[backwoods-engineer]

What are you manufacturing that the Chinese can’t target and make cheaper than you can with their own parts, and cut you out as the middleman?

Water meters and meter-reading equipment, for US & Canadian markets. China can't break into the market because of their sloppy quality. We and our competitors have enormous market share.

[throwback]

Good for you. Cheapest isn't always the least expensive. When I can I much prefer to buy a more expensive product because it lasts. I think people expected that China would evolve like Japan and Korea did. At different times they had cheap labor, but they evolved such that their economies seem to compete on a level playing field with other developed countries. The Chinese seem to always cut corners, though. Maybe communism and its need for conformity will never permit that evolution.

[Ozark Tom]

China could build a competitive product, if it were of strategic value to their goals. Otherwise they export a mimic slipshod product to separate the uninformed from their funds.