Taken from: Quora.com
Written by: John Battista - Studied International Law (major) and Law (Jurisprudence) in Italy (Graduated in 2000)
No, it is not always synonymous with poor quality.
There are tens of thousands of industries in China. Some produce components and goods that are sold under the brands of well-known Western companies (think of Apple), others produce authorized or unauthorized copies of Western products, others produce things designed entirely in China.
Quality standards are set by those who order the goods.
If I want a screwdriver of absolute quality, I will demand that that screwdriver is built using only certain high quality materials (plastics, steels) with very low manufacturing tolerances and that every single piece is subjected to 10 quality checks before being delivered. It is clear that a screwdriver that could be made by spending 1 euro will cost 15.
Depending on the standards that the Chinese company must observe, its production will have a corresponding quality. It is clear that many companies, having no standards to respect because they are asked to produce that part at the lowest possible price, will produce it with poor quality materials, with high tolerances and without any quality control.
A Western company is often forced to make a high quality product and, above all, to subject production to stringent quality controls because if that screwdriver were to break and break a hand, it would probably find itself paying hundreds of thousands of euros in compensation . If not to get a criminal conviction if the defective product caused a more serious accident.
Chinese companies often do not run this risk and do not even have to comply with worker guarantee regulations or incur the same expenses in salaries and contributions,
In conclusion, for one reason or another, Chinese companies produce:
- Quality goods, because those who commission the production expect certain qualities:
- Cheap goods but of sufficient quality, because the economy is obtained thanks to low labor costs;
- Cheap goods of questionable quality, because the economy is achieved not only thanks to the reduction in labor costs but also to the poor quality of the materials used, generous tolerances and the absence of quality controls.
Ultimately, the Chinese produce and sell what the market demands.
