Originally Posted by Zacharias

Indeed, let's not make the Chinese (and the Indians, the Vietnamese, the Slovaks, etc.) into the goats of this piece.

The companies that contract out to these countries have every opportunity to put quality control protocols in place at time of manufacture (inspectors on site, random testing of product pulled off the line, etc.). Likewise, they can monitor quality post-sale and take action based on complaints and premature failures. Automakers buy OE parts on this basis -- they have an acceptable ceiling for failures built into the contract.

If Lemforder, or Meyle, or whomever chose not to, then the fault lies at their door. Do not blame the Chinese for the corporate greed of the company that specs then buys the product.

The Chinese are at least as capable as anyone else, of producing quality products. They produce all manner of products, large and small, from blenders to bullet trains and they are carrying out infrastructure projects in their country that would make your eyes water on the scale alone.