I’d suggest it’s perhaps more just indicative of what happens when you’re unable to keep as close an eye on QC as you might do with a machine shop down the road.
There’s always going to be an element of just trusting them to deliver what you expect.
Plenty of quality stuff gets made all over the world, and plenty of shit gets made in the USA (and elsewhere).
I’m not a fan of national pride, but I think I’m a bit too german to ever say:
…
When things are sent from a factory thousands of km away in big container loads, the quality feedback loop is inherently slow. And whoever receives the container is not going to send them back if there are minor issues like uneven anodizing, small metal shavings, or a slightly oval seattube. It’s also going to be cost prohibitive to unbox and check every single unicycle, so some customers will end up with minor quality issues.
That’s not a question of where it is produced, just one of how far apart QC and the factory are physically.
You’ll find good and bad manufacturing quality in most countries. But while I struggle to belive that I can get good quality bike / uni components from some certain regions, i know that Taiwan is the heart of the bike industry. Where should you get high quality components in large quantities at an affordable price if not from there? Looking at the bike industry, “made in taiwan” has really developed towards a quality label over the last decades.
The best explanation for that that I’ve heard is that because the government there has made longterm investments unpredictable for generations that the culture has internalized an attitude of get it while you can. If you can save a few thousand ¥ now by deferring maintenance or using cheaper material then that’s what you do.