I don't like the idea of my purchases supporting a country who views us as their enemy either. Since my career is in manufacturing, I especially don't like the wholesale outsourcing of our manufacturing and the associated gradual loss of domestic manufacturing know-how that goes with it.
However, I don't think it's possible to totally avoid buying Chinese made stuff. I can tell you first-hand that the "made in ______" labels don't mean a whole lot. Quite often, they only mean final assembly occurred in the stated country, and has no bearing on the origin of parts content.
I would bet any amount of money that the glass in a high % of the "made in Japan" optics comes from suppliers in China. If you really break it down to include small parts like fasteners, o-rings, springs, I'm almost certain the majority of that stuff comes from China as well. Then, you have the accessories that come with the optics -- cases, neck straps, lens covers, etc. The majority of those items are, in fact, made in China.
There are very few optics companies who make everything in-house, and all of those are in Germany and Austria. Even the German and Austrian optics companies outsource some components of their products (if not entire product lines), and some of those outsourced parts undoubtedly come from China.
Bottom line... it might make you feel better to buy products that don't have a "made in China" label, but that doesn't mean your purchase isn't still directly supporting Chinese companies.
Rifledude you are entirely correct that a lot of components that go into the manufacturing of an optic are sourced from China and unfortunately that is unavoidable. Very small pieces that are made in high volumes can be made at very low costs and when purchasing very from these makers cost saving can be made. I do not like that part either. But, at least when an optic is assembled in Japan or the USA I can be assured that a large percentage of the cost of the product is not going to a Communist country and that quality control issues are not at the usual low level, on average, found in China. I know a previous poster as mentioned my redundancy on this issue, but at some point someone has to take a stand and like I said, until we make a concerted effort to avoid as many Chinese made/assembled products as possible, then they will continue to grow and erode our economy and that of other non-communist nations and further erode our chance to produce quality optical products on a level playing field.
