[notanzaiiswear]

What I have heard is that Germany was kind of what China is today. First they produced cheap copies of the high tech coming out of places like the UK. Eventually they established quality standards (the TÜV, an organisation ensuring quality of products, still exists today), and eventually "Made in Germany" even became a marker of quality.

[cycomanic]

Yes the requirement for "made in Germany" was invented in the UK to protect the UK products from cheap knock offs from Germany. A similar thing happened with Japanese car makers initially, and more recently Korean ones, it seems to be a pattern that to get up to a certain level one has to copy the superior products of another country and after requiring sufficient knowledge one can surpass them.

[sprafa]

You should read the book "How Asia Works" which makes the persuasive argument that's the case with every single rising industrial power. They are always considered "cheap knock offs" until they start producing stuff that's higher quality. Happened with Japan too.

[mafuy]

It's not that easy I'm afraid. Chinese products were great quality until ~50 years ago, when quantity over quality became a thing.

[__turbobrew__]

“Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism“ is another one.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

The TÜV has its roots in the prevention of steam boiler explosions to prevent loss of lives. Its application to other domains came much later, AFAIK.

[notanzaiiswear]

But weren't the steam boilers also copies of UK inventions?

[LargoLasskhyfv]

Probably. And copied sloppily, operated recklessly, and exploded spectacurlarly.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technischer_%C3%9Cberwachungsv...

Reading the article, the TÜV as institution was also a copy of something which already existed in Great Britain!

Circles withing circles :-)

[phist_mcgee]

Given the size and diversity of their industrial consumer output, I doubt they will achieve an average of 'marker of quality' for quite a while. Phones are probably these highest quality consumer goods produced in china at the moment.

[bserge]

Try most electronics.

Their problem is that "made in China" has a negative connotation and they produce a lot of cheap stuff, which inevitably breaks or doesn't work properly so people just go "damn Chinese shit".

It seems they're getting to the point where the cheapest stuff is made in other countries.

Have to wonder what happens when the world runs out of cheaper countries to outsource to.

[plmu]

I can only assume that, just like "made in germany" in the 19th century, after a while the "made in china" will transform from a sign of inferior, into a sign of superior quality. I think we're already seeing that.

Also, the increased assertiveness also led to military agression (2 world wars). China seems to be copying that too, alas.

[bserge]

Likely, "made in Japan" had the same journey (also I'll always remember that scene in Back to the Future).