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Comment by blub | Hacker News Reader

China has very many start-ups and one man shows shipping utter junk. Germany and the US are not even in the same league. The companies in those countries tend to follow the local laws because they know there are consequences.

Good luck getting compensation when that product from AJDHJk sets your house on fire or makes you sick.

In consumer products, the German and US brands do indeed manufacture in China, but then do their QC and supervision to get to an acceptable level.

You can see how this goes wrong with Anker’s recent recall, where they got blindsided by their supplier and now have to do a recall because their portable batteries can cause fires.

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I won't deny your point, but I think we are missing something. China's economy has more cutthroat competition than at least where I live. As such, strict QC is a must for any brand there that wants to survive and have a presence in the West, of which there are quite a few. And those brands still manage to beat domestic ones in price, often with higher quality. My point being, QC and legislation alone can account for the price difference; there has to be other economic factors at play.

Also, I recently watched this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2TfbN3v8h8 , which may be smoke and mirrors and have me slightly biased. Also, my iphone is made in China.

> As such, strict QC is a must for any brand there that wants to survive and have a presence in the West, of which there are quite a few.

The thing is, there are three ways to survive as a company. The one way is establishing a brand like Ecoflow, DJI, Anker, and do what you suggest. The second one is to produce directly for some large Western brand (either as contract manufacturer or ODM). The final way is to just flood the Western markets with cheap garbage and alphabet-soup brands, and make up the lower margins in sales volume. There can't be that many companies making and selling PL259 adapters as there are "brands" on Amazon selling them, after all.

> The final way is to just flood the Western markets with cheap garbage and alphabet-soup brands, and make up the lower margins in sales volume.

...and because they don't have a presence in the West and don't care about their brand(s), if the shit really were to hit the fan in such a big way that they can't just sit it out, they can simply drop that particular brand, while the remaining heads of the Hydra will be just fine.

i'm pretty sure if your house is on fire because of anker charger, you can ask them for compensation.

a lot of US manufactures had been recalling their products too.

If you buy a cheap charger from AliExpress, it's not going to be Anker.

>In consumer products, the German and US brands do indeed manufacture in China, but then do their QC and supervision to get to an acceptable level.

....until the QC and supervisor turn their backs.

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