being resold to you at a marked up price. Amazon has just as much junk as Temu does these days, unless you're buying directly from a reputable company.

[@alejandrovargas7592]

Yes, .... Don't by any footwear directly from Chinese companies, ... BUT, ALSO don't buy shoes MADE IN CHINA, from any U.S. shoe company. I know that's very difficult to do, but it can be done usually. NIKE corporation is particularly egregious in overpricing everything they sell, whether shoes , hats, jackets,etc.

[@overbuiltautomotive1299]

i bough my last ones on evil amazon warehouse deals a return for 35 lol looked new to me

[@gypsypath1]

New Balance makes many, if not all, of their sneakers in the US.

[@Drew-Dastardly]

@@gypsypath1 Not true. Their high end pro athlete stuff is made in the USA and the UK, and they can even do bespoke stuff. But the vast majority is from abroad. My own pair of NB I am wearing right now were manufactured in Vietnam. At least that's not China.

[@gypsypath1]

@@Drew-Dastardly Good to know; at least there’s an option. I didn’t know they did custom! That’s pretty cool!

[@konstandinosverzamanis5699]

or crocs

[@imagesbyraphael]

Must be similar arrangement in Australia. We used to wholesale phone accessories but it got so cheap ordering stuff from China on eBay, even I ended up ordering some phone accessories off eBay rather than from local wholesale importers. You could get a phone case delivered to your door for a few dollars, but if you wanted to send that same case to someone locally, it would cost you a few dollars! However it seems in the last couple of years, Chinese eBayers are no longer super cheap. They are only just a bit cheaper, making it more worthwhile to buy from local sellers because your product will arrive much sooner.

[@jimmybrad156]

Often the quality is better when buying locally/nationally than buying the identical-looking item from china too, i find.

[@Null--]

If you do order anything and it arrives defective, always claim it never arrived. The thing with this free shipping is that it is not tracked. This will force them to refund you or send another item. Otherwise they will ask you to return the item, knowing full well it will cost you 3x the amount you paid for it to do so.

[@LiangHou-l2n]

Looking at the tracking number right now. You normally spout nonsense on the internet with no experience in the subject?

[@la1m1e]

After dozens of orders and like 1/5 of them as refunds - was NEVER asked to send anything back.

[@MikeBrown-xh2nm]

@@la1m1e Me neither. Incredible 'return' policy. Still scratching my head trying to understand how they can afford it. Come to think of it, happened to me a couple of times w Amazon too.

[@RichfromVirginiaBeach]

It’s nice hearing from someone who actually spent time on the ground, learning the Chinese culture. Americans are fed a bunch of nonsense from our media propaganda machine. Thank you for your efforts, greatly appreciated!

[@yukuhana]

This is making my blood boil. How can the world continue with the subsidies to China, especially today when the anit-CCP sentiment is at all time high?!

[@EsthersMedia]

Amit CCP is fake in the UA

[@javascript6948]

Its not surprising to me when The President of the United States is in bed with China.

[@MeiinUK]

China should NOT have joined the WTO to begin with. That is for one. And second.. they should have reformed. But they didn't or refuses to be so. Then they should have created an internal UN or Chinese UN.. but then they don't. The list keeps going...

[@apostate6849]

It's just a war on White people, anything that benefits non-whites is promoted

[@MeiinUK]

@@apostate6849 : It wasn't meant to be as so... and I think that some people weren't very fair either... they had help from the likes of Singapore and co.. Now I get why the so called chinese dispora helped drag the entire world down.

[@juliemcmurtrie2713]

So glad you covered this topic 👍👍👍 thank you 😁

[@sharonforkin6064]

You are so right about the nightmare it is to return stuff to China. I bought a dress for a wedding from Amazon not realizing it was from a chinese company. The dress arrived damaged albeit during transport but still it wasn't wearable. I tried getting a return label since free returns was advertised. I kept receiving non valid return labels. It cost $12.99 shipping to me. But in order to return it via UPS it would have cost me $28. I finally told them to send me a valid return label or I was going to file a complaint with the company. The dress had burn marks on the dress and was going to be trashed when they received it. I was finally issued a refund and was told that I didn't need to return the dress. Lesson learned to check where the origin of the company prior to placing an order.

[@mapesdhs597]

One problem though with that company origin angle: often the marketing and product listings simply lie about it. I was looking for a particular tech item last year, again and again choosing to avoid Chinese sources. Eventually I found a listing that stated it was made in Germany. Digging deeper into the small print though, nope, also made in China. ie. what happens is the parts are made in China (sometimes the entire item sans something very minor like the cap for a switch or button, or a fuse or even just a label), but the final assembly is done locally somewhere, even if this only means the outer box, or the covering for a plug or something. This allows the product to be described as being made locally when it fundamentally isn't, another loophole which as Winston said is likely widely exploited. It extends to types of products one would never even think of. Last year I bought some half-inch plywood sheets (4 by 8 feet) for some essential repair work. The price, from a local builder merchant, was quite good compared to other sources. When I received them I realised why, they'd come from China and were of generally poor quality. I used them anyway as the work was time critical, but I did have to change how I used them to get round some of the issues (such as gaps in the bonding, uneven smoothness, non uniform thickness, etc.) I'm in Europe (UK), a region which is absolutely riddled with govt/council/media PR about green this and eco that, boasting about tree planting everywhere, sustainable industry, vast subsidies paid for such things (and hence taxes), and yet enormous amounts of timber and other materials are coming all the way from China. With hindisight, the cost of the plywood didn't make sense, it should not have been so cheap baring in mind the transport required to ship from China, so I'm sure in some manner that aspect is being subsidised.

[@AQuietNight]

I was poking around AliExpress and from what I have seen a lot of the free shipping items are gone. Some of the shipping charges were quite high for many smaller items. There was an agreement signed last year where the Chinese started paying fees to the post office for the processing of their packages. But if there is a loophole, the Chinese will find it.

[@viktorcheng2061]

Best part is, it’s tax free

[@daneascott9645]

I noticed the loss of free shipping on Alie as well. I drink teas that can only be gotten from China and now I can't because they charge as much as $40 for shipping on loose leaf tea that doesn't even weigh one ounce.

[@Thrakus]

Do what ebay did , have a 3rd party ship. i do not understand why people use the shipping progam on ebay ,2 times the shippig and export fees as thry send it to reshipped as a tax loophole over england asking for 15 milon in taxes.

[@wm2008]

@@viktorcheng2061 Its not, Wish and Ali* have to calculate and pay VAT for all EU customers since a year. If they dont they get their bank accounts closed, banned from importing and fined. All Chinese sellers now have to get an EU VAT ID number.

[@tomasviane3844]

@@wm2008 Yes, that's the reason! In Belgium, there were no taxes to be paid if a product was less than €20, but that does not apply anymore. It's understandable, since you could buy half of the AliExpress store for less than €20... 🙂

[@bluefantasy929]

I bought from temu and wish once and never bought from them again. I agreed with you that the items sold on these two websites were total junk. Thank you for explaining the postal service.

[@Bobspineable]

They’ve got good cheap clothing, it’s a good place for that as those same cheap shirts are marked up at like Walmart or Amazon

[@terry3872]

It's not just junk. They have access to all your phones information such ad contacts, photos etc. It's very dangerous

[@ItsMrAssholeToYou]

Ah Wish...the poor man's ebay.

[@yourefunny487]

@@terry3872facebook/google doesnt?

[@georgemoore7196]

I've been following you on KZbin off and on for years, from when you were living in China I don't know how many years ago now. This one has got to be one of your best videos. Cheers,

[@sebc3129]

That is why whenever we go to Dollar Tree, we check the tag to see if it's made in China, if it's made in Korea, Vietnam, Japan, or Taiwan, it's alright, but not China.

[@knight1506]

Also beware of the products made in PRC, that’s just China in other name.

[@brandon3872]

I do the same thing with anything I buy. If I can only get something made in China, I think do I really need it. I'll only buy something made in China if it's essential, and I have no choice.

[@jamesrecknor6752]

@@brandon3872 SAME

[@mwk1]

100% robię tak samo, zawsze, a najgorsze jest to, że wszyscy ludzie naokoło się ze mnie śmieją... wolę nie kupić danej rzeczy, aniżeli kupić "made in china". Jebać!

[@sharroYT]

@@brandon3872 why

[@NoahNobody]

Finland here. I bought a lot of things from AliExpress for many years and it was really handy. There's like 5.5 million people here, so you can imagine the consumer market is not so big and therefore it can be really difficult to get anything specialised like a certain bike tool, guitar part, whatever niche thing you can think of. I knew about and took advantage of the shipping deal and it didn't really bother me because I was a broke student at the time and just trying hard to stay out of debt. This was how things pretty much played out here. If you are rich, you don't need AE, but if you are poor, it saved you from having to pay as much as 10 times what it would cost you in Finland, and that's even if you could find it here. However, a couple of years ago, the Finnish government shut the whole thing down. They passed a law that first required people pay a minimum handling free directly to the postal service and also in import duty of a percentage of the cost to customs. However, this proved very difficult to implement for various reasons and they decided instead to work with AE and now those costs are added to the price of all products on AE (going to Finland). So it's not so cheap anymore, but luckily I graduated and am now working. Still, I feel sorry for those who queue in bread lines.

[@Emppu_T.]

In Finland the government makes everything needlessly difficult to support local and near businesses and products by the rampant const brought by taxing. If we could reverse this we could support local

[@Redmanticore]

capitalism: we will move manufacturing to china, so the price is cheap. governments: oh yeah? we will artificially raise their, and hence, our prices.

[@binal-flecki2387]

you have breadlines in Finland???

[@bettyboo1930]

This has been going on for years and I could never understand why. Thanks for the explanation

[@tiktok_life4tech]

the Chinese sellers rent a warehouse in the US and ship the mass Chinese products from China with cheap shipping costs on each item, they send the products to the Local customers from the US warehouse.

[@montanateri6889]

Excellent video, right on the mark. China depends on the fact that 99.99% of people won't return the item for refund. It'll cost you $30.00 to send a parcel to china even though you bought it and got it to the US for $3.00. A good 1/3 or 1/4 of the cheap items sent from china won't actually even be sent, as it doesn't take 7 days, it takes 4-6 weeks to get it to you in the USA. When you contact the seller because you haven't gotten it, they say, "Just wait more 2 weeks please, it is transit and will happy come to you!" and if you wait... then by the time you complain again, they'll say its too late to request a refund. And to send something back that was actually expensive because they sent the wrong item, it arrived broke, or it doesn't work after 1 week? Don't bother -- even if it was an expensive item, it still takes another 5 weeks to go back to china, but there is no delivery confirmation when you send a package to china, so you can't prove the seller ever received it back-and you will never get a refund)

[@azone123465]

A fellow co-worker and myself noticed this years ago and came to the same conclusion; that their mail was getting subsidized somehow. This is crazy, they are not a developing country, they are the #2 economy. This subsidizing only hurts the tax payer and domestic business. I since stopped selling anything on ebay below $100, it cost too much in general after shipping, ebay's cut, and taxes.

[@Gman539]

​@hakimmohamad6216you can't stop it. Our politicians and corporations are working towards a global new world order. If you live in the USA your standard of living has to fall as others around the world rise until we all basically achieve equilibrium. The genius of this plan is 90% of Americans have no clue, and they get you to pay for your own demise.....Why do you think they create all this division, LGBTQ nonsense, legalized gambling and pot. It's to keep you entertained, distracted, and divided so you dont notice how society and your standard of living keeps falling.... So as I said you can't stop it, cause most Americans are now low IQ, clueless drones worried about social media and nonsense.

[@trutwhut6550]

@hakimmohamad6216 kick them out of global trade deals and international affairs entirely.

[@ninjamaster3453]

This always frustrated me and other small biz owners who can't compete with the free shipping, all the while, they raise US shipping fees every year.

[@javabrown4851]

This is sickening. We're helping them and now they want to ruin us.

[@Joe-ff1oh]

Obama did it

[@12many4you]

It is the other way around. They have been trying to destroy us forever and we just started helping yhem for some reason

[@apinakapina]

What an excellent explanation! I had heard the murmurs of the Finnish Postal Service that were publicised in the media at some point, but I didn't understand the mechanism behind it. Of course, we too have this issue of high costs vs. not being compensated. Especially since this country is ludicrously sparsely populated, and the postal service is still expected to get the work done. It'll cost me around 7-9 euro to mail, say, two or three disc golf discs - very small package weighting from 350 to 560 grams - across the capital region like 30 km away.

[@doctorstainy]

I worked delivering post for 10 years and i remember we had to sort this big box with tiny packets that came mostly came from china along with the regular letters. This took alot of time and the tiny packets would slip between the letters making you have to drive back to a previous letterboxes on the route. The time calculated for us to do the entire route did not increase with the increase of these tiny packets, so we basically had to work harder. So its not just a burden on the taxpayer but also workers overall.

[@marlonwebber4952]

We as Americans need to hold our lawmakers accountable for letting these legal loopholes stay open, and take action to cutting support to them to force them to close these loopholes, and placing China’s economic status correctly!

[@Athena_208]

Totally agree.

[@nitro8529]

But you see, thats what youre voting for... You are responsible for your own decline... By voting incompetent orange people or white haired mummies that are more dead than alive... Thats your own fault buddy, dont blame it on the lawmakers if you basically put their boss in place that tells them they have to keep everything as it is... Get the point????

[@SofijaSofijaSofija]

There's a reason they don't want to change this. Americans want cheap labour that can produce stuff (that probably causes cancer to workers, gets microplastics in their bloodstream etc). China exploits this loophole as much as yall do

[@motog-rocks6544]

How do you think USPS sign the deal in 2011! The Chinese have western leaders in their pocket.

[@OhSoTiredMan]

You can try but the ultra elites pay others to find another loop hole or pass another law with a loophole.

[@activ8me3]

So true. This issue - free delivery due to a needlessly subsidized system - infuriates me since decades. A massive scam.

[@samj1012]

Your channel is priceless. It brings essential info for everyone. And ur patriotic sense explained crystal clearly is highly appreciated. Thumbs up

[@robertrada4783]

I’ve always been aware of this and never understood why our government or any other hasn’t put a stop to it.

[@rolfw2336]

Agreed. It seems that any congress-person that cared enough, could enact some change.

[@westbayoutdoors123]

Because the Big Guy gets 10%.

[@doyoueventhink351]

because you're ruled by globalists who are trying to centralize power and control in countries like China

[@vulpo]

President Trump actually moved to take the US out of the UPU back in October of 2018 for this very reason. It was supposed to go into effect in 2020, but (like many of the things that Trump ordered) it never happened. The amazing thing is how little attention is paid to this scam by the main stream media or our politicians. Most Americans are totally unaware of it. Yet the Chinese economic juggernaut would simply not be possible without it. It is hard to believe that the US government is so stupid that they would allow this to continue. It is much more likely that there are powerful interests operating within the government who do not wish to see it ended.

[@1pcfred]

Your politicians are bought and paid for by the CCP. They sold out cheap too.

[@undead8393]

I had like 8 boxes (under 100lbs in weight) come over from China last year and it cost around $500 for the shipping. Pretty expensive unless they cave my packages a seat on a commercial flight, but I have to say that it arrived way quicker than I thought it would- only 3 days from Chengdu (Western China and very far inland) to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

[@netsaveit]

That's probably because larger boxes have to be sent by courier. Only small items sent by China Post ate subsidised

[@marcuspettersson2101]

This rang a bell in my mind, back in 2018 here in Sweden our big Postal Service PostNord announced it was changing how it handled mail from China primarily because this same issue of subsidized cheap mail from Chinese companies flooding it's systems, now anything of low value from outside the EU gets hit with a moderate fee +VAT or the shipment is sent back to sender. I don't know how we got around the International Postal Union's rules but I suspect it works because it charges the recipient instead. So that poor Kenyan can still send his postcard cheaply but not run a subsidized mail order company.

[@4thought___]

Brilliant,as an Australian, I wish my government would wake up.

[@SonnyDarvish]

Apparently the comment section already has mentioned it. But sometimes I cannot even find the high quality made in the west item and the chinese have it. Either I buy direcly from them on a.ex. or I buy the same thing 10x the price on Amazon. I would love to stop buy anything made in china, but I need an alternative.

[@TefenCa]

I was going to make a business out of my PC modding skills by making stuff like GPU support brackets etc. but there turned out to be so many Chinese sellers offering similar products at prices with shipping that cost less than what I'd have to charge people just for shipping. It makes it impossible to compete.

[@SamsonConstantineCo]

More power to you serpnetza! Excellent topics always!

[@RichieDigs]

We must have that deal here in Canada with Canada Post. I've purchased items over the years from Wish, Alibaba etc. and always paid $1-2 CAD, or free in most cases. It's a practice I stopped doing due to ethical concerns and the lack of quality of the products themselves. The whole Postal Union thing is BS. It costs me $72 CAD to ship one vinyl record to Japan. I can order up to 5 vinyl records from Japan and pay as low as $22 CAD. And that's with a tracking number! Sounds like the whole operation is shady as hell.

[@tristan7216]

Japan is not a developing country. The vinyl record discrepancy is probably due to the other corrupt practice in shipping, large volume discounts coupled with gouging of individuals who ship anything. Or perhaps Japan has its own diode pricing going on.

[@e-curb]

You paid $72 to ship a record to Japan because you don't know what you're doing. There are plenty of other cheaper ways to send stuff there.

[@pedroleal7118]

There is a lot of scams, in these Chinese outlets. I ordered a few items from a chinese company, got hte first ones, and then, when I ordered some more, again, they never arrived (payed via PayPal!).When I wrote them, they told me they were having problems with logistics and that they would take care of the situation. It was 3 years ago, still waiting!!!

[@warickjames4417]

US postal fees are insane. US manufacturing realizes they can only compete with other US manufacturers and never be able to export with these costs, which of course cripples manufacturing growth and jobs in the US.

[@sekovittol3124]

Have you seen Canada's postal rates?! THAT'S INSANE! Some Canadians drive to the border to mail to the US from within the US.

[@comment1353]

@@sekovittol3124 Yep! Half of my family is Canadian and they told me about how they used to cross over to Maine from New Brunswick all the time just to get cheaper shipping rates.

[@sekovittol3124]

@@comment1353 Heck, may as well gas up too!

[@David-lr2vi]

Good to see you bringing more attention to this issue. I tried to start an online business just before covid but couldn’t make it work because Chinese sellers can ship their products for basically nothing whereas I have to pay postage.

[@BleachDemon707]

SILENCE USER 🙄

[@joeywall4657]

I really appreciate it when you cover things happening in China that are also happening in my backyard. It makes me feel empowered to make better decisions -- instead of feeling helpless about atrocities happening A Million Miles Away.

[@ngedye]

I once bought a decal set for my phone which came in 4 layers of packaging; I'm guess one at manufacturing level, one at wholesale and two at retail. Well, 2 years later I bought the exact same item which this time came in 8 layers of packaging and I could not fathom why such an amount was used. It seems to me China are also uploading huge amounts of unnecessary plastic onto us which we then possibly sell back to them as rubbish. Just thought I'd put that in there.

[@ceilconstante640]

THANK YOU for covering this! I didn't know what the catch was but I envisioned forced labor and carcinogenic materials.