[jdietrich]

If Uganda or Bangladesh or Libya could make and export vast quantities of cheap consumer electronics, they would. China exports lots of cheap crappy 3d printers because they're the only country on earth with the industrial capacity to make lots of cheap crappy 3d printers. Most of the expensive non-crappy 3d printers are still made in China, because China is really good at making stuff.

[taneq]

Oh, I agree - I don't think Chinese companies make cheap crappy things because they can't make good things. There are clearly many world-class Chinese companies (DJI springs to mind, their stuff is unmatched.)

From what I can see, the issue seems to be lack of trust between companies. If you never know whether you're going to get what you paid for, then the only way to distinguish between suppliers is price and it becomes a race to the bottom.

This lines up with the fact that most high end Chinese companies seem to be vertically integrated monoliths, which own the entire supply chain and so can control quality.