The issue is that events like this break the fourth wall and remind us that companies are willing to bend over to make profits in countries controlled by tyrannical structures like the CCP, meanwhile we then are indirectly supporting the same behaviour of bad actors.
Explain to me how using Zoom in the US indirectly supports the CCP?
Because I don't see it. A huuuge segment of the American economy is based on trade with China. Just like we use gasoline that comes from Saudi Arabia.
Unless you're arguing that we cut off all free trade with countries that abuse human rights, using Zoom is no different from buying a water bottle at REI in this particular instance.
Also, there's a well-known theory [1] that rising economic living standards ultimately promote greater democracy and human rights, as the people in a country reach suddenly have the ability to demand more. We've already seen that happening in the past 10 years in China, particularly when it comes to corruption and environmentalism. According to that, the more we do business with China, and the higher standard of living they therefore more quickly achieve, the sooner they can pressure their government for more human rights. Now I'm not saying this is an inevitability or anything, in fact it's a hotly contested theory particularly with regards to China -- but I am saying that "boycott companies that do business in China" isn't crystal-clear morally superior. The reality is complicated.
