I read somewhere that in China quality production exists on all fields. It normally happens, though, that those firms would not have a market in the western worlds, as their quality is generally not recognised by the market even if present, and as it would not be as competitive in price.
Just to make an example. You can buy relatively inexpensive household appliances with an Italian brand. You can buy relatively more expensive household appliances with a German brand. You can buy cheaper household appliances from China. The Italian ones are already quite inexpensive. In order to compete (factoring added distributive costs) the Chinese must be really inexpensive. This leads to high percentage of defaults. This leads to perception that Chinese households are, and always must be, not high-quality stuff. This makes it very hard, for an existing Chinese quality manufacturer, to find a space in the European market. At equal quality, the Chinese product would have a small price advantage, but a big image disadvantage.
By the same token, an Italian maker could easily make household appliances in the same quality bracket that the German producers occupy, possibly with a small price advantage. But it will have a big market disadvantage because, you know, if it is really high quality, it must be German not Italian.
Kodak had their Retinas manufactured in Germany. I suppose they could easily manufacture them in the US with the same quality and cost. But the market would have always priced more a "made in Germany" camera than a "made in the US" camera.
So we only see low-quality Chinese products but that does not mean that they are not capable of producing high-quality products, or that they don't produce them. It only means that they would have a hard time in our markets.
Just to make another example. For decades Americans (or British), knowing nothing about wine, would obviously never spend serious money on a bottle which was not French. That relegated non-French producers in the US markets to the low-quality segment. That, in turn, prevented high-quality producers from entering the quality market. These mechanisms take many years to be overcome.
I am sure we will learn to appreciate quality Chinese brands in a decade or two.
Fabrizio
PS Some of the things you buy on the internet are fake. Your Gossen or Sekonic lightmeters are not necessarily produced where you think they are, they are Chinese imitations. Some pharmaceuticals around are pirated, "copied" by firms with all the necessary skills. The Italian luxury leather manufacturer, branded goods, see the competition of Chinese fake of very high quality (and cost) (OK the Moroccan came first in that sector)
