[quote=Prwlr]The Chinese have advanced tech (which we probably sold them or allowed them to steal). I doubt that their optics factories are much different from, say, Leupold's. To hear many on the fire speak it would sound like they have child labor pounding away for hours and hours beating scope tubes out on a rock with a hammer. The Chinese are capable of producing very good tech but are also into mass producing that tech to price points as well. Their labor costs are much lower than in the US but there is a different work ethic at work there also, not to mention strict government controls. When I buy a Burris (Phillipines) FF II scope which will likely give me decades of use, I know that it is not a NF or Swarovski but I can afford to buy a FF II. What would that FFII cost to produce in America? Would I be able to afford it?
Good points, much of which will go over the heads of those who are focused on "them slanty-eyed kawmunists".
Consider this. China is a formidable adversary, not because it is nominally communist, but because it is China. Just its sheer size makes it powerful. Many people can't get their minds around how massive an entity China is; it is a giant by any measure. It is evolving as a nation and international powerhouse, and has embraced in typical Chinese fashion a combination of communism and capitalism. Think ying and yang.
It is not the communist part that is most dangerous, but Chinese capitalism. This is not Mao's China. The issue of communism is a distraction.
rj308 has made a good point about the history of Japanese quality control. China is equally capable, and much bigger than Japan. It's not the cheap junk that China produces that is the economic danger but their capacity for producing quality products in quantity at a low price point. That is the real danger we face.
Pa
You are assuming they have the same work ethic and training the Japanese have which they do not. Their products have to be watched like a Hawk , no pun intended to the optics manufacturer.
