Yea everyone says that.
You have a fundamental different culture. Without American or Europeans on site running operations you get shit out of china. Doesn't matter if its rubber dog shit or a J20 jet (which they still can't make an engine for that doesn't blow up).
You trust chicom manufactures to actually give a fuck? We have alot of experience with Chinese manufacturing including using their machines here in the us (no one else makes certain things). You have a culture that encourages cheating and never actually learning fundamentals coupled with no sense of pride of craftsmanship coupled with greed of a third world culture.
They just dont care, unless you ride their asses, which requires bodies IN china to oversea operations, because as soon as you leave, its back to halfassistan.
Rule of optics to live by is if its not made in the USA, Japan or Europe,..... run away fast. And even then you have to be careful (looking at you steiner/usa & IOR). Nothing thus far has proven that wrong.
Until it does, you really can't make an argument.
I tend to agree with the idea that the right QC and oversight means a good quality can be made in China (and other places) but it doesn't always hold true.
I work for an airline in the Engineering/Maintenance division, like other airlines they send maintenance to Asia either China, Singapore or Hong Kong and there are some horrible stories from guys who have been there overseeing work being done.
-work being signed off that hadn't been done
-work that was done wrong
-inspections carried out that had no findings when the reps knew there should be issues due to years of doing the inspections themselves, when they went and had a look found multiple issues which they pointed out, then when the repair was "completed" they went back to check and saw that they repaired what damage was pointed out to them, but didn't repair the other damage right next to it.
If you can't trust these places when it comes to Aviation which is mandated up the wazoo , then what can you trust them in?
Funnily enough some Asian countries do put out some very high quality products (Japan, Korea etc) but China in particular seems to notorious for poor quality and bad quality control.
I meet a lot of different people in my job, especially people from all over Asia, Westerners typically lump all Asians into the same basket and think they are all the same, but the cultural difference are vast not only between countries, but can vary an enormous amount in a single country.
I've meet some great people from Southern China (Guangzhou) who are totally different that guys I've meet from Beijing.
A lot of the culture of the area has a huge bearing on the working conditions and work culture in the factories that produce stuff for the Western market.
Unfortunately all products just say "Made in China" so you have no idea of what standard the product has been made to, that's when you need to have trust in the company that is supplying the product.
It'll be a long time before I trust Chinese made rifle scopes and vehicles, but it'd appear that they have sorted out the electronics market at least if you stick to the well known brands.