Are there any explanations about why China is like that?
- inevitable human motives when faced with a chance to escape poverty
- different cultural expectations about what it means to deliver on a manufacturing contract (i.e. does it have to always be exactly to spec, or can it just be roughly equivalent in the important ways)
- different cultural focus on surface appearances vs. less visible qualities
- information asymmetry between local operators and distant foreign counterparties
- greed on the part of foreign counterparties, which the Chinese manfucaturers exploit to get deals and then ruthlessly trim back everywhere they can get away with, backing off only when they push too far and get called on it
What's almost as interesting are the similarly misaligned incentives within the foreign counterparties. Western capitalist companies are unabashedly greedy, short-term (gotta make the quarterly numbers), share-price-oriented, and have all their own dysfunctions as a result. That's not to say the kickstarter guys are guilty of any of that -- just that there's plenty of parties trying to screw the other on both sides of this international dynamic, and finding a truly honest partner is difficult in business anywhere.
Most of your list can just be filed under "unscrupulous and untrustworthy". No need to make excuses for Han Chinese characteristics.
Bullshit. It's Chinese at work. Similar stories from dealing with Indians. Poverty is not an excuse. Wild hypothesis: Maybe they're poor because they cheat each other all the time.
When the Japanese were dirt poor back in the 60s people didn't have complaints about them regularly shafting everyone in business. Same for the Taiwanese.
How do you know? There was no internet back then and such stories usually don't appear in newspapers, even now.
> "Maybe they're poor because they cheat each other all the time."
No, they're poor because it's been just 30 years and 20 years since China and India opened up (liberalized) their economies respectively and these two countries have massive population.
There are dishonest Chinese, and sadly, they are the ones who seem to do well at foreign trade. The honest ones will make realistic quotes. The dishonest ones will figure they can deliver 80% of the product volume (after which point, your legal costs will outweigh the cost of suing for the last 20%), steal the IP, steal the moulds, screw their own workers and suppliers, and deliver a substandard product. The really dishonest ones just pretend to own a factory (when they just bribed or bluffed someone for use of a conference room), take your deposit and run. Guess who can deliver the lowest quotes?
China's growth is nothing special. It's similar to Korea's or Taiwan's, but about 20 years later (due to slow growth until 1989). It's slower than Japan's post-war bounce, but Japan was building back from a high mark (having had it's factories bombed to the ground, but still having the technology know-how).
The reality is, people are easy to con when they get greedy. Virtually every con in the book is based on a get-rick-quick scheme. The myth of cheap Chinese products is one such myth. Given that labor is only ~30% of many goods, it is a myth that you can cut costs in half just by employing cheaper labor.
This is something people like to believe because it makes them think they're immune to being scammed. It is not really the case: For example, look at fake charities, which are based on generosity, or the grandparent scam, which is based on generosity and love.
If scammers can find an emotion, the can get rich from it.