World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory
I don&#x27;t immediately discard an item because it&#x27;s made in China, as I know of some high quality items made there. Most Apple products, some Xiaomi products or Meermin&#x2F;Feit shoes.<p>However, I tend to be very skeptical about its quality. Moving manufacturing to China is most often done to reduce cost. The only industry where it&#x27;s not done due to cost, but supply chain issues, is electronics.<p>And with cost reduction comes lower quality. Higher tolerances, zero pollution standards, etc. In particular, most items I got from China have this terrible new plastic smell that is almost intoxicating. Same for some clothing dyes. Studies show formaldehyde concentrations are really high in Chinese homes, and I&#x27;m not surprised.<p>Hence, a few years ago I made a resolution to raise my standards and avoid those things. But it&#x27;s a lot of trouble to find high quality items these days. I want to own few things and keep most for the rest of my life. I have slowly curated such a list, but it&#x27;s as I said you need to go out of your way and often get custom things from niche brands.<p>Once a big company in a particular industry moves to China, most will follow shortly. It&#x27;s game theory. The average customer couldn&#x27;t care less about things I mentioned above. Sadly, it&#x27;s all about price.<p>tl;dr As a consumer I miss much better reviews and reports on product quality, safety and repairability. I feel that&#x27;d improve the situation where most industries localize to China to cut costs at the expense of everything else due to information asymmetry.