[jwilliams]

The other risk I've seen in Chinese manufacturing is duplication of your design. Some vendors will manufacture a larger run and then place the float on the black market. This is particularly true for smaller orders.

I know of at least one niche electronics manufacturer - they have the parts made in China, but they load the firmware back in Australia. They've gone to great lengths to make the device useless without the firmware. It's a bit of a pain shipping-wise, but gives them some security.

[jwhite]

How do they qualify the devices coming out of China without running firmware on the manufacturing line?

[jwilliams]

I just asked - they supply a testing firmware that does the qualification. So on ship (from China) the device will start, but only to POST level.