Well, that's your opinion to hold, but I'm a bit more realpolitik about things. Unless withholding the materials are likely to damage police operational capability, it's an empty feel-good gesture.
There is nothing practical about your stance though, so you can't really call it realpolitik. You are being overly charitable about how you've arrived at your position.
>it's an empty feel-good gesture.
Not really, by not continuing trade you lend less credence to the actions of the government.
You think you're being intelligent about what's happening here but it's really just a case of you not understanding how actions are perceived by other organizations.
> There is nothing practical about your stance though, so you can't really call it realpolitik.
What isn't practical about it exactly? It is a decision with consequences with unclear benefit, predicated upon a moral stance.
> You are being overly charitable about how you've arrived at your position.
Well, my initial comment started off with a question prompting your moral hardline stance, so I'm making a bit of an assumption. I've also tried to take care to preface my stance with it's applicability as relates to pragmatism. Should it turn out the firm is the only possible firm that could supply the product, I would feel very strongly they should withhold sale based on my personal beliefs.
It also bears pointing out charitable interpretation is not only a rule of this site but a great principle in discourse.
> Not really, by not continuing trade you lend less credence to the actions of the government.
Of which government? The Chinese or the US? If the latter, it isn't as if we have a long history of fair treatment of foreign nations as relates to commerce. Belief that this is some kind of abberation is rather naive. The government sells lethal arms to conflict zones and dictators with little issue.
Do you only buy products from company’s where your politics align? For example, no Chinese products because that supports a communist regime? Not using Google because they actively suppress information in China?
If you're going to make a comparison you should do so where there is both power and information parity with the entity in question.
Not only am I not a commercial entity engaging in trade with these organizations, but it is technically impossible for me as a singular individual with no over all commercial power to engage in commerce in any form without involving Chinese products. And there are plenty of cases where people unknowingly do this despite their best efforts.
I can tell you this though: I'm not the commercial entity making a conscious and forthright decision to do it. And the products I interact with are not designed with the express purpose and utility of crowd control, however right or wrong.
The question you're proposing isn't equivalent to what's being discussed and is kind of just silly.
